Wood Floor Cleaner

[Quin McCoy]

I am looking for recommendations for a hardwood floor cleaner (homade or storebought). I have tried vinegar and water and it still leaves streaks. This is regular oak 3/4" flooring not prefinished. which semigloss poly finish.

Thanks in advance.

[Phisherman]

I have not had this problem and your choice of cleaner is a good one. You could try using household ammonia (1/2 c.) in a bucket of warm water, then clean again using the vinegar-water solution. This combination should remove grease and dirt. Clean a small section at a time. Unless you have pets/children, once every two months should be enough, using a daily dust mop between cleanings.

[Donna in Texas]

This is such good advice. Too much mopping is not good for hardwood floors. And if you use an additive to help the cleaning process, be sure not to make it too strong.

Some people just mop with clear water, but I can't speak for that.

My cleaning lady uses something that is store-bought. I'll have to find out what it is.

Also with your hardwood floors really watch that you don't get water or liquor spilled on the floors. If your floors are not polyurethane, then you might get spots in the similar way that you get spots on your furniture with water drops or rings.

This is OT, but many of us oldsters probably remember when it was just the thing to do (created by carpet sellers, no doubt) to cover the beautiful hardwood floors with carpet. Hardwood was seen as "old fashioned" and touted as hard to keep clean. :-) Supposedly the carpet would be better, but that carpet brought extra airborne chemicals into the house and was a terrible catcher of dust, however often it was vacuumed. And of course there are the stains that can't be removed. (And of course then you need to buy more carpet. What good consumers we are.)

And those old houses of the 40s and 50s had the real hardwood---thick and really durable, not like the hardwood floors that I have in my "modern" house. Now durability is a problem in our modern world. But Madison Avenue wanted to sell us carpet, so we bought it, even though the hardwood floors were perfectly good, and with a refinishing every thirty years, would last a lifetime.

Then we went through a period when wood parquet was just "the thing" to have in part of your house---used in combination with carpet, often in the entryways.

And the kitchen and bathroom.........In the 50s and before we had linoleum, which had to be waxed on your hands and needs with the old paste wax (and then buffed)every few months. And many women actually mopped every day in the kitchen, but not with anything caustic so as not to wear off the wax. (My mother used to say that her kitchen floor was clean enough to "eat off of." Then along came liquid wax, which was an improvement, since it didn't need buffing.

Then vinyl flooring was developed but had to be waxed. Then some angel from Heaven developed a vinyl flooring that had a shine that (for a while at least) did not have to be waxed. Then the true non-wax vinyl was developed which pretty much didn't need to be waxed. By that time so many of us were working outside the home, and that was terrific. ***And you could really get it clean.***

We even went through a period when indoor/outdoor carpet was used in the kitchen. However you vacuumed, you never got it really clean.

Now, when the "house makeover" people on television enter the target house, they immediately turn up their noses at the vinyl floors. It's just not fashionable. You must have tile, and it must not be the old-fashioned small tile (1 foot square) that was just in fashion about three years ago-----it must be the new 18-inch (or so) tile.

When we went to pick out new kitchen flooring, there weren't even more than

6 or 7 samples of vinyl in the store.

The kitchen tiling was touted as the be all and end all of kitchen and bathroom flooring. It would last forever, they said. (But they do leave extra tiles in case the original ones get broken :-) It the tiling, they said, would just be a snap to keep clean. They absolutely did not recommend sealant.

Now I see constant questions on television and in magazines saying that their tile is grungy----how on earth on are they going to get it clean???? We've figured out that the grouting is porous, and maybe some tile is, too. Surprise, surprise.

And so it goes.

Some comments::::::: vinyl is less expensive than tiling----no wonder they did the Madison-Avenue sale on tiling. When it's all the rage in the magazines and on the television, you can bet that America will pull up that vinyl and put down the expensive tile (or dirt floors, or whatever the product of the moment is).

Now.....the thing about the carpeted bathrooms..........carpet is faster to put down than vinyl (and much easier to take up when it gets dirty and you have to change it) and probably less expensive than the really good quality vinyl that homeowners were used to. You can put down cheap carpet and it will look great long enough for the buyers to make an offer. No wonder the homebuilders were pushing it.

And of course, we went through the shag carpet, plush carpet phases. For a while a couple of years ago shag carpet was making a comeback. But those of us old enough to remember shag had "been there -- done that" and knew better than to buy it again.

The pendulum always swings----- Sometimes there are true advancements, but more and more these days the changes in home decor are "just somethin' to sell," as my dad used to say.

But I do truly digress......

Warmest Regards,

Donna

[beans]

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Agreed:) such is life. I just noticed the pendulum going the other way on those HGTV shows too. Pull up the carpet. aloha, Beans --smithfarms.com farmers of pure kona roast beans to kona to email

[IgotKG]

Hi, my name is Jason. Sorry to jump into this conversation, but I also have a question regarding hardwood floors. I am currently renting an apartment, and my place's floors are hardwood. I love them. I try to keep them in good shape. I run my Scooba across them once every week to keep them washed; however, they appear to be a bit dull. The floors were not redone when I moved in and they were dull when I moved in. I remember seeing something that claimed to put some shine/gloss into older hardwood floors. Does anyone know of such a product? Don't get my wrong, my Scooba is great but it doesn't provide the shine of a high gloss. Just wondering if there is anything I can use maybe once every six months to keep my floors from looking so dull.

[Phisherman]

Johnson's Paste wax

[Debra Keith]

"Quin McCoy" wrote in news:QrmdneopYofkUkTZnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

whatever product you use... the MOP is the most important part of the floor cleaning equation.

i have a PILE of pergo and the ONLY thing that doesn't streak is the microfiber mop. it cleans very nicely with the minimum amount of water... i use a tiny bit of fabuloso, hot water and this mop...

it costs about $16 at walmart.

[Debra Keith]

"Donna in Texas" wrote in news:SOmdnbep7v0Po0fZnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

so TRUE! no kidding!!

flooring is the biggest pain in my butt. i have come to decide that the BEST possible flooring is concrete. they can make it look like anything... seal it... and you never worry about trapped dirt, grout lines or scratching the wood surface!!

my next house will have stamped concrete floors with a MEGA-gloss finish. the every room will have a center drain. i will use a HIGH-PRESSURE washer and a big squeegee...

think slaughter-house useful... HGTV sytle-ish. ;)

[Debra Keith]

Debra Keith wrote in news:Xns981B5695D384Espamspamcom@70.168.83.30:

i forgot to include the link...

[Donald]

It has been my experience that commercial hardwood polishers do an OK job but are not long-lasting. If your floors are dull it sounds like anything will work at this point regarding polishers.

I think paste wax is quite good. Someone mentioned a mop and it being the most important part of the job. When waxing hardwood floors, do people use mops? What about hands, knees and elbow grease!!!!

BTW, what the hell is a Scooba?

Donald

[IgotKG]

I have been hearing a bunch about the mop micro but I will tell you nothing beats my Scooba since no "elbow grease" is required. The Scooba does the work for me. Just push "power" and there he goes, minutes later I have a clean floor. My problem is that mopping/cleaning the floor is different than polishing. I will look into wax paste and report back. As far as concrete floors go, forget about it, nothing beats hardwood. Oh, Donald before I forget a Scooba is a robotic mopper, oh forget it, go here:

[rosebud]

What odd quirk of fate caused IgotKG to generate the following ::

The best thing I've used on hardwood are Bonakemi products. The hardwood floor cleaner is great and the "Refresher" brings back shine.

[IgotKG]

Not sure what you mean by odd quirk of fate, but thanks for the cleaner and shine reference. I have a feeling I will be trying all products out there until I am completely satisfied.

rosebud wrote:

[Quin McCoy]

Thanks for all the good replys. Yes I have dogs and one drinks about as much as he drips. These are the traditional 3/4 oak finished in poly (multiple coats per my instructions). The micro mop did catch my eye from an earlier post and I will try the Bonakemi products.

mopping/cleaning