Water stains on wooden floors and furniture can make you think it’ll never be redeemable, and it is stuck like that forever.
But, there are some ways that you can redeem your wooden household items and flooring that can be easily done.
There are cleaning products, cleaning hacks, and simple fast-acting solutions as soon as you see the water hit that wood.
PS. If you have ever asked yourself, “Can I lighten my hardwood without sanding?“, click on the link, because we have a guide for you.
Cleaning up Water Stains
Before you jump the gun and get cleaning right away you will need to determine how long the stain has been there for.
The most common stain type is a ‘white water’ stain. This type of stain occurs when water hits the wood and penetrates the finish of the wooden item.
There are plenty of ways to remedy this and remove the water stain from the wood.
The easiest way to fix these stains is to catch them quickly before it stinks in any further, so you only have to deal with surface issues.
New Stain Removal
This tactic for removing stains is primarily considering what to do if you have just spilled the water onto the wood and are ready to act fast.
- First of all, you want to immediately clean and wipe the area where the water spilled. Use a soft cloth to soak up the moisture, it has to be a soft item as not to scratch the wood and damage it any further.
- When you buff and clean the area do so, going with the grain of the wood, this will provide you with the best overall results.
- If you see that a watermark has already set in, or is starting to appear, you want to get out your blow dryer, to quickly dry up the excess moisture before it sets into the wood. Do this on a low setting if possible, otherwise, you can run the risk of turning the watermark into a heat mark.
- Once you have dried out the stain, buff the surface again, this time use a polish to remove any of the stains that remain. Since you are cleaning wood, you could use wooden furniture polish to do this if the area affected is not too great.
Tackling the Oldies
While there are many methods of removing older stains, do remember that you may have to use more than one method to fully remove the stain and return your hardwood floors to normal again.
These are our favorite methods of white water stain removal.
Watermark removers
There are many products available out there that are made especially for this kind of predicament.
These are made to tackle old watermark stains but they are also capable of destroying stains caused by heat, cold, alcohol, and even magic markers- for those of you with extremely creative and messy kids.)
Make sure that you pay attention to the instructions provided by the manufacturers of these products, as some of these may require ventilation (which may not be so easy for hardwood floors), or protective clothing such as masks, gloves, and so on.
Magic Erasers
A unique and fantastic invention. All that needs to be done with a magic eraser is to gently buff a damp magic eraser, with the grain of the wood.
However, with very deep stains you may need to repeat this process more than once for the best results.
Once you have removed this stain you can polish the wood to get out any remaining marks and to add that ‘good-as-new’ look to it.
Hardwood Floor Cleaners
A very target specific method is to use a hardwood floor cleaner to remove these types of aggravating stains.
If you are targeting a specific area of your floor, simply apply the product to the area and clean it with a damp cloth. Easy as breathing!