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Wax-stained Bath stone fireplace

15 years ago

My wife left a large wax candle on a Bath Stone ledge adjacent to the fireplace, which melted and run down/flowed along the ledge, staining it a dark shade. All the 'lumps' have been scraped off, but I need to address the stained area, where the wax has been absorbed into the stone surface. Can anyone suggest a product and/or process which will help?

....or a divorce lawyer?

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Comments (4)

ron6519
15 years ago
Which is easier to replace, the stone or the little woman?
They do have dripless candles.
I don't know of a process that will extricate wax from stone.
Ron
User
15 years ago
My understanding is that Bath Stone is a Limestone mined in Bath England.

One cheap and it wont hurt to try option.

Take some baking soda and mix it with a small amount of water to make a thick paste (a poultice) and spread it thick on a test section on the level section of the ledge. I would just try a quarter size dot in the middle of a dark section.

Candles have oil in them, as the poultice drys it will pull the oils out. Leave it alone for a day to ensure it is dry all the way. When it is fully dry, brush it off. Is the stone lighter in that spot than the surrounding area? If so, do it all over the stain, you might need to repeat a number of times and it might never be the same but it might help.

Another option after trying that. Wet the stone next to the stain. Does that help to blend in the wax stain? If so, buy a bottle of mineral oil from the pharmacy and rub that into the stone. That is how you maintain stone kitchen counters.
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Looks like a natural variation in the stone to me too. When we purchased the granite for our kitchen, we went down after they had the template laid out on the slab so we could approve it. They worked with us to move it around to the extent it was possible to get the parts of the slab we wanted to feature and try to avoid parts we didn't like as much. Did they give you that option? You might see if to get them to cut another top from your leftover if they didn't, but I'd be surprised if they would without additional cost to you. When we purchased our bathroom stone, we did not go and approve the layout because there really weren't going to be any options. There was basically only one way to do it and get everything from one slab. One of the vanity tops has some areas where I notice some darker spots. In a perfect world, we would have worked around those areas but since that would have meant buying a second slab, I am going to accept it for what it is - a natural product with variations.
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dlseek
15 years ago
What if you took a terry-cloth wash cloth and laid it over the waxed area and held a clothes iron on it?

Would the wax/oil liquefy enough to get wicked into the cloth towel?

I have successfully gotten wax out of carpet this way.
mal5898
15 years ago
Hi everyone..Easy thing to try with candle wax is to spread some dry powdered cement over the stained area. Then take a heat gun or hair drier and warm the area to melt the wax residue. It will flow thru capillary action towards the dry cement and be absorbed. You may have to do this several times. Just lightly wire brush the area after vacuuming the powder residue...it should look much better. Good luck, Mark in Buffalo

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