Hello, we left a bottle of draino on our bathroom bench and it has stained the surface. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks
Hi @gm2,
Drain cleaners are very strong alkaline chemicals, and unfortunately, they can permanently damage many surfaces. The stain you are seeing is almost certainly not a surface mark but chemical etching or bleaching where the cleaner has reacted with the finish.
Are you aware of what your benchtop is made of? It looks like a laminate coating over chipboard to me. Having a look at the underside of the bench could help us to identify it.
If it is laminate, the colour layer may have been bleached or burned, which means it is not stained, the colour itself has been removed, and cleaning will not reverse it. You can try gently polishing the area with a non-abrasive cream cleaner such as Jif or a laminate polish such as Cabot's Laminate Floor Polish to see if it improves the appearance, but full recovery is unlikely.
You could also try lightly sanding it with a very fine sandpaper such as this 1200 Grit Wet And Dry Sandpaper to see if gently removing the top layer of damage reveals more solidly coloured material beneath. Again, unfortunately, I can't guarantee full recovery with this method.
Unfortunately, if these methods do not prove successful, you may have to consider either painting your benchtop or replacing it altogether. If painting is the way you'd like to go, then check out How To Paint A Benchtop With Dulux for some guidance. If you'd like to replace the benchtop, then have a look at our range of benchtops to see what you like.
Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Jacob
