Will Food Stain My Floor? Tested Effects of Water, Coffee & More on Hardwood

Does Food Stain Hardwood Floors? (The Experiment)

Two of the most common questions we receive are: Will water or coffee stain hardwood floors? and What’s the best way to maintain my flooring? As an engineer, I was curious too. The only way to get real answers? Conduct an experiment! In this test, we’ll explore how different substances affect hardwood floors and the best ways to prevent and remove stains.

The two floors we choose for the experiment are two of our most popular hardwood engineered floors, one is ¾ thick, one is ⅞ thick. They both use an advanced technology called reactive stain to achieve this beautiful natural gray color. Gray with matt wire brushed finish is really trending these years, especially with modern, simplistic designs.

Due to the nature of the coloring process, reactive stain is not as chemically stable as traditional pigmented stain. Two boards are with factory finish only, without any extra protection, and two boards with one coat of WOCA master oil.

WOCA master oil is a natural hardening oil, unlike other filmed finish, like polyurethane, it penetrates into the surface of the wood and solidify with the wood itself and leave a very natural hard wearing surface.

Common Stains Tested: Coffee, Vinegar & More

Here we have our contenders: from left to right are: water, coffee, soy source, ketchup, baking soda, heavy duty detergent, vinegar, lemon juice and chili oil. I’m leaving them on the boards for 24 hours

Which Hardwood Finish Offers the Best Protection?

After 24 hours, we wipe everything off with damp cloth.

On the ⅞ board side, we almost can’t see anything. There’s a faint mark from the coffee. And one interesting note is that the coffee left darker mark on the board with WOCA oil the the factory finish.

On the ¾ board however, there’s obvious mark from baking soda and detergent, both are alkaline. And we can also see mark from vinegar and lemon juice, which are acidic. And coffee left mark as well. There’s no obvious difference between the board with and without WOCA oil.

Best Ways to Remove Stains from Wood Floors

Next, let’s try fixing them with WOCA spot remover and tannin neutralizer. I had good luck with both on natural color boards. I’m spray on the spot remover, let them sit for 20 mins and wipe off with a damp cloth. Tannin neutralizer needs more time. I let them sit for 1 hour, then wipe off with a damp cloth.

The coffee stain is almost gone, if you put it under a magnifying glass, you can still see a trace of it, but unnoticeable from 1 foot away. However, the tannin neutralizer has no effect on the dark spot stained by baking soda or detergent. It does remove the stain from acid though, the spot left by vinegar and lemon is almost gone.

In Summary:

• Reactive stains from different manufacturers, even in the same color, can vary in stability.

  • Modern flooring is generally highly stain-resistant.

  • A factory finish is superior to most onsite-applied products, such as WOCA oil.

  • Maintenance products like WOCA do not have a significant effect on preventing stains.

  • Extreme pH levels, such as those in baking soda, detergent, vinegar, or lemon juice, may have an adverse effect on flooring.

  • Products like tannin neutralizer have limited effectiveness against chemical stains.