A candle’s luminous flame or its scent is always pleasant. What is not pleasant is the wax that constantly drips from it. A candle holder might mostly save the surfaces you have put your candle on but not always. And the one time you accidentally splash the melted candle over a floor surface, it turns out to be a nightmare. Yes, of course, when you do not know what to do with the wax on your floor.
All the more when the candle wax has color in it. In this case, the candle wax not only ruins the surface with hard wax but will stain it as well. Please, notice that we have emphasized it being a matter of panic when you do not know the solution. But when you know the ways to remove the wax from any floor, let’s say the process of how to remove candle wax from linoleum floor, there will be nothing to panic about.
Linoleum Floor
Contents
Linoleum flooring is biodegradable, very much popular as eco-friendly flooring, having a protective coating over it in some cases right from the start developed by the manufacturer to give it the shine and durability. But if the floor doesn’t have it, it mostly requires a fresh wax coating to maintain its lush every three to four years. It’s a floor that’s not too rigid and bounces back, thus prone to damage with sharp objects more than any other floor type. So, when you are cleaning the candle wax, you have to be extra careful with it.
Unless the floor has protection coating or wax sealer over it, a splashed candle wax will, of course, stain the floor as it will seep into the material. So, before you take any measure, you have to know whether your linoleum floor has the coating or sealer or it doesn’t have it at all. It might also happen that you had a wax coating on the floor, but it has been a few years, and you need to coat it again as the wax has loosened its effectiveness. But before doing that, the splash of wax happened, ruining your floor.
How to Remove Candle Wax from Linoleum Floor?
Removing candle wax from the linoleum floor is simple and requires minimal components. It’s always easier to remove hardened wax than melted wax. That is why when there is melted wax over the floor; we prefer waiting for it to turn hard rather than trying hard to clean it immediately. Putting ice over the candle wax to fully harden it is one of the most effective and most-used methods of cleaning the candle wax.
Save
In the case of the candle wax over the linoleum floor, we do not even think you need to put ice on the wax to harden it further. You can simply wait for a couple of hours for it to set, even if you saw the candle wax dripping on the floor. Doing anything before that will be like trying to remove the wax with the more complex method, to be honest, which the linoleum might not take and further get damaged. So, let the fresh thawed candle wax harden. Let it dry on its own.
Careful Scrape Off
The next step is to scrape off the fully hardened candle wax. Use a plastic scraper or a plastic putty knife. Both look basically the same, so any will do its job. Anything metal will ruin the floor, leaving scratches or even tears. So, avoid anything metal and always use plastic components during the scraping off of the hard wax.
Be gentle when you are trying to remove the wax. Don’t be random; rather, start from the edge laying the scraper flat, and remove the wax placing the scraper beneath the edge, slightly pushing it up perpendicular. It must come off super conveniently with that slight force only.
Get Rid of the Tiny Particles
After you have removed all the hard wax, time to clean the spot to get rid of the tiny little wax pieces, if there are any. Even if there are no wax particles and the surface is neat, use a clean cloth to clean the spot or vacuum it thoroughly. Some wax pieces might be so minute that you cannot even notice them with your eyes. But when you try the next step, it will create a nuisance by melting and drying.
Create Heat with Friction
Use a rag and constantly rub it on the spot you had candle wax on. It must be those thick ones that can actually create heat due to frictions. Rubbing the rag on the splashed candle wax spot and creating heat through the constant rubbing is the trick here. This trick will not work on the thick layer of hard candle wax, but when you have scraped off most of it, there hardly remains any candle wax. Thus the rubbing of the rag method removes the remaining wax from your linoleum flooring.
Cleaning Solution
Now, if you notice a stain after you have cleaned the wax and scrubbed the spot with the rag, use a wax stripper to clean the stain. And if luckily there is no stain, just use a linoleum floor cleaner or make your vinegar water cleaning solution. Make it at home by mixing a cup or two of white vinegar in a gallon of warm water. First, use a cotton pad or towel and wipe clean the specific space with the water. Then, use it to sweep the entire room to use the entire gallon of it. You have cleaned the wax stain and swept the floor with the same homemade linoleum floor cleaner.
Prod Step
If there is still stain or wax residue, you can be a little extra using a scrub brush or steel wool to amplify the cleaning process. But it should be the last and prod step where you had no other way to remove the wax or stain, hence was compelled to use it.
More article on cleaning procedure of candle wax from several floor
The purpose is always to keep the linoleum floor shiny and new. However, when it comes to a surface like a floor, sticking to the purpose fails. Try your best to remove the wax but never try hard, so hard that you end up thinking hardened candle wax looks better than the scratches you left to clean it hard.
