LESLIE: We’re going to talk to Tom in South Carolina who’s dealing with a stain on a bathroom floor. Tell us about it.
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, I enjoy your show very much. I have a couple of four-foot long stains on my linoleum floor in my bathroom.
TOM: OK.
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: I have no idea where they came from. They were there when I purchased the house. I’ve tried Comet, I’ve tried bleach, C-L-R and I’ve even tried Whink, which is great for staining – rust stains. Nothing seems to remove them.
TOM: And they’re all in the bathroom?
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Right. They’re – it’s almost like they had a …
LESLIE: A square rug shape?
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: It’s like two long lines; like they had a cabinet but it’s in the middle of the floor. It looks like something rusted there.
TOM: Do you think that there may have been some bath mats or something of that nature; some throw-down carpets or something?
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: That’s a possibility. I have no idea.
TOM: Because what’s I’m thinking, Tom, is a lot of times people put rubber-backed mats down against linoleum or vinyl and you get a chemical reaction between the rubber.
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Aha.
TOM: It’s an oxidation. And what it does, it’ll discolor that floor. And so it’s not …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, it’s not actually a stain.
TOM: Yeah, it’s not so much a stain as much as it’s a complete change of the color; and so, therefore, it’s not something you can get out. In that case, you either have to replace it – now, fortunately, bathrooms being small, you could probably pick up a small remnant of vinyl and put it down on top of that or just go ahead and do the same thing they did.
LESLIE: Put another mat on top.
TOM: Yeah, exactly.
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: (chuckles) Well, that’s the problem. The bathroom is quite large and I hated to rip up all the linoleum just for, you know, a 2×4 area.
TOM: Yeah.
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: And I was hoping that it was – but that makes sense that somebody had a mat there.
TOM: Yep.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and 2×4 is a standard bathroom mat size.
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Right, right.
TOM: Exactly. I bet you that’s what happened.
TOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Yes.
LESLIE: Mystery solved.
TOM: Alright, Tom. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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