The Best Way to Get Stains Out of a Microfiber Couch

Apply a little heavy-duty liquid laundry detergent, full strength, directly onto the stain with a soft sponge. Rub the stain with hot water, using as little water as you can to work in the detergent without soaking the couch. Repeat this treatment, as necessary, until the stain is gone.

Upholstery

1. Scrape off excess oil.
2. Sprinkle baking soda, cornstarch, or other absorbent on the stain. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes, and then vacuum.
3. Using a clean white cloth, sponge the stain with a dry-cleaning solvent.
4. Blot until the solvent is absorbed.
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until the stain disappears.

1. Fill a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol and spray it directly on the stains and armrests, which can get particularly dirty.
2. Blot and rub the spots with a white cloth until the stains are gone.

Mineral spirits, sometimes called paint thinner is a solvent that can be used to safely clean just about all types of wooden furniture. The way to use it is to take a piece of soft cloth, fold it into a pad like this, pour some mineral spirits on it.

Paint thinners can be used to remove oil-based paints and clean various things but unlike mineral spirits, they can’t be mixed with painting mediums. It’s best to use them on paints and varnishes that dry quickly. The use of paint thinners is best on wood, metal, and concrete.

How Do I Dispose of Mineral Spirits?

1. Find your nearest hazardous-waste recycler.
2. Put your used mineral spirits in a plastic bag or stable box to transport them to the hazardous-waste collection site.
3. Drop them off at your local hazardous-waste collection site.

Turpentine has more solvency than mineral spirits. Most painters prefer it as a paint thinner because it costs less, is not so sticky and has a less offensive odor than turpentine. Still, mineral spirits do have an odor that some people may find unpleasant. They may prefer to use odorless paint thinner.

Mineral spirits are derived from crude sources like petroleum. On the other hand, turpentine comes from trees. Resins are collected from live pine trees that go through the process of steam distillation. Because of this, turpentine is friendlier for the environment than mineral spirits.

For example, did you know that turpentine can be absorbed directly through unbroken skin, whereas mineral spirits and odorless mineral spirits cannot? Therefore, even incidental contact with turpentine in a well-ventilated area puts you at significant risk for internal damage.

Differences: Turpentine accelerates the drying time faster than most paint thinners or mineral spirits among other things because it accelerates the polymerization of the oil film since it incorporates oxygen into the mix oxidizing the paint layer from the inside out .

The basic difference between a thinner and turpentine is that the thinner is a liquid mostly used for thinning the consistency of another liquid while turpentine is a kind of volatile essential oil (extracted from the pine trees wood by steam distillation) used as a solvent and paint thinner.

Some solvents that go by different names can still seem like the same product. Acetone has been used to thin paint for countless years, and paint thinner has been used to thin substances besides paint. …

Exposure at high levels could cause tachycardia, unconsciousness, respiratory failure and death. A harmful contamination of the air will be reached rather slowly on evaporation of this substance at 20°C.

* Turpentine can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, confusion and rapid pulse. * Breathing Turpentine can irritate the lungs causing coughing and/or shortness of breath. Higher exposures can cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), a medical emergency, with severe shortness of breath.

False. Turpentine is TOXIC, and -can- kill you. Even short term exposure can have really bad effects, such as asphyxiation.

Mineral spirits or acetone are acceptable thinners that can be used as an alternative to traditional ones like turpentine. Both of these common household products can be used to thin oil-based paint. You can purchase either at your local hardware store or home center.