Monday 10 February 2014

Living & Furniture: How To Remove Tape Residue?

Tape Residue... a tough enemy?
Image from Locky's English Playground
You know what the Chinese usually do after Chinese New Year other than counting their earn and loss of their red pockets? Most people would have not guessed this, and the answer is taking down their decorations. For my case, my wooden door.

Though there are amazing adhesives out there like 3M's, people like me go for (much) cheaper options. As a result, we have work to do when we take the decorations down.

And what do we get? Tape residues, a real tough enemy.

A scraper
Image from Locky's English Playground
We all know a scraper is a must, but with just the scraper you will end up with a very scratched door. You need something that dissolves the tape residue and offers some sort of lubrication.

After a little research, I found I have one at home.

WD-40
Image from Locky's English Playground

 Yes!  A can of WD-40 (Priced HD$42 at Japan Home).

Wet tape residue with WD-40
Image from Locky's English Playground
 The steps are simple, spray an adequate amount of WD-40 onto the tape residue.

Scrape sideway if residue short
Image from Locky's English Playground
Then scrape residue sideway if it is short enough. As you scrape, you kind of get the feeling whether there is enough of WD-40 on it so you are not scraping the protective layer on your door. The perfect situation is when you do not feel the door being scraped, but you feel the tape is smooth and it is coming off as you move the scraper along.

Scrape bottom-up if residue is long
Image from Locky's English Playground
If the tape residue is long, I recommend you try scraping it from bottom-up. That is because the WD-40 applied will most likely be running down the door, scraping the residue bottom-up allows you to bring the solvent back up to the tape as scraping continues, allowing you to recycle the liquid.


Residue removed
Image from Locky's English Playground
It would be advisable to scrape the same location several times until all the tape residues have been removed.

Clean as new
Image from Locky's English Playground
Once that's done, your door will look brand new again! Or maybe better, because now that your door has got a new layer of polish with the WD-40.

I bet both you and your door will be glad!

For more practical use of WD-40, check out the link "List of 2000+ Uses" of WD-40 below!


Vocabulary:
scraper -- (n)[C] see photo above.


Resources:
LIST OF 2000 + USES
http://wd40.com/files/pdf/wd-40_2042538679.pdf