A few years ago, my sister-in-law held a baby shower in her home, and had three glass oil-burning candles lit.  Before long, everyone started noticing that we seemed to have grey smudge marks on our faces and arms.  We soon figured out that the candles were the source of the soot! 

Luckily, the damage to the home was covered by insurance - I believe around $5,000 damage within the few hours time of the candles burning.  Everything in the entire home had to be cleaned - even closets full of clothes had been invaded by the oily soot.  Walls had to be sealed and repainted.

The reason that I am bringing this up is that I have noticed an increasing number of homes with a grey smoky haze on the walls.  In a couple of the homes, it is obvious some kind of candle had been burning on a shelf, with heavy smoke/soot on the ceiling directly above.

A strange common pattern with this soot, is that one of the places it shows up the most is on ceilings in the lines of the ceiling joists. 

If you burn any oil candles, lamps, or fragrance candles, check your ceilings.  If you see these lines where your ceiling joists are, stop burning the candles before you have more serious damage.

Many candles burn inefficiently and cause soot because of the fragrance oils used.  You can avoid this problem by using fragrance 'tarts' with electric melters instead of candles, oil-wicking reed fragrance sticks (non-burning) or other fragrance providers besides candles.  Only burn clean-burning candles with no fragrance oils in them to eliminate this problem, and don't use oil-burning lamps or candles.

Also, consider that if oily soot is on your walls, you and your family are also breathing it into your lungs.

For more information: http://chimneykeepers.com/candle_soot.htm

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