While it may not be most ordinary blemish on home furnishings, learning how to remove tar from wood may prove to be useful someday. One possible incidence may be when a roof is being redone and some tar accidentally drops onto your furniture or floor. If it’s some wood furniture or floor, here are some tips to help you remove the tar.
Step 1: Don’t Touch It: Do not touch the tar or try to chip it off. Not only will that not work, it can also possibly damage the wood underneath the tar. Just back away and leave it until you are ready to begin getting rid of it.
Step 2: Freeze the Tar: The best way to remove tar is to freeze it until it gets brittle. You can do this by placing a bag of ice water on top of it, or just putting a pile of ice on top of it. Wait for the tar to become hard, brittle, and cold. Then, remove the ice (or ice water).
Step 3: Gently scrape it Off: You can use anything you want as long as it won’t scrape the wood. In some cases, a dull knife or even a spatula will do the trick. Begin to gently scrape the brittle tar off of the wood in question.
Step 4: Continue Scraping: You’ll want to move towards the center of the stain from the outside. When you are rubbing and scraping, always be very gentle. It may take longer to get the stain out, but there will be less chance of causing damage underneath the tar.
Step 5: Repeat if Necessary: Tar stains can be very stubborn so you may have to do one or more of these steps again. Just go at it slowly and patiently.
Step 4: Remove the Residue: Most often, tar will leave behind a bit of residue once it’s removed. However, this is very simply to fix. Just take some vegetable oil that you can find at any grocery store, apply it to a clean cloth, and gently rub the spot where the residue is.
Step 5: Use a Sander: If you happen to have moved in somewhere that the tar refuses to be removed or it stains too heavily, like in older houses with wooden floors, your only option may be to sand down the floor, and install a new floor over it. Sometimes, tar really will not come off!
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