# How do I clean this?



## SkinnyAdam (Feb 21, 2013)

Was chemical stripping a natural wood home about a month ago. While I was pressure washing, some of the stripper/water/old stain leaked through a window and dripped on to the HO's window sills, which are also stained. HO didn't notice until now, so wiping it off with mineral spirits won't work. How can I remove the spots without damaging the sill?


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

looks to me that you stained the stain. Methinks stripper on stain will take more than "cleaning" or removing the "spots".

I'll bet you'll need to sand and re-stain.


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

Yep, I don't think this is a 'cleaning' issue either. That doesn't look like something that can be washed off.


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## SkinnyAdam (Feb 21, 2013)

So a Mr Clean Magic Eraser won't do the trick? I haven't tried spitting on it yet either...


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

SkinnyAdam said:


> So a Mr Clean Magic Eraser won't do the trick? I haven't tried spitting on it yet either...


I don't think so personally. It doesn't look to me like you've added something topical to the finish that can be cleaned/erased off. To me it looks like the finish has been altered. Like Daarch said, I think you're gonna have to recreate the finish to what it was before. That's gonna mean bringing it down to bare wood and re-staining.


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## Delta Painting (Apr 27, 2010)

Try Twenty Mule team Borax if anything will clean that Borax will...


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## rich78 (Jul 8, 2015)

If the finish on the window seal is clear coated then it should clean somewhat easy. if not, most likely you have to sand down to the bare wood and match existing finish. 

www.rainbowcustompainting.com


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## ExcelPaintingCo (Apr 16, 2011)

It's very important to perform a post-wash interior window and door inspection following all pressure washing. If the HO won't be home and won't allow us to enter their house, then the job gets postponed until they can facilitate one of those methods for us.


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## ExcelPaintingCo (Apr 16, 2011)

ExcelPaintingCo said:


> It's very important to perform a post-wash interior window and door inspection following all pressure washing. If the HO won't be home and won't allow us to enter their house, then the job gets postponed until they can facilitate one of those methods for us.


 here is an example of part of an email I sent to a homeowner of a house we are washing on Friday of this week (I sent this yesterday, Tuesday): 
We should be there on Friday sometime later in the morning around 10-11am-ish. The washing process should take 3-4 hours. If nobody will be home during the washing, then please make sure all your windows and doors and closed and locked tight. It's also a good idea to place towels on the floor inside of entry doors. Finally, a post-wash, interior window sill/door inspection is recommended to prevent any water damage caused by leaking.


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## Damon T (Nov 22, 2008)

I would try oxalic acid. That removes water stains. Good luck!


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

Damon T said:


> I would try oxalic acid. That removes water stains. Good luck!



Operative word there is TRY. We've used oxalic acid to remove ALL stains from wood. It really does bleach the wood quite well. I would not be surprised if it removed the white wood stain that is supposed to be there. 

I would test it on something first if you are not familiar with what it does. The first time I used it, it bleached all the "character" out of the wood. 

BTW, I think we all would love to hear from SkinnyAdam on what has happened to date on this.


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## DrakeB (Jun 6, 2011)

Don't envy him trying to clean that; I wouldn't even know what to recommend to try.


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## JourneymanBrian (Mar 16, 2015)

are you sure thats a "stain" and not a chemical corrosion? You might be best corroding the rest of it and applying a translucent coat to hide the damage.
It looks to me like you greyed the wood.

Check out this one:










This was junk wood, but I had a bit of lime plaster lying on it for four hours and this was the result. 

Alkalis (strippers) react with the tannic acid in hard woods especially sensitively.


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## DrakeB (Jun 6, 2011)

JourneymanBrian said:


> are you sure thats a "stain" and not a chemical corrosion? You might be best corroding the rest of it and applying a translucent coat to hide the damage.
> It looks to me like you greyed the wood.


Only issue is I'm not sure that'd be faster or get a better match than just sanding it down and redoing it. Maybe I'm wrong, though... it just looks plain scary to me :thumbsup:


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## SkinnyAdam (Feb 21, 2013)

Thanks for all your thoughtful input fellas. Truly appreciated. I have not yet been back to attempt anything yet. I told the HO I would like to try the borax method and never heard anything back. It was a big job and we are on good terms, I just don't feel like chasing down a free cleaning project right now. I'm sure it's just getting worse and more permanent the longer I wait, and I'll probably kick myself for procrastinating but there you have it. At this point I've accepted that I'll probably have to sand and re-stain. Biggest problem is I have NO idea how they got that light green "wash" look to it. Way above my skill level right now. Maybe I need to start a new thread...


Again thanks to all you vets. Don't know how I'd survive without this forum sometimes.


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

SkinnyAdam said:


> Thanks for all your thoughtful input fellas. Truly appreciated. I have not yet been back to attempt anything yet. I told the HO I would like to try the borax method and never heard anything back. It was a big job and we are on good terms, I just don't feel like chasing down a free cleaning project right now. I'm sure it's just getting worse and more permanent the longer I wait, and I'll probably kick myself for procrastinating but there you have it. At this point I've accepted that I'll probably have to sand and re-stain. Biggest problem is I have NO idea how they got that light green "wash" look to it. Way above my skill level right now. Maybe I need to start a new thread...
> 
> 
> Again thanks to all you vets. Don't know how I'd survive without this forum sometimes.


No idea if it's still around, but Minwax did make a line of pastel gel stains. I know there are parts of the country where the "pickled" or "limed" look is still popular (shudder). Maybe some PTers have some ideas about other products.

In a pinch, we've used latex paint, thinned WAY down.

EDIT: isn't Google wonderful. Minwax doesn't have the pastel "Wood Sheens" anymore, but they do have a whole line of WB pickling stains.

http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/stains-color-guide/


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## JourneymanBrian (Mar 16, 2015)

DrakeB said:


> Only issue is I'm not sure that'd be faster or get a better match than just sanding it down and redoing it. Maybe I'm wrong, though... it just looks plain scary to me


good point.


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## JourneymanBrian (Mar 16, 2015)

Gough said:


> No idea if it's still around, but Minwax did make a line of pastel gel stains. I know there are parts of the country where the "pickled" or "limed" look is still popular (shudder). Maybe some PTers have some ideas about other products.
> 
> In a pinch, we've used latex paint, thinned WAY down.
> 
> ...


cant you just get something mixed in roughly the same color from a paint store?


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## SkinnyAdam (Feb 21, 2013)

Gough said:


> No idea if it's still around, but Minwax did make a line of pastel gel stains. I know there are parts of the country where the "pickled" or "limed" look is still popular (shudder). Maybe some PTers have some ideas about other products. In a pinch, we've used latex paint, thinned WAY down. EDIT: isn't Google wonderful. Minwax doesn't have the pastel "Wood Sheens" anymore, but they do have a whole line of WB pickling stains. http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/stains-color-guide/


 Would Minwax leave a subtle sheen?


I like that thinned paint idea too, that's something I could practice on my own. My wife has hundreds of our old sample quarts in the garage.


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

JourneymanBrian said:


> cant you just get something mixed in roughly the same color from a paint store?


The trouble seems to be gauging the impact of the wood color on the finished product. At least in our experience, the "just" part doesn't seem to work. It always seems to take more than a little tweaking. Adam's notion of using up some sample quarts might work OK.


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## DrakeB (Jun 6, 2011)

The hard part with wood finishes, especially on stuff like this, is that you don't have anywhere to try it out to see how close a match is. If you try it on another board, even the same species, it won't have the same character, it will drink the stain at different rates, it will have aged differently, etc. So even if you managed to get a piece looking exactly like the rest of the window sills in the shop, if you go back on the job and use your solution on the old wood it might not come out the same. If you just try things on the stool until you find something that works, you could sand right through it before you get there. But I digress, as I'm not being much help so far.

It does look like a pickling stain to me from the image, so that sounds like a great place to start.


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## JourneymanBrian (Mar 16, 2015)

why not buy a stain thats nearly right, buy red, blue and yellow tinting paste, and try it somewhere inconspicuous. 
Nothing ready made is gonna be spot-on.

You usually can rub it off again with thinner/water provided your woods not too absorbant.


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## DrakeB (Jun 6, 2011)

One of the BM brands (Lenmar, I think?) makes a stain like that which you can custom color that might get close to that with some work. Depends on how good of an eye for color you have, though.


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

DrakeB said:


> The hard part with wood finishes, especially on stuff like this, is that you don't have anywhere to try it out to see how close a match is. If you try it on another board, even the same species, it won't have the same character, it will drink the stain at different rates, it will have aged differently, etc. So even if you managed to get a piece looking exactly like the rest of the window sills in the shop, if you go back on the job and use your solution on the old wood it might not come out the same. If you just try things on the stool until you find something that works, you could sand right through it before you get there. But I digress, as I'm not being much help so far.
> 
> It does look like a pickling stain to me from the image, so that sounds like a great place to start.


I agree that it looks pickled.

My OPINION is that because wood will always have natural variations in color and tone and since he will be doing the whole separate piece (the window stool) and not trying to patch in a small area, that "close enough" will be in fact perfect. 

My trouble in matching stains has always been obsessing in exactly matching two different pieces of wood. I remember the aggravation I went through trying to match exactly the pine bed molding I installed to the face frames of our oak kitch cabs. I continued to focus on the difference until on of my painter buddies commented on how really good I had gotten it.

Also, the stool will always be hit by different lighting than the other elements. The eye will not catch a small variance. Like coming out of a corner with a different batch number of paint or wallpaper. The eye reads it as a lighting difference. 

The natural variations of wood and lighting can work FOR us at times.


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## jprefect (Mar 4, 2015)

SkinnyAdam said:


> .. . . At this point I've accepted that I'll probably have to sand and re-stain. Biggest problem is I have NO idea how they got that light green "wash" look to it. Way above my skill level right now. Maybe I need to start a new thread...


Light green, you say? Probably was poplar. Don't worry, no matter what color you stain it, it will be green.


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