Does oven cleaner damage laminate worktop?

NoSpam

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Oct 13, 2009, 5:40:58 PM10/13/09

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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

Stuart Noble

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Oct 14, 2009, 5:53:44 AM10/14/09

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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.

Matty F

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Oct 14, 2009, 6:43:31 AM10/14/09

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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!

NoSpam

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Oct 14, 2009, 9:31:27 AM10/14/09

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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

NoSpam

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Oct 14, 2009, 9:34:13 AM10/14/09

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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

Matty F

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Oct 15, 2009, 12:06:50 AM10/15/09

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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:

http://i35.tinypic.com/ngsqqg.jpg

I'm drinking that wine right now!

Stuart Noble

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Oct 15, 2009, 5:23:27 AM10/15/09

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Blimey. Kauri pine. Haven't seen that for a few years. Good looking stuff.

Matty F

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Oct 15, 2009, 6:03:39 AM10/15/09

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On Oct 15, 10:23 pm, Stuart Noble <stuart_no...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Matty F wrote:

> > 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:
>
> >http://i35.tinypic.com/ngsqqg.jpg
>
> > I'm drinking that wine right now!
>
> 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!
http://i38.tinypic.com/dmqnh1.jpg

Trunk Girth 13.77 m
Trunk Height 17.68 m
Total Height 51.2 m
Trunk Volume 244.5 m3

Stuart Noble

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Oct 15, 2009, 7:10:50 AM10/15/09

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Nice.
Last time I saw Kauri in UK was in a Victorian church. I doubt much of
it gets exported nowadays

Matty F

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Oct 15, 2009, 8:11:08 AM10/15/09

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On Oct 16, 12:10 am, Stuart Noble <stuart_no...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Matty F wrote:

> > I have a whole house built out of Kauri.

> 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:
http://i35.tinypic.com/142t3ma.jpg

There were 25 layers of paint, wallpaper, newspaper and scrim on the
walls. I still need to finish cleaning the old varnish off the walls,
with steel wool I suppose, then oil it with something that doesn't
make it too dark.

Stuart Noble

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Oct 15, 2009, 9:05:21 AM10/15/09

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IIRC 2 part woodworking bleach works quite well on kauri, but don't
quote me on it, it was a long time ago...

Jules

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Oct 15, 2009, 9:40:23 AM10/15/09

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On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:03:39 -0700, Matty F wrote:
> Here's a large Kauri tree. We aren't allowed to chop it down!
> http://i38.tinypic.com/dmqnh1.jpg

I remember visiting one somewhere up north that folk were saying was well
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

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Oct 15, 2009, 10:11:25 AM10/15/09

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On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:11:08 -0700, Matty F wrote:

> I still need to finish cleaning the old varnish off the walls,
> with steel wool I suppose, then oil it with something that doesn't
> make it too dark.

I thought steel wool was a no-no in case any of it embeds itself in the
wood?

Old Git

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Oct 15, 2009, 11:32:21 AM10/15/09

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On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:11:08 -0700 (PDT), Matty F
<matty...@yahoo.co.nz> wrote:

>http://i35.tinypic.com/142t3ma.jpg
>
>There were 25 layers of paint, wallpaper, newspaper and scrim on the
>walls. I still need to finish cleaning the old varnish off the walls,
>with steel wool I suppose, then oil it with something that doesn't
>make it too dark.

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.

Matty F

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Oct 16, 2009, 12:26:13 AM10/16/09

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On Oct 16, 2:40 am, Jules <jules.richardsonn...@remove.this.gmail.com>
wrote:

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.