Expert: Greg Scholl - 4/13/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
I have hardwood floors throughout my house with glossy white woodworks.  As a result of squirting a floor polish (either Bruce or Orange Glo) onto the floor instead of the cloth duster thing it looks as though some of the polish was actually squirted onto the floorboards directly.  I have tried windex, nail polish remover, and even a small amount of paint thinner all on a rag.  I have been totally unsuccessful so far, thus my writing you.  I would be eternally grateful if you could help me out as I clearly do not want to have to remove the floor boards and repaint.  This only happened in my dining room but I fear that if I repaint the boards in there they will not match the rest of the house or not match the rest of the woodworks, i.e. chair rail, door frames and crown molding.  My house has a very open floor plan so if they didn't match it would really show and this main floor is almost 3,000 sq. ft.  Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
Sincerely,
Julie Miller

ANSWER: Hi Julie, there is no way to remove this, once cured,without risking the finish underneath. The good news is that whites are pretty forgiving, unlike a color, when trying to match, especially at floor level. Can't you determine what the original paint was? Usually there's some left over and stored somewhere for touch ups, etc.Post back- Greg

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QUESTION: Can I just take a small brush and touch it up or do I need to repaint that whole board?  I was also wondering if there is a product made for things like this, touch ups, in "pen" form, like paint pens that come in the primary colors. Thanks, Julie

Answer
It will depend on how good a match your color is...and I'm not aware of a 'touch up pen' for paint like this, there are just too many color variations to make it worthwhile to produce such a thing....They do make a small touch up pad painter, the pad is about 1.5"x1.5", and they are handy and disposable...pour the paint into a small pan, ( I use the little black plastic microwavable trays from Stouffers, etc.) and that will make it easy to load the pad and move pretty quickly...