There are many methods to clean the different types of wood to retreat to a new condition. However, this general guideline covers only some applications and ideas for anyone who would like to DIY.

How to clean & retreat the wood product

It depends on the type of damage on the wood or the level of treatment that you would like to apply to bring it back to life. Generally speaking, if the wood is full of scratches, it needs to be fine sanding down to a smooth surface. Sometimes, if just a few marks or light scratches, we can use fine steel wool to rub on the areas lightly. It can remove most dirt and marks on the wood surface without damaging the existing coating. 

After the detailing for removing the dirt and scratches on the wood. Because the shine is gone. We need to apply a coating on the wood surface to bring back the shine. It is based on the existing coating that the timber has. If it is an oil-based coating, you need to find the exact oil that can be applied on the timber with another coating on top, and this requires some good experience or skill. On the other hand if it is water-based coating, you need to apply the water base coating on it.

For any coating that is applied to the timber/wood surface, you need to make sure the wood surface is clean. We can use a moist paper towel to wipe down the surface. Once it is dry, we can apply the coating.

If you designed to sand down the raw surface of the wood. We also can use linseed oil as an application which penetrates inside the wood grain and waits for 24 hours. This is the easiest way to provide minimum protection for wood products. However, the level of protection to wood surface is not as good as the using oil or varnish coating.

There are many guides and applications on how to retreat the wood. this is a very general guide, and it may not apply to all applications.

Daily maintenance for wood

Most wood product requires very minimum maintenance. If you keep the wood product clean with any spray cleaning solution, it generally works fine without any issue. However, there are some special chemicals available on the market. If there is some strong grime on the wood, we can also use a homemade solution, a mixture of vinegar, dish soap, and water, for this application.