My laminate wood flooring has bleach stains from dropped hand sanitizer. How can I remove the stains?

Question

My laminate wood flooring has bleach stains from dropped hand sanitizer. How can I remove the stains?

Answer 1

The bad news is that it sounds like instead of a stain, you have removed stain/coloring from your floor. Look closely at the discolored area to see if you have really removed color, or if it is just surface coating that has been removed.

If it is just a surface coating, you may find that a clear coating such as shellac may be a close match. If you have truly removed the coloring from the floor, you have a challenge ahead of you, as the wood laminate doesn't have a natural grain, so it will be impossible to attain a perfect match with wood stain.

That being said, if the spot is small, you may make it less noticeable by staining it to match the surrounding area as closely as possible with a wood stain.

If you have any spare laminate from when the floor was installed, you may be able to replace the floor board, or even a small portion of it. If you look closely at your floor, you will see the "grain" pattern repeats itself; so even if you don't have the ability to easily replace the floorboard, you can cut out a small spot with a "plug cutter" drill bit, and glue in an identical plug from another board. If you don't have more of the exact laminate, you can probably get a very close match (probably for free from a friend who has some extra laminate, or a contractor who installs these floors).

Lastly, if you do try to stain the spot, start a little lighter than you think you need. It is easier to stain darker than to lighten a stain.

Answer 2

what hhobohan said.  that's exactly what i was going to say, but she said it first.

Answer 3

Bleach isn't a stain. It removes the color. You might try your hardware store and get one of those crayons that fixes scratches in wood.