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Decided to freshen up your living space with a new coat of paint? Here’s how to remove paint from hardwood floors – and tips to prevent it from happening the first place.
Prepare for Painting
It may sound obvious, but taking a few extra minutes to prepare the room for painting can save you from cleaning up spills later.
• Apply masking tape to the perimeter of the floor
• Put down a drop cloth and make sure it covers the whole floor
• Tape down the edges of the cloth to keep it in place
• Have cleaning supplies on hand to address any spills immediately
Removing Paint from Hardwood Floors
In the event that you do get paint on the floor, it needs to be removed as quickly as possible. For water-based paints, you can use dish soap or a mixture of lemon juice and isopropyl alcohol. Oil-based paints are much harder to remove, and may require applying heat or paint thinner to remove.
Water-Based Paint Removal
• Combine dish soap in warm water, or mix 3 parts isopropyl alcohol with 1 part lemon juice.
• For the dish soap method, you can begin scrubbing with a micro-fiber cloth. For the lemon juice/alcohol mixture, you’ll want to soak the cloth and let it sit on the paint for a few minutes before scrubbing.
• Gently scrape/scrub paint off with putty knife and/or scrub brush
• For the lemon juice/alcohol mixture, you’ll want to rinse and dry the floor afterward.
Oil-Based Paint Removal
• Carefully apply heat to the paint using a hairdryer and scrape paint off with a putty knife
• For any remaining paint, dip a cloth in paint thinner and gently scrub off paint
• Be sure to rinse and dry the floor afterward
For more extreme cases, you may need to sand and refinish your floor. The good news about hardwood floors is that they are extremely durable and can be sanded and refinished multiple times, unlike laminate floors which typically have to be replaced. Now that you know how to remove paint from hardwood floors, it’s time to start painting!