How to Get Rid of a Deep Stain on Wood Floors

Wood floors are elegant but sometimes hard to maintain. Wood is a porous material so it is susceptible to staining. Read this article to find out how to clean up those stains on your beautiful wood floors.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Know what caused the stain
• Now, depending on what caused the stain, you may need:
• ice
• butter knife
• paper towel or newspaper
• cotton cloth
• wood cleaning solvent
• rubbing alcohol
• mild soap and warm water

1. The first and most important step in trying to clean a stain from wood is knowing what the stain is. So, try to the best of your ability to track down what that stain is. Once you have an idea of what it is, then you can determine what you will need to do to remove it. There are many different types of stains that it could be so I'll go over the most common types: Grease and Oil, and/or urine, drink beverages & food stains.

2. If you think it is a grease stain, try taking an ice cube and setting it on the stained area. Let it set until the stain starts to clot or curdle on the surface.

3. Once this happens, take a butter knife or a dull knife and gently scrape it away from the wood.

4. Oil stains happen almost immediately once in contact with wood. Grab a wad of newspaper or paper towel and try to soak up as much of the oil as possible.

5. Buy a wood cleaning solvent from you local hardware store (Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, etc.). Soak a cotton cloth in the cleaner until moistened and place it over the stain for about 3-5 minutes.

6. Lift the cloth and wipe away any excess liquid and the stain should be gone.

7. For food, urine or beverage stains, start off by cleaning the area with a mild soap and water mix.

8. Dab a cotton cloth with rubbing alcohol and gently rub the stained area. This should lift the stain out of the wood.

Tips & Warnings

• If these methods do not work, try asking your local hardware store if they have a solvent to remove the type of stain you have.
• If you do not know what the stain was caused from and you are unable to lift the stain, you may need to resort to sanding and refinishing the entire floor. I hope this is not the case though!

[jmessina10]

on 7/28/2008 Great info!!