Cleaning Unfinished Wood

Any home brew methods on cleaning stains off of unfinished wood? I have a door that was never stained or protected that's been hanging for years. Its for the attic so it rarely got used. It has your typical household stains you'd expect but nothing really bad. Mostly surface stains, I could probably get most of them out with a quick sanding but its louvered so it would be a lot of work. anything to clean them out? Just go get a commercial product?

I have heard bleach can work sometimes if used corretly.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-re ... niture.htm

Are you planning on varnishing/staining the door? Wood bleach is cheap enough at a big box lumber yard. If you want to keep the wood natural or stained you'll have to bleach the entire door or you'll see shading differences. You'll have to apply the bleach, rub it in evenly with a scotchpad and wait for it to dry. It's probably easier to just use sandpaper.

Wood bleach works ok to remove a water ring from a beer can, or a spill, but it doesn't take oil stains from repeated hand-contact out of the wood.. only sanding will accomplish this... Or sometimes a sharp hand scraper.. not for the amatuer,, a scraper can do a lot of damage if used too agressively.

You can use steel wool on the louvers easier than sandpaper,, this may speed things up.

Greg L

You might be surprised at how well a power washer will do. I've used common household bleach on things that "weren't important" with good results. Just paint it on let it sit over night & rinse rinse rinse.

Richard S. wrote:Any home brew methods on cleaning stains off of unfinished wood?

Finally a topic I know something about I've been a house painter for over 26 years mostly interiors and have done a lot of woodwork. what are you going to finish the door with, stain, poly. or just prep it for paint ? There's a product called Wilbond, some stores call it liquid sandpaper, you can get it at any paint store. Soak a rag and wipe it down with that, it will take off most surface stains. Make sure you take it outside or in the gargage cuz the smell is really strong, almost like a Lacquer thinner type smell. Also, lay the rags outside flat to dry out, they can combust if piled in the trash . We use it a lot before staining trim to get off finger prints, pencil and grease marks from the carpenters.

Dave

Thanks for the suggestions, I was out and about with my Dad right after i posted this and we stopped at the paint place. They had a product called Cleanwoode... from a company called Imperial... who would of thunk it. Anyhow it worked fabulous. All kinds of cool ingredients like acetone. Wasn't much really ingrained dirt or oily spots, as i said mostly surface dirt you'd expect form a door hanging in the same spot for 25 years. It only gets used about 1 a month if its lucky. All set to go.

Probably the same product vtec mentioned, stink... phew.

You can use steel wool on the louvers easier than sandpaper,, this may speed things up.

I must be some kind of idiot because I know this and never think of it when I get to sanding hard stuff like louvers...

Greg L[/quote]

Richard S. wrote:You can use steel wool on the louvers easier than sandpaper,, this may speed things up.

I like the 3M pads.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... /Hand-Pad/