Stain stains?

October 29, 2005 6:45 PM

Spilled polyurethane wood stain on my brick walkway - is it doomed?

Yeah, so I kicked over the entire can of mahogany stain I was using on a bookshelf. Brill. It now covers about 3' by 2' of my brick patio walkway. I mopped up what I could and kind of just walked away in defeat. Once it dries, is there any way to redeem my bricks from their fate? It is, of course, on the bricks and pooled between them in the dirt (there's not concrete or anything between the bricks, just dirt).

At least I didn't try to hose it down, that would have been a disater, right?

posted by tristeza to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Best answer: I spilled some wood stain on a concrete surface a while ago, and unfortunately it's still there. Of course, since it was just a little bit and not the whole can, I didn't really try to do anything about it.

Given that it's a brick patio, however, you can always extract the bad bricks and turn them upside down. It would probably be a lot easier and safer than messing around with detergents and solvents.
posted by Krrrlson at 6:53 PM on October 29, 2005

I just posted your question over at Wood Magazine Forums. Smart guys there, let's see what they say.
posted by LarryC at 7:12 PM on October 29, 2005

Well there is always muriatic acid but I wouldn't get my hopes up. It depend on how deep the stain was able to penetrate the brick. If you have very hard brick it might not have soaked in to far and cleaning may work.
posted by flummox at 7:18 PM on October 29, 2005

A pressure washer should clean it off. Note that the washed brick will then be cleaner than the bricks around it. You could concievably pressure wash the whole patio to make it look new again, but perhaps you're looking to preserve the patina. Also, note that the pressure washer method works by actually removing a thin layer of material from the surface of the brick.
posted by cosmicbandito at 8:06 PM on October 29, 2005

Best answer: well, if the bricks aren't cemented in, why not just pop em out and flip em? its only 6 square feet.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 8:25 PM on October 29, 2005

Best answer: A pressure washer won't take out stain that's soaked into the bricks, and since they're loose-laid, the washer would make a mess.

Turn them over, or replace them, or stain the whole walk.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:49 AM on October 30, 2005

Response by poster: I cannot believe I am so dense it didn't occur to me to pop them out and flip them over. -sigh- New homeowner, I've never done stuff like this. :) Thanks!
posted by tristeza at 7:54 AM on October 30, 2005

If you spill polyurethane-based wood stain on those same bricks that you flipped over, you can try using a solvent (warning, PDF) that is reactive with polyurethane.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 9:58 AM on October 30, 2005