Restain Stained Wood

Learn how to restain stained wood. Find out what to do if you can't sand the original paint stain away, and get tips on how using a wood bleach may help you get the stain you want.

LESLIE: Ed in Illinois, how can we help you today?

ED: Yes. My wife was so helpful to me; she stained some trim that I hadn’t finished, while I was out of town.

TOM: OK.

ED: And she stained it the wrong color. (Tom chuckles)

LESLIE: Ooh.

ED: Yes.

TOM: Bless her heart.

ED: And so, I had started sanding some of it – and that’s quite a job to sand all that off. So I’m wondering if there is some kind of product that I can use to take the stain off without having to sand.

TOM: (overlapping voices) Yep. Unfortunately, no, because the stain soaks into the new wood. I presume you’re talking about new wood here, which is about as absorbent as a sponge.

ED: Yeah.

TOM: And to try to get down below that surface, you’ve really got to sand the heck out of this thing. You’re not going to get anything that’s going to draw it out, so to speak. So, I think that you’re stuck with your wife (Ed chuckles) and you’re stuck with the trim. (Leslie chuckles) OK? (chuckles)

ED: OK. Well, bless her heart, right?

TOM: (chuckling) That’s right.

LESLIE: Have you thought about – I don’t know if it’ll work but there are such products out there called wood bleaches.

ED: Ah.

TOM: Yeah, what are you trying to get to in terms of the end game here? What’s the color you’re looking for?

ED: I’m going for a dark brown and she stained it a reddish color.

TOM: Hmm. Well, have you tried to stain on top of it to see what it’d look like?

ED: No, but that’s a good thought.

LESLIE: And also, if you’re going to stain on top of stain, I would recommend gel stain only because it’s thicker, it’s going to apply more heavily, so you might be able to achieve that color more quickly, in fewer layers, possibly?

TOM: Yeah. I was kind of thinking that you wanted to go lighter. If you want to go darker, a light sanding and a gel stain may make this all disappear.

ED: Oh, OK. I’ll give that a try.

TOM: Go out and buy a small container of gel stain and do a little sample piece of this molding and see what happens.

ED: OK. Alright. Very good.

TOM: Hey, if it doesn’t work out, stain all the rest of the molding the same color and at least it’ll be consistent.

ED: (chuckling) Of course. OK. Thank you very much, then.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.