Many years ago I did some research into this topic. Burnt PCB material suffers from tracking and moisture absorbtion. However for non tropical use and with no high voltages (>200V?) present, burnt boards once cleaned as per Managers technique, work reliablely over a long period.
This problem occurred in 1984 in PCBs in PSUs, the diodes (Motorola I think) were designed to conduct their heat away via their very thick wires , which were soldered directly into a PCB. After a couple of years the silhouette of the PCB track was visible through the PCB, because the glass fibre had been severley burnt due to overheating from the diodes dissipation. Without any corrective work the PSUs lasted until at least 2011, when their service was terminated. The PSUs were on for 24/7 so very got cold or wet.
Frank