How to Fix Hardwood Floor Water Damage
Excess water is one sure way to damage the beauty of your hardwood floors. Sealed and waxed wood floors can be come stained if water sits on its surface for a period longer than just a few minutes. Should you not be able to react that fast, it may be possible to remove the damage caused to your hardwood floors by water.
What You'll Need:
- Oxalic acid crystals
- Fine steel wool
- Brush or sponge
- Painter's masking tape
- Soft cotton cloths
- Very mild abrasive
- Rubber gloves
- Goggles
- Sandpaper
- Rubber sanding block
- If the stain is white, you can remove the smoky white haze or white spot by buffing the finish using a soft cloth and very mild abrasive, such as whitening toothpaste, an auto-polishing compound or tobacco ash mixed with mineral oil. Continue this process until the stain has completely disappeared.
- Use painter's masking tape to section off the area surrounding the boards.
- Remove the wax or surface. You can remove wax by using fine steel wool and surface finish with sandpaper. Use either a rubber sanding block to hand-sand or a orbit sander to machine sand. This will be determined by the size of the repair area. In either case, begin with 80- or 60- grit abrasive and sand to 100-grit. Ensure that you only sand the edges of the damaged boards.
- Mix together oxalic acid crystals and about 1 cup of hot water and stir until the crystals have completely dissolved. Continue adding crystals until they no longer dissolve.
- You can pour, brush or sponge the solution onto the stained area. Once the area is dry, brush off the crystals and repeat the process until the stain is removed.
- Select a stain or seal of your choice and refinish the treated area. If the touched-up area stands out too much, you can use a screen-and-overcoat method to restore the entire floor.