varnished floor + magic eraser = haha whoops :(

[gezellig_girl]

I scrubbed a dried-on cat barf off the varnished floor with a magic eraser and now I have a big un-shiny patch in the middle of the floor. Short of revarnishing (not going to happen) or buying a rug, is there a fix for this?

Addendum: the floor is already peeling/flaking off in plasticky feeling pieces, so I'm guessing it's a polyurethane finish?

Comments

[revchris]

Two things come to mind:

First, you could try carefully wiping a small amount of paint thinner on it and letting it dry, in the theory that this will dissolve the surface layer of the varnish and then let it dry without the scratches.

Second, you could polish it back to shiny. I don't know if this plan works on varnish, I've only tried it on acrylic finishes. MicroMesh sanding pads were originally designed to take scratches out of acrylic airplane windows. I normally use them for finishing pen bodies, but I've also used them to take the scratches out of cheap sunglasses. They start at about 320 grit (MicroMesh 1500) and go to about 3000 grit (MicroMesh 12000). If you were to carefully wet sand with the entire series, working a slightly larger patch with each successively finer grit, you may be able to take the whole patch back to shiny.

[wrenb]

I'm doubtful that fine sanding would help in this case. Magic Eraser is, in essence, super fine sandpaper. My gut says that further sanding would make it worse, but I haven't asked my woodworker spouse about it.

[revchris]

If the varnish is hard enough to support sanding, MicroMesh would work on it. The finest size of MicroMesh is fine enough that it can be used to repair glasses lenses, visors, windshields, etc.

Looking around online, I couldn't find an actual abrasive size for magic erasers, but most estimates are in the 500-1000 grit range (sandpaper equivalent). That's an abrasive size between 24 micron and 8 micron. If you work the whole series of MicroMesh, the finest size is 2 micron.

If your woodworker spouse hasn't tried it, they should - it does a wonderful job of putting a fine finish on wood, too. I usually go up to 2400-2800 on bare wood, and use finer sizes to smooth finishes and to level them between coats.

[wrenb]

You learn something new every day! Very cool. Most of our homemade furniture is finished with shellac or paint. I don't really know what methods are used. I ask for furniture, he makes it! :)

[gezellig_girl]

Any tips for trying paint thinner? Rub with the grain of the wood, against it, in a circle, etc.? The varnish peels/flakes away easily, so I'm thinking it's on there pretty thick, probably enough to spread around.

[rainarana]

Actually, you don't want to use paint thinner with varnish, you want lacquer thinner, but if you've completely removed the varnish in that section it won't make any difference. If you've just dulled the surface and there's still varnish there your best bet would be to use a paint brush dipped in lacquer thinner and gently brush in the direction of the grain. That said, if your husband is a woodworker he would likely be a better candidate for repairing the problem.

[gezellig_girl]

Yeah, definitely NOT the person with a woodworker husband here -- I'm the DIY handyperson in this house. The lacquer isn't gone (I think it's probably 50 years of layers on here); it's just dulled.

[rainarana]

Oops, sorry, haven't been able to wake up all day. I would go the lacquer thinner route then. See if you can get a small can and start with a smallish section until you feel comfortable with it. It redries superfast, so a pretty quick job. This is called reamalgamating and will remove the scratches. Make sure it and the surrounding area is super clean, as what you're doing is temporarily liquifying the varnish, so any dirt or grime on the surface will get mixed in with it. You can use paint thinner (mineral spirits) to clean, as it will remove dirt as well as residue from cleaning products.