Solvents, and what they dissolve
The regulator's list of what a solvent dissolves is also the list of what it damages. Nobody prints them side by side.
What this area turns on
The acetone fact sheet names fats, oils, waxes, resins, PLASTICS and varnishes as what it dissolves, and then states separately that it attacks plastics. White spirit's sheet does the same thing in one line — it attacks plastic, rubber and coatings — while listing dry cleaning and degreasing as its uses. Reading those two lists as one is the whole skill: whatever a solvent is good at removing, it is equally good at removing from a finish made of the same class of material.
Assessed and found wanting
Widely repeated techniques in this area that the evidence does not support, or supports only in part.
Following bleach with an alcohol sanitiser
Does not workDoing both to be thorough is the reasoning, and the two react. Hypochlorite with alcohols forms chloroform.
You will smell it if the fumes are dangerous
Does not workTwo regulator fact sheets carry the same explicit warning against exactly this assumption, and the gas people worry about most smells pleasant.
Its health rating is 1 and its flammability rating is 3. The hazard people underrate is the one the regulator rates highest.
The records
Acetone
Cleaning agentThe solvent in nail polish remover. The same fact sheet that lists it as a solvent for plastics also warns, in three words, that it attacks them.
White spirit
Cleaning agentThe petroleum solvent the leather and carpet trades name for oil marks. One substance under three names, and it attacks plastic, rubber and coatings.
Isopropyl alcohol
Cleaning agentA solvent that dissolves oils and residues and evaporates without a trace. Useful on electronics and glass; flammable, and damaging to some plastics and finishes.
Solvent treatment
MethodThe branch that starts before water rather than after it — and it carries a warning the aqueous branch does not.
Solubility and polarity
ScienceLike dissolves like. Three words that predict which branch a stain belongs to before anything has been tried.
Solvents and polymers
ScienceA solvent cannot tell a soil from a surface made of similar stuff. Most modern surfaces are polymers, which is what makes this the commonest way to ruin one.
Solvent crazing
ScienceA network of fine cracks that appears in plastic days after a solvent touched it. The surface looked fine at the time, which is what makes it dangerous.
Candle wax
Stain or problemA solid at room temperature that behaves as a grease when melted. The carpet trade's four wax entries name a solvent and a professional — and no heat method at all.
Nail varnish
Stain or problemA pigmented lacquer that dries to a hard film. The solvent that removes it is the strongest one most households own, and it attacks plastics.
Oil-based paint
Stain or problemCures by oxidation into a film that no water-based treatment touches. Wet or dry is the whole question, and the window is a few hours.
Tree sap
Stain or problemA resin that hardens on exposure and bonds tightly to what it lands on. Left on paintwork in sun, it etches rather than merely sticking.
Glue and adhesive
Stain or problemA polymer that set where it landed. Solvent-first — and the solvent that dissolves it also dissolves the carpet's backing adhesive.
Nail polish remover to lift a stubborn mark
Claim or techniqueIt lifts marker, adhesive and lacquer better than anything else in the house, and the regulator's sheet lists plastics among the things it dissolves.