The most common repair we are asked about turns out, four times out of five, not to be a repair at all. A surface that looks scratched is usually a surface with something on it, and the fastest way to create real damage is to attack residue with an abrasive.
Diagnose before you polish. Half of what looks like a scratch will wipe off with warm water.
Step One: Work Out What You Are Looking At
Wet a finger and run it across the mark, then look again while the surface is damp.
- The mark disappears while wet and returns when dry — it is a scratch or an abraded area. Real, and treatable.
- The mark stays visible when wet — it is usually residue, deposit or a stain sitting on top. Cleaning, not polishing.
- A cloudy patch over a wide area — almost always build-up from a cleaning product, not damage to the resin.
- A white or pale mark under the surface — heat. This one is different, and is covered below.
Haze and Cloudiness
The usual cause is a cleaning product that leaves a film: anything with wax, silicone, “polish” in the name, or a general-purpose spray with surfactants. Each application leaves a layer, and after a few months the surface stops reflecting cleanly.
The fix is not polishing. Wash the surface with warm water and a drop of pH-neutral washing-up liquid, using a soft microfibre cloth, then dry immediately with a second dry cloth. Repeat twice if needed. In most cases the gloss returns entirely, and the correct routine from then on is in How to Care for an Epoxy Resin Table.
Light Scratches
Fine surface scratches — the kind that catch evening light at one particular angle — can be removed at home. This works because the resin is solid through its depth rather than a coating, so removing a few microns changes nothing structurally.
- Clean and dry the area completely. Any grit left on the surface becomes an abrasive.
- Apply a small amount of plastic or acrylic polishing compound to a soft cloth. Automotive scratch removers for clear coat work; abrasive household cream cleaners do not.
- Work in small circles with light pressure for thirty to sixty seconds. Do not press.
- Wipe clean, dry, and inspect at a low angle before deciding whether to repeat.
- Blend outward past the edges of the treated area so there is no visible boundary.
Test on the underside first. Every surface has a slightly different finish level, and the underside tells you how the compound behaves before you learn it on the visible face.
Water Rings
On a properly cured and sealed surface, a genuine water ring is rare — the material is non-porous, so what looks like a ring is normally mineral deposit from evaporated hard water. It responds to the cleaning routine above.
If a pale ring truly is in the surface, it is almost always heat rather than water: a warm mug left for hours on a thin section. Treat it as a heat mark.
Heat Marks
This is the one honest limitation. A pale, cloudy patch that does not respond to cleaning or light polishing is a change in the resin itself, caused by sustained heat. Home polishing will not reach it, because the affected material sits below the surface.
Heat marks need machine sanding through progressive grits followed by re-polishing — a workshop job, not a kitchen one. It is entirely repairable, which is the advantage over laminate, but it is not a Saturday afternoon. Avoiding it costs nothing: a trivet, always, for anything that came off a hob or out of an oven. The full picture is in Are Epoxy Resin Tables Durable?
What Never to Use
- Acetone, nail polish remover, white spirit — these attack the resin directly and the damage is immediate and permanent.
- Bleach or alkaline degreasers — dull the surface over time.
- Scouring pads, melamine sponges, cream cleaners — all abrasive. A melamine sponge will strip a gloss surface to matte in one pass.
- Furniture wax or silicone polish — the cause of the haze in the first place.
When to Call the Workshop
Four situations: a heat mark, a deep scratch you can catch with a fingernail, a chip at an edge, or a hairline at the wood-to-resin joint. All are repairable and none is a home job — the last one is worth reporting early, because it indicates something about how the piece was made rather than how it has been used.
A surface like Phantom Marble or Silent River can be re-levelled and re-polished to its original state decades from now. That is the practical argument for solid material over a film finish.
Quick Answers
How do I remove scratches from an epoxy resin table?
Clean and dry the area, then work a plastic polishing compound in with a soft cloth using light pressure. Test on the underside first. Deep scratches need a workshop.
Why has my resin table gone cloudy?
Almost always product build-up from waxes, silicone polishes or all-purpose sprays. Wash with warm water and a drop of pH-neutral detergent, then dry immediately.
Can heat marks be removed?
Not at home. They sit below the surface and need machine sanding and re-polishing. They are fully repairable in a workshop.
Can I use acetone on a resin table?
No. Acetone and similar solvents attack cured epoxy immediately and the damage cannot be reversed by cleaning.