Q: We had taped (using green painters tape) Ram Board down onto oiled hardwood floors to do some drywall repairs. One area was taped down for 5 days and the one section for 3 hours. It didn’t matter 3 hours or 5 days, when we pulled the tape off it pulled a slight finish off the hardwood. so now there’s a faint whitish line where the tape was. And it’s not tape residue on the hardwood. The hardwood is White Oak, Smokey Mountain, the oil is Woca Oil.
So the question is how can I repair this floor? Redoing the entire floor is out of the question as there’s about 1500 square feet.
A: They have both a soap and an intensive wood cleaner meant to be used with their finish. I would probably use one of those but contact them first. You could dampen a cloth with some mineral spirits and wipe a very tiny spot to see what reaction you get. You say it isn’t tape residue but to me, it sounds like that is what it is.
Follow-up Q: No its not residue from the tape on the floor. I saw the floor residue on the tape when we took it off. There is only the faded area where the tape was. See attached
A: I don’t think the tape should have done that. Not even the more aggressive green as opposed to the blue. If memory serves me, you should have about 14 days for a clean release of the tape and adhesive. That would seem to indicate a floor finish issue. Years ago I did a test on a stained and finished oak board with various types of tape. Green tape. Masking tape. Gorilla tape and a couple of others. There were complaints on a flooring forum of painters tape pulling off their water born finish. My board had two coats of solvent based polyurethane. I pressed them all down hard. After 5 days I removed them. No finish was removed and no adhesive residue was left by any of them, just as I expected. Is this floor factory finished? I think I would be talking to the manufacturer or contact the outfit who makes or sells the oil finish.