How To Remove Stains From Wood Floors

No matter whether your hardwood floor is new or old, once you’ve chosen and installed your new wooden floor or refurbished your old wooden floor, it’s everyone’s nightmare to get a stain.  Sometimes, when it comes to removing stains from wood floors, you’ll have some tough decisions to make.

Like all things in life, stains vary in seriousness and may be simple to remove or may require a significant plan of attack to get rid of.  That said, before tackling any stains, it’s really important to take into consideration the overall condition of your floor as well as what type of stain you’re faced with and how long it has been in place.  Only by assessing all of these elements can you be sure you’ll choose the right course of action for the challenge you’re facing.

When it comes to stains on your wood floor, prevention is always better than cure, so it is clear that the quicker you can clear away any spills which occur, the less likely you are to have major problems with stains in the longer term.  That said, if you do discover a stain, the more accurately you can assess what has caused the stain the better you’ll be able to deal with it.

If your floor has been stained by alcohol, nail varnish, sweets or non-greasy food, warm water and an appropriate wooden floor cleaner should do the trick if you get there quick enough.  On the other hand, if the stain is of an oily or greasy nature, such as ink, food or dye, the best idea is to try cold water and an ammonia based cleaner before deciding on any more serious courses of action.

On a newish floor, which has a good sealer on it, the likelihood is that stains will only be surface deep, which makes your task much easier.  With a surface deep stain, normally, the use of a chemical based floor-cleaning product should be all that’s required.  On older floors, which are less well protected however, if all else fails, the last resort may be to sand the stain back and recoat the floor.  In fact, if you have a fair number of stains on your floor, you might decide to look on this as an opportunity to sand back the whole floor and re-seal it in its entirety to avoid future staining and provide additional protection.