Guide on removing adhesive tape glue from wood. The best techniques
How can you remove adhesive tape glue from wood? Many people ask this question. Let’s consider, for example, the many parents who deal with children and teens who put stickers and posters on their bedroom furniture, but then change their taste – or simply grow out of it – and request those “decorations” are eliminated.
Then, it’s important to understand how to remove the adhesive tape from the wood without damaging the surface of the furniture, knowing from the start that removing the tape will be easy, while completely eliminating the glue residue may be more difficult (especially in the case of double-sided adhesive tape which has been stuck in place for a long time).
The same can also happen to someone who has left wooden furniture in storage with adhesive tape blocking doors and drawers, to people who do not immediately remove masking tape after painting surfaces or furniture, to those who leave personalized adhesive tape on the new furniture for too much time, and so on.
Removing adhesive tape from wood is more difficult than removing it from other surfaces, such as steel, glass, or plastic: in this case we are talking about a living, porous, and much more delicate material: just one small mistake could pierce, scratch, or completely ruin this surface.
How can you remove adhesive tape glue from wood? Heat
Here is the first method you can use to remove adhesive tape from wood effectively and rather quickly. Heat, in fact, makes it possible to make tape glue more manageable, more yielding, and therefore more likely to detach from the wooden surface itself.
Fortunately, almost all of us have a tool allowing us to direct hot – or even very hot – air on a surface at home: that tool is, of course, the hair dryer.
Be careful, though. You might think that a hair dryer cannot damage any kind of wooden furniture, but there are actually types of wood which should never be subjected to similar treatment. Such as valuable woods like oak and mahogany, as well as some lacquered kinds of wooden furniture.
Anyone who thinks they might need to deal with this kind of furniture should definitely try using a hair dryer on a hidden part of the furniture (inside or behind it) to check the impact.
How to remove glue from the double-sided tape? You’ll need to turn on the hair dryer, select the hot air option, and place the heat outlet at about ten centimetres from the glue residue.
After a few seconds, keeping the hair dryer on, you can start working with a plastic spatula to lift the tape and to remove the glue residue. For this operation a simple plastic scraper, such as the one employed during the winter season to remove the ice from windshields, can be used: you’ll just need to keep the “blade” of the scraper always resting on the surface completely, without ever working on the corners (which could scratch or carve the wood).
How can you remove adhesive tape glue from wood? Oil
Another method to remove adhesive tape glue from the wood involves the use of a clean cloth, made of cotton or microfiber, or a sponge, and a few drops of oil. It is an ideal technique to “finish” what was already started by the hair dryer, and then to remove the most stubborn industrial double-sided adhesive tape glue residue.
Which oil should you use? Well, in principle any vegetable oil can be employed. So, both olive oil and seed oil are perfectly suitable for this purpose. However, if present in the house, it’s even better to use a few drops of eucalyptus oil – which stands out because of its emollient power – or tea tree oil – which is known for its cleansing power and for the pleasant scent it leaves on the wood.
Just dip the cloth in a few drops of oil – or pour some directly on the surface which needs to be treated – wet all the residue and leave in for a few minutes, then gently scrape the wood with the cloth, and finally do the same with the plastic spatula.
The right spatula to use on wood
We have outlined that to remove strong double-sided tape glue from wood using a plastic spatula can be very useful. There are other options, however. For example, if you don’t have a scraper on hand, you can use an old plastic card, such as an old gym card, an old health insurance card, etc.
If the wood isn’t particularly smooth, it is possible to help yourself with tweezers as well after softening glue, to make the process more thorough and safer. On other surfaces – such as plastic and glass – razor blades can also be used to remove industrial double-sided adhesive glue, but they could easily leave marks on wood: best to avoid!
