How to Clean Bouldering Problems?

I'm a newb to Bouldering, and making some plans for what to do when this mess is all over. 

How do you clean a new bouldering problem that's never been touched? I assume just brushes? But what kind of brushes? Steel would damage the rock yeah? Should you, or is it appropriate to take off a loose flake? 

Anything else I should know? Pro-tips?

I searched the forum and surprisingly didn't see this topic covered already.

Thanks in advance!
-Adam 
 

Sparingly, or not at all. Agree don't use wire brushes, that's a short step away from a chisel. Don't gratuitously scrap off moss or lichen. I can see cleaning up a hold but if you're thinking about raking a curtain of moss off a rock I'd suggest you're about to seriously alter nature. Clean out a hold, scrape some dirt out of a specific part of a crack, sure. Be a minimalist. Make it a point of pride to do a new problem as you find it. Make it so when you complete the problem and step back to admire your handiwork, you don't see any signs of passage at all. That to me is the ideal. You are not preparing a 4-lane highway for the bouldering hordes that follow your every move, right? Perhaps a touch here, a quick brush there, clean up that one finger jam sort of thing. If you're doing wholesale landscaping I'd suggest you're doing it wrong.

Pacific northwest bouldering exempted of course. 

I would say clean routes or boulder problems, are like passing laws. It’s better for the public, not to see how it’s done....

But, mostly it depends. Is the area you want to checking out on public or private land? If public lands you should be a lot more careful on how you go about cleaning it. This is not just for the Boulder itself, but also the landing area and the trails you use to get there. Also, wire brushes are ok
on a lot of different kinds of rock. Really good granite and even sandstone, can with stand a wire brush. But, don’t go crazy. Also, prying on lose holds is kind of necessary at time. I mostly aggressively pull on the holds. I would not carry a pry bar out to an area.... but removing lose holds makes the problem better and most importantly safer.

As for private lands. It is all up to the owner.

Hi Matt and Cherokee, thanks so much! that was exactly the info that I needed. 

A wire brush is fine. You just have to be gentle with it. Some crap/nature isn’t going to come off with a regular brush.

Somethings i like to keep in mind when cleaning a boulder:
Before putting in work and changing the landscape, i ask myself-Are people actually going to climb it?  If i am the only one then it could still be worth it if its not a lot of cleaning (impact) and i do really frequently climb the spot....

As for brushes:
A bathtub scrubby brush or deck brush is a great start for basic cleaning. depending on how dirty/featured the rock is, i might go to different shapes and sizes of scrubbies. Plastic bristle usually, sometimes brass for lichen. Cleanimg top down is smart if slabby lol.Traffic is a great way to clean as well. No need to scrub it like i have to eat of it.
Loose flakes and choss is a good thing to clean before hand and any loose debris on the top out if needed.
The landing zone is idealy flat and level as possible.

Have fun!

such great advice everyone! I really appreciate it

I’ll go with you bud!

Along with the good advice in this thread about cleaning lightly, I would add you don't need to smear a shit ton of chalk all over the holds!  Completely unnecessary and I cringe so hard when I see people post their easy ass FA's with bags of chalk all over them as if they were some v15 sloper problem.  

Cole Gibson wrote: Along with the good advice in this thread about cleaning lightly, I would add you don't need to smear a shit ton of chalk all over the holds!  Completely unnecessary and I cringe so hard when I see people post their easy ass FA's with bags of chalk all over them as if they were some v15 sloper problem.  

thanks! I'll keep that in mind

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/118295702/cleaning-boulders

Cherokee's suggestions are great in theory, but basically impossible except for desert/alpine boulders.  

Like Rodrigo, before scrubbing a boulder, I question if the climb will be worthy and if others will climb it.  Sometimes I only clean enough to do the problem, but I'll clean much more if it is a worthy climb.  Even cleaned holds on a boulder will continue to stay dirty if you don't sufficiently clean moss and dirt above holds.

Steel brushes are great on most hard rock types. They can polish limestone and other softer rocks if you brush too much 

I'd say to never use a steel brush on limestone. Or any other soft rock. Stiff nylon works just fine.

I too faced the same issue. Thank you very much.