My black laminate kitchen worktops have suddenly become discoloured with whitish/greyish marks, shortly after my son used Mr Muscle oven cleaner on a couple of George Forman grills. The evidence of what caused the marks is only circumstantial at the moment but does the team think that the oven cleaner is likely to be the culprit? If so, is there a cure (other than replacing the work tops ;-) )
Dave
Probably caustic soda crystals, which are small enough to penetrate the surface texture of the worktop. Same thing happens with a lot of domestic cleaning products where the abrasive is so fine that you can't get rid of it from dark coloured materials. You could try wetting the surface with deionised water (Halfords battery top-up) and laying lengths of toilet tissue across it. Allowed to dry naturally, they might just suck the salts out. Wiping with vinegar will convert the residue to sodium acetate but I don't know whether that would be any easier to dislodge.
If you are desperate, polish with steel wool, and wipe with olive oil. My Formica bench top still looks fine after doing that for 15 years!
An interesting idea, but the laminate has a slightly tectured finish so I don't think steel wool would be wise - although I might experiment on an off-cut if I can find one.
Dave
Thanks, I'm getting tempted by the idea of a granite replacement but when the price frightens me back to laminate I'll give it a go.
Dave
My laminate is smooth. It still looks the same as when I made it 15 years ago! It has a NZ kauri edging: Excuse the crumbs that I hadn't noticed were there:
Blimey. Kauri pine. Haven't seen that for a few years. Good looking stuff.
I have a whole house built out of Kauri.
Here's a large Kauri tree. We aren't allowed to chop it down!
Nice. Last time I saw Kauri in UK was in a Victorian church. I doubt much of it gets exported nowadays
Almost all the house is 8x1 inch Kauri - the weatherboards, floors, doors, and panelled walls. Here's the hallway:
IIRC 2 part woodworking bleach works quite well on kauri, but don't quote me on it, it was a long time ago...
over 2000 years old. Trunk on that one was something like 40' wide, like yours... impressive stuff.
Think all living Kauris are protected these days, aren't they?
cheers
Jules
I thought steel wool was a no-no in case any of it embeds itself in the wood?
Sorry but I just can't resist quoting Hancock. "That stag must have been doing a fair lick when it came through the wall."
The oldies are the best and I'm leaving now.
Probably. There would be millions of trees left though. People are getting old kauri out of swamps and making tables etc out of it. I have hundreds of metres of 160 year old Kauri, 100x50mm,
100x75, 150x50, 150x100, 150x150, and a thicknesser that I have not used yet.Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
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