When you look down at your wood floor and see a stain you may grab yourself a wet cloth and start to wipe, if you’re lucky, the mess will come straight up and you can get back to doing whatever it is you were doing.
But what about when you see a stain, give a wipe and it doesn’t budge? Okay you can now panic especially when it’s something sticky. At first it can feel like an immovable object but with a few tips and tricks you’ll be able to clean that mess up right away.
Obviously when it comes to wood flooring plenty of variables can run through your mind, the main one being what if i ruin the finish of the wood by trying to use some kind of chemical cleaner, these anxieties are normal because of course what’s the point of cleaning it if it’s just going to leave a bigger mark afterwards.
Hopefully this article will hold back any of your anxieties that may be sparked once first spotting the mess, whatever sticky residue is on your floor the remedy is probably simpler than you may have first thought.
Things You Can Use
You may find the best solution to your problem is already in your home, a good cleaning solution is vegetable oil and warm soapy water, if you use this solution and are still struggling to get the sticky residue to budge it may be an idea to try and heat up the mess so it turns somewhat soft, allowing you to be able to wipe it away.
Another method you could try is nail varnish remover along with some cotton buds, yes not only perfect for getting rid of nail varnish, nail varnish remover has been known to be a valuable cleaning product for all households, applying the varnish remover to a cotton ball or a swab will allow you to again wipe the mess away without permanently damaging your wood floors.
Other things you can try are mineral oil or perhaps some commercial adhesive that is made specifically for wood. It’s best to check that it is in fact specifically for wood to cut the risk of it again damaging the finish of the wood flooring.
Regardless of what’s created the mess the overall importance of cleaning it up is to also not damage the surface that is has made messy, the household products that have been mentioned should in fact leave no damage whatsoever to your floor and can perhaps save you a little bit of money rather than spending on an adhesive remover that may actually leave a lasting effect on your floor.
Things That Can Cause Sticky Residue
It’s a sad fact that unfortunately over time, a floor may pick up some knocks and bruises affecting the overall quality of the floor in the first place.
Electrical tape, masking tape, double sided tape and even sellotape all of these common tapes can unfortunately leave a horrible sticky residue on whatever it is that they’re touching and if you’ve made the mistake of using tape to stick something to the floor then you will know that well it is in fact a mistake but it’s still something we all do.
Not to worry, if you have done this it is a fixable problem. It’s however important to act quickly. The longer you leave it the more difficult it becomes to remove the residue and in some cases the tape too.
Your first bet may be to go to the store and grab a cleaning solution and get started, That’s fine however it’s good to check if it is a PH neutral cleaning solution as this is the most unlikely solution to damage your floor, that being said it’s best to test the solution on a part of the floor that is covered by something or not in eyesight just in case.
If at firs you’ve tried the cleaning solution on your floor and found that it may need to be a little stronger than you can always dilute it to make it stronger but once you have done this like at first it is always best to check on a part of the floor that is not initially seen just in case the diluted product causes an unwanted mess.
What Happens If You Don’t Act Fast?
If unfortunately you’re too late there are still a few things to try that can get the excess mess up, one way is to use a hair dryer to heat up the residue and hope that it softens nicely for you to use a solvent to wipe it away.
If however you haven’t got to the problem in time and this doesn’t work and you’ve removed the excess tape, once the floor is heated you can take a blunt object and start to run it along the floor removing the excess residue.
However it’s important to know that this will damage the overall finish on the floor but is the only thing that you can now do, it’s good to keep this as a last resort more than a first thing to do.
In Summary
It is normal to feel that you may be fighting an uphill battle when it comes to removing the sticky residue from your wood flooring but if you act fast enough there are plenty of home made natural remedies that can be used to get the sticky residue up.
Or in fact just a commercial adhesive may work when cleaning it but it shoulda be a neutral PH cleaner as to not leave any lasting effects on the finish on the floor.
And if unfortunately the floor has been left too long and none of these work, you can use a hair dryer to heat up the area and start to scrape away with a blunt object but like mentioned earlier this can damage the overall quality of the flooring.