What's the best way to inexpensively clean and polish old hardwood floors?

Question

I'm about to move into a house I inherited that's sixty years old. It's got nice hardwood floors throughout. Three of the rooms have had carpet over them for over forty years, and I've never even seen them uncovered, but I plan to take up the carpet. The hardwoods have been exposed throughout the rest of the house, and kept swept and dry mopped, but nothing more. I'm having some laborers give the house a little cosmetic treatment (painting, fixtures, flooring) here and there before I move in, but I'm on a tight budget. What could I do to the floors just for now short of fully refinishing them to their original lustre? I just want them very clean and not dry looking.

Answer 1

the only thing I know you can do is just find some type of wax and just wax them. unless you sand the finish off the floors nothing you put on them will stick. it being a 60 year old house I'm sure they used wax. No type of Poly will stick to it. even if you get a wax stripper and try to stirp them wax will still be in the cracks and the poly will seperate and leave dry spots. I've tried all sort of methods to just recoat and none have worked well. when i refinish floors I always recomend just cleaning with just a damp mop and get a floorcleaner for harwood and only apply it about once a year. that way you will always be able to just recoat unless you have some very deep scraches. Flooring contractor

Answer 2

With some "elbow grease", some Murphys Oil Soap and a small buffer the floors will definitely clean up. To BUFF whatever original remains there are all manner of OLD and NEW technologies, and it's likely you should determine somehow, what the ORIGINAL was. 60 years old isn't an OLD house by the way...smile.

I'm not a big fan of altering OLD strictly, and think you should keep the amibience of the original, NOW hard to find, REAL older Hardwoods. I'm also not strictly a fan of Poly, but use it certainly. The "sanding" will be messy, even if professionally done, but what you want to achieve aesthetically should be explored.

Since you don't exactly describe the condition of the flooring, or that you even know what the original luster is/was, and without knowing the substance of any surface agents once used, or how often they may have been applied, I'd go with the cleaning first, then some quality sealer/shine agent. That allows you to at least gauge what the floors can be restored to without a huge investment in time and money. You can always do over.

Steven Wolf

Answer 3

Try cleaning with white vinegar and water use a sponge and get down on your hands and knees to clean, keep sponge damp but not soaked, a regular mop will leave too much water on the floor. If the floors were refinished several years ago you should be able to use Orange Glo for hardwood floors, this should put a decent shine on them, I've personally never had any luck with Murphys oil soap it leaves a residue that is tacky. If the above cleaning don't improve the looks of the floor it may be time to sand and refinish.

Answer 4

My friend's house's hardwood floors looked in a pathetic state with some scratches so i got to work and i was kinda suprised myself. its so easy.

If your hardwood floor has scratches first you need a timber satin stain paint. The people who work in the hardware stores will be a great help to locate it. So now after you've painted it, you'll find that there are no scratches and all of them looks the same colour.

Now buy a Clear paint and paint it over the previous stain paint (after the stain paint has dried). It will look quite spectacular. Those paints are not expensive.

Answer 5

My husband purchased this at Walmart. It's called "Orange Glo Hardwood Floor Care System" kit. It was between ten and twenty dollars. It made our old floors look as though they had a new coat of finish on them. Well worth the money!

Answer 6

Just cleaning and resealing the floors are not going to help you out much, its just going to look cleaner but still old. The best thing for you to do is go to Lowes or Home Depot and rent a floor sander. Sand all your floors down and clean them really well. Then you can put down a couple new coats of polyurethane. It will make your floors look brand new and add property value to your house.

Answer 7

I am not sure if they still make this product but there used to be a product called indian sand or indian wax that had minute abrasive particles in a wax base that was used to buff and rub-out the floor much like rubbing compound for your car. May still be available at a full service hardware store.