Fixing Water Damage on Furniture

The holidays can be so damaging to our lovely table tops!  A water cup gets left on the table to long and creates a ring.  A table decoration gets over watered and creates a bigger ring.  A hot serving dish gets put down without a trivet and leaves a big white square.    What do you do?  Do you replace your table?  Do you try and hide it from now on with a table cloth?  No, and no!   White water damage marks on your table can be repaired.  I can give you some tips to try at home, or you can bring it to us and we can do the work for you (you have better things to do,  like drinking eggnog and shopping and skiing!)

The 'do it at home' method is going to take quite a bit of elbow grease.   You will also need a piece of soft cotton, like an old T shirt.  Thirdly you will want to purchase some Liberon 'Ring Remover'.  We sell it here at our shop, or you can get it online.   Take your piece of cotton and make it into a ball that is smooth on one side.  One side will be your handle, the other (smooth side) will be your work surface.  Apply the ring remover to the 'work surface' side of your cotton ball.  Smack it with your hand a few times to spread the product through  the cotton and then start rubbing your water ring.  You want to rub the wet cotton forcefully cross the water mark in the same direction as the wood grain.  This process will take some time, and quite a bit of pressure, but the ring will disappear if you are patient.  Remember, I said the 'do it at home' method is going to take elbow grease!  The heat caused by the friction works with the chemicals in the ring remover to pull the moisture up out of the wood.  Once you are done, the ring will have disappeared.  If you have a shinny spot afterwards,  you can either rub the rest of the table or a coat of wax will even the finish back out.  Just don't do both projects on the same day!  You might not be able to move your arm for a bit and those gifts won't wrap themselves!

If all of this work just makes you want to run and hide behind your pile of yet-to-be-wrapped presents, then bring your project to us!  We have many different ways of dealing with damaged finishes and will find the perfect solution for your waterlogged problem.

Oak Mission Style Desk

This beautiful oak mission style desk came to us for restoration and water damage removal.  As you can see from the photo below, the top surface has a significant amount of water damage.  The white haze appears when moisture penetrates  the

finish but does not get all the way down to the wood.  We started out by using a 'no blush' product which can sometimes fix this problem with just the spritz from a can.  We then sprayed the entire desk with a 'dark pine' water based stain.  This really helped freshen up the overall apearance of the desk.

We also applied a 'retarder' product which eliminated the remaining moisture damage.  Over the retarder we gave the desk two new layers of finish in a lovely 'satin' sheen.  As you can see, the desk looks much better.

 It has a new brighter appearance and the moisture damage is almost completely gone.  This process doesn't always work to remove water damage. Sometimes more labor intensive approaches need to be taken and sometimes the whole piece actually has to be stripped and refinished.  But in this case, we are very happy with the result of our method!

Rotten Porch Rail

 This set of porch rails came to us so that the many layers of paint could be stripped off.  Simple job right?  Well, we got the paint of (simple but not easy!)  and discovered a whole new set of problems.  Years and years of water damage left many of the joints rotten.  The paint was so thick it had actually been holding the rails together.  Without the paint, the rotten joints fell apart.

 You can see in this picture how blackened the wood had become.  We ended up needing to rout out all the worst sections and replace them with new sturdy wood splines.  A spline is a piece of wood, usually inserted on the underside of a repair, that will strengthen the wood around it.  You can see one of the splines we did,  in the picture below.

 The spline repairs were put in with epoxy which is the strongest glue we have.  The epoxy soaks into the surrounding wood and is so strong that to get the wood apart it has to be cut.  We also filled all the rotten nail holes with epoxy.  This way we cold re-assemble the piece and the nails would have something to bite into.

The porch rails were re-assembled and while they aren't particularly pretty, they are much sturdier and the repairs we performed should last a very long time.  The owner of this rain is a faux finish expert so she will be taking it home and painting it herself, using exterior quality paints and finishes.  

Dealing with Water Rings on Wood Furniture

Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays are right around the corner, and that usually means lots of use for your dining room table.  Sometimes an unfortunate spill happens, and that is just fine, as long as the liquid

gets cleaned up right away. If it doesn't then it can result in some unsightly damage to your table top.  Not to worry, there are still ways to solve this kind of damage, as long as you get to it quickly.  If it takes to long, and the ring turns black, then you know the water damage has gone all the way through the finish and into the wood.  At that point, your only way to repair the damage is to strip and refinish the piece.  But if you can get to it while the ring is still white, then the moisture is still in the finish and can be repaired.

You will need just 3 things to get rid of that water ring.  

1.You will need a piece of soft cotton (like and old T shirt)

2.You will need Liberon 'Ring Remover'.  We sell it here at our shop, or you can get it online.

3.Lots of Elbow Grease.

Once you have assembled these items,  this is how you go about getting rid of that evidence of a holiday party gone wild.  Take your piece of cotton and pull all the edges around into the center so that you have a ball of cotton that is smooth on one side, grasp the not smooth side with your hand.  Apply the ring remover tho the smooth side of the cotton, smack it with your hand a few times to spread the product through the cotton, and then start rubbing!  You want to rub the wet cotton forcefully across the water mark in the same direction as the wood grain.  This process may take some time, and quite a bit of pressure, but the ring will disappear if you are patient. 

The heat caused by the friction works with the chemicals in the Ring Remover to pull the moisture up out of the wood. Once you are done, there should be no evidence that the ring was ever there.  If you now see a shiny spot in that area, you can either choose to rub out the rest of the table to bring out the shine, or use a paste wax over the table which will even out the shine, and also provide a nice layer of protection for your wood. Just so you know, waxing your table requires lots of rubbing as well, so don't attempt both of these projects on the same day.

So there you have it folks, the simple, yet physical task of removing those pesky white rings from your table.  I have been trying to think of useful ideas to help you all avoid the rings in the first place, here is what I came up with...

1. Serve all of your beverages out of sipy cups this year.
2. Make everyone hold their beverage the entire time they are at your home.
3. Don't serve beverages, list on your invite that everyone needs to get hydrated before leaving home,
4. Give all your guests a straw so that they can drink out of your punchbowl and not have to hold glasses.
5. Ask your guests to put their glassware on the floor when they are not drinking it.  This works best if you do not have a hardwood floor, are not worried about carpet stains, or do not have pets.

Any other brilliant solutions to avoiding Moisture Rings on your wood surfaces during your holiday parties and feasts this year?