How to Remove Varnish From Wood Floors

Hardwood

When working with varnish you should always protect your wood floors with tarp. Unfortunately accidents do happen and varnish can end up on the floor. You can remove varnish from your wood floor without having to sand the floor and refinish it.

Things You'll Need

• Paint brush
• Glass bowl
• Rubber gloves
• Towels
• Sandpaper
• Thin blade scrapper
• Steel wool
• Aluminum foil
• Mask

Instructions

1. Put on mask and rubber gloves. Open all windows. Paint thinner is caustic and you want to minimize your exposure to it.

2. Wipe up as much of a recent spill as possible with a towel.

3. Pour paint thinner into a glass bowl. Emerge your paint brush in the paint thinner. Paint a generous amount of the paint thinner over the varnish stain.

4. Place aluminum foil over the paint thinner to allow it to penetrate the varnish for at least twenty minutes.

5. Remove aluminum foil and use a thin blade scraper to remove the varnish from the floor. Scrape off as much as you can and place scrapings on top of the aluminum foil. All paint scrapings, the paint brush, and anything else that comes in contact with the paint thinner needs to be taken outside and thrown away once you are done as paint thinner is flammable.

6. Allow the surface to dry. Use a fine grain sanding block to smooth the surface. Sand from the middle of the area outwards.

7. Using the stain that was originally used on your hardwood floors take a cotton towel and work the stain into the floor. Repeat.

Tips & Warnings

• Repeat if the first treatment of paint thinner does not use all of the varnish.