How to Clean Your Wood Countertops

Taking Care and Maintaining

Wood countertops are a beautiful addition to any kitchen. If you are considering a kitchen remodeling project, be sure you seriously consider a butcher block wood countertop surface, when properly treated and maintained they can last for decades and only become better as they age. Cleaning and maintaining wood countertops is a simple DIY project that almost every home owner can take on easily.

How to Clean Your Wood Countertops

• Clean the work area, and be sure you have already taken care of any major issues beforehand and properly sealed the areas you had to give special care to.

• Clear the work area, and mix up your warm water and vinegar solution. You can use lemon juice, or eucalyptus oil if you want to give it a fresh scent.

• With you clean rags; work your countertops from one end to the other cleaning thoroughly and taking time to get up any sticky stains from neglected cleaning before. If you find new trouble spots, be sure to mark them and take care of them promptly.

• Once you give the countertop a good surface cleaning, and you have allowed it to dry thoroughly you can take some mineral oil and give the clean counter a fresh coat of mineral oil to reinforce the sealant already in place. (Note: If you used another sealant before other than the natural mineral oil or beeswax, then this will do no good, it is better to do it right the first time and use a sealant that you can easily maintain).

• After a good cleaning, and a fresh application of mineral oil your countertops should be ready to put back to good use!

Things to Consider

• If you’re wood countertops are getting stains easily and are giving a hard time pulling them up; then you may want to seriously consider refinishing the sealant you used on them. Treating wood countertops is not complicated, but it does take some patience and persistence to really get a good sealant coating of mineral oil. Wood countertops are natural material and are susceptible to water intrusion that can make them swell up and cause unsightly damage. Also, hot kitchen ware can cause burn marks; though they are easily sanded out, you still want to avoid them in the first place so always use a heat pad of some sort.

Problems and Remedies• Hard stains – This could be ketchup or pasta sauce or anything that was

left to dry and absorb into the shallow pores of the wood countertop. This can be remedied pretty easily though, try some lemon juice mixed with some vinegar to scrub out the stain. Most of the time this will draw the stain up out of the wood itself. If not you can simply sand them away.

• Tip: Be sure to carefully seal the area you scrubbed by rubbing a sufficient amount of mineral oil into the wood to create a natural seal and protect the wood from future stains. You will want to apply mineral oil every couple weeks until it stops drinking in the mineral oil and the seal is complete.

• Burns or scratches – There is no wiping these away sadly. The good news is though, you can sand both either out with a few different grits of sand paper and some effort. Once you sand them away and the surface is smooth and unblemished again, be sure you seal the wood countertop in that area again very thoroughly as you will have sanded out the original sealant removing the marred areas.

What Tools and Materials You Need• Mineral Oil – This is your best friend for any wood countertop. I never recommend sealing

wood countertops with anything else. Nothing is as timeless and safe for your wood countertops as food grade mineral oil. There are lots of sealants out there, but in my opinion there is nothing better than mineral oil or beeswax. Other sealants can flake off and get into your food, and many contain harmful chemicals and compounds that you do not want your family or guests ingesting.

• Clean rags – You will always use clean rags to wipe away and clean your countertops, and to apply your mineral oil.

• Vinegar solution – For almost all household cleaning, I like to use a good solution of vinegar lemon juice, and warm water. It is safe, and disinfects as you go; it is also very inexpensive to make so this is my favored cleaning agent. There is no risk of getting harmful cleaning agents getting in your food, as you can ingest both vinegar and lemon juice, and both are good for you.

• Sand paper – If you need, you can sand out scratches and burn marks, but it is best to use a proper heat pad, and always use a cutting board to avoid damaging your beautiful countertops. (If you sand out, you must replace the mineral oil finish in that area. Following the same timeline and application process as when you first finished the wood countertops.

There is not much to cleaning your wood countertops, it just takes regular maintenance as with anything. Be sure you take the time to deal with any problems that you find and don’t allow them to become bigger problems later. Remember, if you ever need assistance with any of your home improvement projects that your friends at Tenlist.com will always connect you with trusted local contractors.