Tar covered floor to dream kitchen!
This is the story of how I used WD 40 to dissolve the tar covering the original hardwood in my 1947 home.
Step 1: Deciding to remove laminate flooring
In September 2025 I bought my first house, a 1947 bungalow. Most of the house had damaged but beautiful original hardwood floors. But the kitchen had ugly, warping, laminate. The kitchen floor was higher than the rest of the floors, so I decided to see if the hardwood flooring extended into the kitchen. It did! But it was covered in a layer of thick tar.
Step 2: Trying to dissolve the tar
Before ripping up all the laminate, I tried everything I could think of to remove the tar. Soap and scrubbing did nothing (it was a long shot but I tried it anyway), acetone and varsol, just seemed to make the tar harder and drier. The only thing that took up the tar was 36 grit sand paper on my belt sander. But it was slow, with the tar clogging up the sand paper every few seconds and having to be brushed off with a wire brush. I needed to figure out how to dissolve the tar. After some searching online, I saw someone recommend WD 40. It seemed unconventional, but I had a can in the basement and was willing to try pretty much anything.
Step 3: And it worked!
After spraying the WD 40 on a small spot and letting it sit for a few minutes, the tar was liquid and able to be wiped off. So I got a gallon and got to work!
Step 4: Making progress
It was slow going, but one section at a time I soaked the tarred floor with WD 40, let it sit a few minutes, and wiped it off. And kept wiping until the tar and WD 40 were mostly removed.
Step 5: Sanding
Once I started sanding, the floor started to show its potential. The grain on 78 year old wood slowly began to show itself, hidden below a layer of sticky tar for who knows how long.
Step 6: Sanding done!
Many days later, I had finally removed all of the tar, and sanded down the floor. At this point I took a little break to paint the cupboards and replace the countertop, backsplash and sink.
Step 7: Dream kitchen!
And then it was time to finish the floor! After weeks of hard work, I finally got to enjoy my beautiful kitchen. It was the first time I had done anything like this on my own, and I am very proud of what I accomplished. I love my new kitchen, and I was helped in a huge way by WD 40, dissolving tar to expose the hardwood underneath.