Have you ever finished a paint job only to discover nasty paint stains on your laminate floors? Everyone knows that getting rid of paint stains can be a nightmare, so I thought I might help you out with that. Stick around and see how to get paint off laminate floor surfaces and what products to use.
What to Consider if You Spilled Paint on Laminate Flooring?
The Type of Paint Matters
When it comes to repainting the interior walls of a home, there are two preferred types of paint. Both forms of paint are quite easy to remove from laminate flooring.
Understanding the chemical structure variations enables you to select the appropriate cleaning solvent for the sticky paint. The most often purchased paints for home renovation projects are latex and acrylic.
Latex paint is a water-based product that contains few ingredients. Due to the presence of water in the paint, latex paint is often easier to remove from laminate and wood flooring.
Acrylic paint is chemically based and frequently forms a stronger bond to the surface than other types of paint. When cleaning acrylic paints, it is vital to use a cleaning solution that contains natural paint thinner to break the chemical links between the pigments.
How Long it’s Been Sitting
If you catch it early enough, just use a damp but clean rag to wipe up the spill. If the paint dries, you can usually clean it off with just some water. However, it’s not uncommon for the paint to dry before you notice that it has dripped onto your floor.
After it has dried, cleaning it is a little more challenging. While many people will suggest using paint thinner or mineral spirits, these are both fairly caustic compounds.
The Amount Spilled
When huge paint spills occur, chipping away at and loosening the dried paint is an effective approach to facilitate the clean-up procedure.
How much paint you spilled on the flooring is going to determine what the best cleaning approach is. In some cases, you might remove small bits using scrapers. When dealing with large spills, cleaning solutions are usually a better idea.
How to Get Paint Off Laminate Flooring?
1. Wipe Up Immediately with a Damp Rag
As mentioned earlier, you can easily clean any paint spills if you catch them right as they happen. All you need for really fresh water-based paint spills is a clean rag lightly dipped in water. For oil-based paint, use mineral spirits instead of water.
It’s really important not to oversoak the rag because moisture could seep through any potential crack and ruin the floor.
What you want to do is act fast. When you see the fresh spill, use a clean dry rag to scoop up as much paint as possible. Avoid spreading it over a large area on the floor.
When you’ve gotten rid of most of the paint spill, dip a clean rag in water or mineral spirit and process to wiping the remainder of the paint off the floor.
2. DIY Paint Clean-Up Solution
You can easily make a cleaning solution using ingredients that you likely have around the house. Mix equal parts of water and vinegar, adding a few drops of dish soap as well.
Grab a clean piece of cloth into this solution and wipe the portion of the floor with spilled paint on it. Apply pressure as you scrub. Remember to never put the solution directly on the stain, as this could damage the laminate floorboard.
If you’re dealing with oil-based paint, you can add some rubbing alcohol to the mixture. This will help break down the ingredients in oil and water-based paints, making them easier to remove. All you have to do is wipe off the residue.
3. Motsenbocker’s Lift Off Latex Paint Remover Spray 
Commercial paint removers are excellent at removing paint from laminate surfaces without causing damage to the laminate’s polish or to the laminate itself. Commercial paint strippers typically leave behind paint residue, which means you’ll need to vacuum your floor after application.
This Lift Off spray bottle contains a good mixture of chemicals that will help you get rid of paint stains.
- Do a test in an inconspicuous place. This should ensure the integrity of the surface.
- Spray the surface that’s stained with paint.
- Wait at least one minute after spraying the area.
- If required, scrub with a gentle brush.
- Wipe with a clean white cloth or, if feasible, rinse clean. You might have to repeat the process.
4. Scrape Away Small Amounts
Cheap tools (such as a razor blade or a putty knife) work well to remove dried paint off the floor. Wear protective gloves when scraping paint from a laminate floor to avoid inadvertently cutting yourself.
Chipping away at a huge paint spill prior to using a cleaning solvent saves time. Putty knives and scrapers can be used after the cleaning process to remove any remaining paint from the laminate flooring.
You can use really inexpensive products, like this razor blade scraper. It includes 10 plastic and 20 metal blades to choose from. That means that you’ll likely get plenty of use out of this product.
5. MiracleWipes for Paint Cleanup
Sometimes, cleaning a smudge of paint from a laminate floor is as easy as wiping it clean with a “miracle product”. For small stains, you can turn to products like these MiracleWipes.
Painting can be messy, and cleaning up afterward can be time-consuming and laborious. That is why Miracle Brands designed a paint wipe that not only simplifies the clean-up process following painting tasks, but also doubles as a surface prep wipe for furniture pieces, baseboards, and walls.
To use these, simply grab one from the container and wipe the stained surface just as you would do with any other rag. While MiracleWipes effectively removes wet paint, we can’t say the same for dry paint.
In fact, the product’s ability to remove dry paint stains is very circumstantial. Some customers claim they successfully removed dry paint from non-porous surfaces (including the laminate floor), while others have been less successful.
One thing’s for sure: these won’t work on dry paint stains on a porous surface.
6. Use Window Cleaner (With Ammonia)
Windex is one of the best window cleaners you can use, but did you know it’s also good for getting paint off laminate flooring? Window cleaners based on ammonia are a good choice in such situations, but they can cause harm to the laminate surface itself.
Start by testing it on a tiny section of the damaged surface before spraying it on the entire stained area. Allow the window cleaner to soak into the paint for a few minutes after spraying before cleaning away any residue using a dry clean cloth.
Check out our Windex vs Glass Plus article here.
Paint on Laminate Floor FAQs
Will Dried Paint Damage Your Laminate Flooring?
Dried paint does not cause direct damage to laminate flooring, as this type of flooring is extremely stain-resistant. Once the paint has dried, removing it may be quite a chore. You risk damaging the laminate flooring if you use ineffective methods to remove dried paint from the floor surface.
Will Paint Thinner Damage Laminate Floors?
It’s not wise to use white spirit paint thinner to remove paint from laminate flooring since it will most likely stain the laminate surface. Paint thinners often contain a variety of highly reactive chemical components that will abrade the surface of the floor.
Can You Use Paint Stripper to Remove Paint on Laminate Flooring?
The paint stripper is likely to damage the clear coat of your laminate floor, so you want to avoid using it.
How Can You Prevent Paint Getting on Your Floors?
Always protect your floor and furniture while you’re painting. While furniture pieces can be moved to another room, floors can’t. That’s why you want to cover them with drop cloth or plastic sheeting.
What Should You Do If Professional Painters Get Paint on Your Floors?
If you hired a licensed painter and they did a really messy job, you can report them to the construction contractor’s board in your area.
You can also try to settle this amicably and ask them to clean out their mess since they likely have the products to do so. However, such situations are more likely to happen if you hire a non-licensed painter.
Final Thoughts
Once you know how to get paint off laminate floor surfaces, you have to determine what the best method is for your situation. Figure out what paint you’re dealing with, how old the stain is, and what the best cleaning approach is.
Jamie is the Founder of My Home Dwelling. He is a homeowner and enjoys sharing his homeowner tips with others. He has real estate experience working as a new home construction Realtor. Jamie has worked on numerous residential construction sites helping with interior and exterior renovations. He loves refinishing furniture, DIY home projects, and sharing his knowledge online.