Abstract: There is provided a cleaning apparatus for a surface of a sheet steel capable of satisfactorily removing scale from a surface of a sheet steel before, for example, hot rolling. Waters (42a, 46a) are ejected from nozzles (42, 46), with an ejection pressure of 100 kg/cm.sup.2, a flow rate of 60 liters/minute and an ejection angle of 20.degree. with respect to normal of the surface (32a) of the sheet steel, toward a downward-stream end with respect to a carrying direction. On the other hand, waters (44a, 48a) are ejected also from nozzles (44, 48), with the same ejection pressure, flow rate and ejection angle as those of the nozzles (42, 46), but different in the ejecting direction. That is, waters (44a, 48a) are ejected toward an upward-stream end with respect to the carrying direction.