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Removing stains from old plastic countertop piclistguy 03-29-2008
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Posted by on March 29, 2008, 2:37 am
I live in a rented house where the plastic countertop (probably from
the 70's and 80's)
is badly stained. The landlord will not replace it. I was wondering if
I could somehow clean it.
Regular cleaners including comet cleanser doesn't do much. I was
wondering if using an orbital buffer would be more effective
especially with a more abrasive cleanser.
Can anyone recommend something more abrasive than comet for my
application?
Thanks


AppliancePartsPros.com, Inc.
Posted by David Nebenzahl on March 29, 2008, 4:07 am
On 3/28/2008 10:37 PM piclistguy@yahoo.com spake thus:

> I live in a rented house where the plastic countertop (probably from
> the 70's and 80's)
> is badly stained. The landlord will not replace it. I was wondering if
> I could somehow clean it.
> Regular cleaners including comet cleanser doesn't do much. I was
> wondering if using an orbital buffer would be more effective
> especially with a more abrasive cleanser.
> Can anyone recommend something more abrasive than comet for my
> application?

What kind of stains? Before you start grinding the surface away
(remember that's what abrasives do, remove material), you might try
removing the stains with bleach. A lot of stains will respond favorably
to that. Try a small area first; use a Q-tip to apply just a little
undiluted bleach and see if it clears the stain.

I recently cleaned up an old piece of furniture with a Formica top by
using a mixture of (mostly) naphtha, denatured alcohol and just a dash
of acetone, scrubbing with fine steel wool. Cleaned up very nicely.
(This one had big gobs of dried paint on it.)

If you do ending up actually grinding the stains away, keep in mind that
you'll need to polish it up afterwards. Can be done, but involves a lot
of elbow grease.


Posted by Mikepier on March 29, 2008, 4:29 am
> On 3/28/2008 10:37 PM piclist...@yahoo.com spake thus:
>
> > I live in a rented house where the plastic countertop (probably from
> > the 70's and 80's)
> > is badly stained. The landlord will not replace it. I was wondering if
> > I could somehow clean it.
> > Regular cleaners including comet cleanser doesn't do much. I was
> > wondering if using an orbital buffer would be more effective
> > especially with a more abrasive cleanser.
> > Can anyone recommend something more abrasive than comet for my
> > application?
>
> What kind of stains? Before you start grinding the surface away
> (remember that's what abrasives do, remove material), you might try
> removing the stains with bleach. A lot of stains will respond favorably
> to that. Try a small area first; use a Q-tip to apply just a little
> undiluted bleach and see if it clears the stain.
>
> I recently cleaned up an old piece of furniture with a Formica top by
> using a mixture of (mostly) naphtha, denatured alcohol and just a dash
> of acetone, scrubbing with fine steel wool. Cleaned up very nicely.
> (This one had big gobs of dried paint on it.)
>
> If you do ending up actually grinding the stains away, keep in mind that
> you'll need to polish it up afterwards. Can be done, but involves a lot
> of elbow grease.

If the countertop is white, try bleach. I had a white formica
countertop and stains came out easily using bleach.

Posted by Sandra Loosemore on March 29, 2008, 9:01 am

> If the countertop is white, try bleach. I had a white formica
> countertop and stains came out easily using bleach.

Yeah, try bleach. It works on non-white countertops, too. When I've
had stains that don't wipe up immediately, I've put down a paper towel
or rag soaked in a dilute bleach solution over the stain for half an
hour or so to let it "work". Wear gloves to protect your hands.

-Sandra

Posted by mwlogs on March 29, 2008, 9:31 pm
Keep in mind that some formica-type surfaces the 'color' or pattern is only
on the surface. Polish it too much and you will polish this off leaving
just the backing showing, which would look worse than the stains.

>I live in a rented house where the plastic countertop (probably from
> the 70's and 80's)
> is badly stained. The landlord will not replace it. I was wondering if
> I could somehow clean it.
> Regular cleaners including comet cleanser doesn't do much. I was
> wondering if using an orbital buffer would be more effective
> especially with a more abrasive cleanser.
> Can anyone recommend something more abrasive than comet for my
> application?
> Thanks
>



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