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I've just spent an hour looking all over the internet for how to get the paint splatters off my hardwood floors. The most freqent answer given was to use Goof Off. So I tried it on a few spots. The area the Goof Off was on is now sticky. Does that mean I took the finish off? Or maybe it was wax? I've never had harwood floors before and know nothing about them.
It probably means the solvent in the Goof Off turned the hardened urethane finish back into wet urethane. In my experience, it will dry, like urethane does when it is first applied. If you don't want to wait, you can hasten its drying with a bowdryer. Don't step in it, or you'll track it up. Hopefully, you're dealing with a very small area. If I had to resort to goof off, I would apply it with a q-tip as carefully as possible, only on the drops of paint. It would also be my last resort.
Obviously, wiping spills or drops of paint is best done immediately with a wet rag; if they are older, believe it or not, I scrape them up with my thumbnail, or at least try to. If it's a larger area, I look for a wooden shim, preferably cedar or other soft wood, and use it like a scraper, from the side of a paint blob. This damages the finish as little as possible. If you're dealing with a larger area, you might have to do what you did or scrape, stain, and urethane over the area.
If it's not dry tommorrow, get a bunch of clean rags, and buff it as hard as you can.
It did dry. Whew. I'm going to try the wooden shim method. The paint spots are all over my bathroom floor tho so it's going to be pretty tedious however I do it (other than refinishing).
Thanks for the info.
Sherry
If the spots are fresh, it shouldn't be too hard, but it's no fun, no matter what. If you go back to using the goof-off, don't forget to open the window, that stuff is nasty
Oops! is a little different from "Goof-off" (I think so, anyway) - it never bothered the finish on my oak pantry when I used it to remove some latext paint spatters. But it is only good on latex paint (again, I think that's right...it's been a long time since I had to use it!)
I was reading this thread and tried Acetate (purchased from the local hardware store) to remove oil based paint spray from a Polyurethaned wood floor. It worked beautifully! I used a very fine steel wool (0000) that I normally use for applying furniture wax and just rubbed a small area at a time going with the grain then wiped over with a cloth. I also did a small area of bare wood with the same great results. There is no scratching to the floor so I am very happy. It also did a good job of removing excess silicone off my deck so now I am a roll! Cheers!
