Q: I have an oak hutch that has been sprayed with cat urine some time ago. Can you help me figure out what to neutralize the urine with so I can refinish it? I’ve tried vinegar as well as carpet cleaning solution but the stains are still showing through.
A: I suspect what you are talking about is not neutralizing, which merely means changing the pH, but rather removing a stain. In almost all cases, you must remove the finish before you can remove a stain that is in the wood itself. Once you get down to bare wood, you can try a number of different bleaches and stain removers, but I will tell you that because of the diet of a cat, there is no guarantee which, if any, will work. Still, here’s what I would suggest.
Strip the finish, and lightly sand the bare wood. Wash the entire surface, not just the stain itself, with each bleach in turn. Start with a 10% solution of oxalic acid in water. Apply it liberally but evenly, so there are no puddles, and let it dry overnight. Remove any white residue with a damp cloth. If the stain still remains, do another wash, this time with full strength laundry bleach, again, wetting the wood very thoroughly but leaving no puddles. Let it dry overnight. Both these treatments remove stains without changing the color of the wood itself, and should remove urine stains in most cases. There is a more draconian alternative, a two part wood bleach, but it involves chemicals that are dangerous to handle, and will decolor the wood itself along with stains. Thus, I don’t suggest this unless you’ve had some experience handling these strong oxidizers and enough finishing experience to recolor the wood once you are done.
Michael Dresdner
straight talk about wood finishing
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