Because this was a real life situation, and because the wood looked considerably better without the drawing, a quick cleaning was in order, and the following will document the process in order to help you if you are facing a similar situation. The picture to the left shows the three step process that was used to completely remove the dark color, and the fast and safe method that was used, did not pose any risk to the material. This was a natural wood chair with a standard glossy finishing coat, but a similar technique would work just as well for shelving, tables, flooring, a door, wood paneling on the wall, a dresser and more. It is even safe enough to use directly on children’s skin, and it works really well to pull tough stains like this out of clothing too. Sure it would be easier to just let them color with crayons, but what fun is that. Kids love to draw with markers, and when you no longer have to worry about cleaning it off of unauthorized surfaces it is not such a big deal anymore.
The cleaner that was used to eliminate this mess was Quick’n Brite. It is a naturally formulated substance that is extremely effective, yet totally safe at the same time. We had a quart spray bottle with just 3 tablespoons of the cleaner and the rest water. This is just pennies worth of the cleaner, so it is also a very economical solution too. This particular job was pretty light weight, so we only needed a diluted mixture, but if your kid was a little more enthusiastic, you may have to use a second application at the same strength, or work with a bit more cleaner-heavy solution. For any really tough job, or for marks that just won’t go away, use the paste version full strength to get rid of it easily. You don’t run any higher risk when you use a more concentrated blend, but it does end up costing more due to the higher consumption. A little bit will still go a long way, so even when use at maximum strength, you are looking at maybe a nickel instead of a few cents.
Working with Quick n Brite is nice because you are basically guaranteed results, and you never really have to worry about making a bigger mess, or ruining the object you are trying to improve. You can’t really help doing a good job as long as you are using the right technique, but you do use it a bit differently than traditional options, so follow the steps below for quick and easy success.
Quick’n Brite is an enzyme cleaner, so once you spray it on, it begins to break apart the marker and lift it off the surface. This makes scrubbing unnecessary, and allows you to easily remove the stain. It would work the same on any other hard surfaces like doors, walls, dressers, tables and more. If the dry erase marker was on carpet, it will take slightly more effort, but it is still totally doable. You will need more cleaner, and it will need to be worked into the carpet fibers a bit using your hand or a brush or something, but with slightly increased effort, you can certainly get the job done. Let it sit there slightly longer for a more simple elimination process. When working to remove a marker spot from fibrous material instead of a hard stuff, the paste version, full strength, may give better results if the all purpose spray is not achieving desired outcome. The paste can be used on any surface where the staining is more severe or being stubborn.
PLEASE NOTE: This MAY NOT work for permanent inks or dyes like those found in thick black magic markers. It WILL FOR SURE work on dry erase marker, ball point pen ink, finger paints, colored pencil, crayons, water colors, acrylics, pastels and more though.
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Amazing stain remover. Great wood cleaner
Thanks for the information. I've been trying to google it for a while.
Thanks dude, I never knew that, thankyou.
It sounds like you're creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place