Oil-based paint
Cures 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.
In detail
Oil-based and alkyd paints dry in two stages: the solvent evaporates, and then the binder cures by reacting with oxygen into a cross-linked film. That second stage is irreversible, which is why the treatment for a spill depends entirely on how long ago it happened rather than on what it landed on. Wet, it dissolves in white spirit and a great deal comes away. Cured, it is a plastic film that is bonded into the surface texture, and the honest options narrow to mechanical removal or a purpose-made stripper — the strongest of which are built on methylene chloride and belong to a different trade from cleaning. The carpet institute puts oil-based paint and varnish on the solvent branch and gives them the longest sequences in the database: nail polish remover, solvent, detergent, warm water, spot removal kit, ammonia, then a professional. The carpet institute also distinguishes wet from dried latex paint as separate entries, which is the same point made about the water-based family. Whichever the paint, the useful instruction is the same: deal with it now, because the chemistry changes underneath the delay.
What works
White spirit is effective against Oil-based paint Supported
Effective on wet paint. A fully cured film is cross-linked and no longer soluble in it.
Why
- Oil-based paint is explained by Solvents and polymers
- Oil-based paint is explained by Oxidation and bleaching
Sources for this page
Sources
Spot Solver: spot and spill removal procedures
The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That oil-based paint and varnish route through nail polish remover, solvent, detergent, warm water, a spot removal kit and ammonia to a professional, and that wet and dried latex paint are separate entries. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Sprint 5-10: fifteen entries, stain by stain. Sprint 30: enumerated at 296 from the publisher's own sitemap, 134 more read plus 'Unknown'. Sprint 38: 56 more, chosen against stains the catalogue lacked. 192 of 296 read. Supports the claim as stated.
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Stoddard Solvent (RTK 1736)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2008 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That Stoddard solvent, or white spirit, is used to thin paints. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the solvent branch of the stain records a named agent with a regulator behind it, and resolves the British/American naming collision that had kept 'white spirit' out of the catalogue.
Last reviewed by a person on .