Remove Stains and Smells From Your Hardwood Floors

The most common question I am asked is how to remove dark urine stains from hardwood floors. Read this and you’ll find out how to do this and take care of other accidental spills on your floors. I think I’ve covered it all in this article.

Most of the floor stains people are concerned about are pet urine. It seems that when we bring our pets in from the cold, we cannot convince them that the floor is now NOT their toilet. But you MUST convince them of this or your lovely hardwood floors will be a stinky and stained mess.

Coffee, juice and ink will also penetrate the wood finishing if left for hours, and in some cases, stain the wood itself. But before you go ahead and learn this, you should find out if the stain is only on the surface of the floor finishing. You may be lucky and find out that a spot cleaning with a good pH neutral cleaner is all that is needed to remove the stain. But, if you find out that your floor finishing is so unstable that it gets stained with least provocation, it may be best to sand and refinish the entire floor and take care of the stains at the same time.

If you discover that it is only the floor finishing itself has been stained you may use an additional fine nylon rubbing pad to aid in removing enough complete to get the stain out. Some solvents like mineral spirits will remove some crayon stains or black heel stains if the water based cleaner won’t work. Lacquer thinner will remove nail polish but it will, in some cases, remove the floor finishing too. Blot the spillage with a white rag and little amounts of lacquer thinner in this case. There are products like Goof-Off that will remove latex paint splatters, and some previous adhesives. And the trick to remove chewing gum off the floors is to chill it with a special spray product, so that it will chip off.

I suggest you to mix a very little amount – ½ capful – with warm water for the initial cleaning. Do not wet mop up your hardwood floor. Just wipe and dry. I recommend no more than 2 times a month. Use good judgment because excessive usage of water can cause your hardwood floors to become water damaged and dingy. For deeper stains in the finishing you can even remove some more of the stained floor finishing with fine 120 grit sandpaper. In a lot of these cases you will have to touch up the finishing. Therefore be sure to learn the second part of my floor maintenance article to determine just what this floor finishing is, so the touch up will blend well. But if you discover that the stain is well into the wood itself, read on, I will describe the 3 kinds of wood bleaches and their best applications.

Maybe you interesting in reading this article: Removing Stains and Odors on Hardwood Floor

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