We are moving into a home that has old hardwood floors. Due to time constraints and budget we will not be able to sand and re-varnish the floors. I am looking for any floor cleaning products that will work will to clean and shine the floor. Floor has paint stains and and looks dingy. Any suggestions would help.
Thank you everyone for the great advice.
Goof off worked great to remove paint stains and Murphy Oil Soap helped with cleaning and shining. Of course it will take a few more cleanings to look even better but the floor looks so much cleaner now. Actually the rest of the house is looking great. The painting is all done and my husband also clean the carpets. We will be moving in this weekend.
Thanks again!!!
My sister just taught me about rejuvinate. We went to the home depot together and got it. You clean them first with pledge for floors and then rub the rejuvinate in with a cloth. It really did wonders for my sad looking hardwood floors! I am in the same situation as you...no extra cash to get them redone right now :( Hope it works for you!!
I used the Restore 4 wood cleaning and polishing products. Even though the results only lasted for a couple of weeks, my floors looked GREAT! I ordered it online. I don't know if they sell the wood floor product alone, but I wish it had (mine came with tile&grout cleaner, fabric cleaner and glass cleaner). Good products, but I really only used the wood floor product.
We use Bruce Hardwood and Laminate Floor Cleaner. You can get it at Home Depot ( I haven't found it anywhere else), it is in a green bottle. I like it alot, it makes the floors so shiney. You also should buy the special mop w/ terry cloth mop heads to use with it. After you buy the first mop and mop head, you won't have to get others. You can just machine wash the dirty mop heads and use them over and over. You just spray the floor and rub the mop over the area. (The mop kind of looks like the Swiffer mop, only a bit bigger)
For every day cleaning, we use Murphy's Oil Soap.
Hope this helps.
Maybe this is old fashioned, but I love plain old vinegar and water. Use HOT HOT water and dry with a towel immediately. Shines great!
I swear by a product called Quick Shine by Halloway House - used to only be able to get it at WalMart but now it's in my ShopRite - a professional cleaning lady told me about it - I vacuum and damp mop the flow first then shine with this product - you can use multiple coats - I know it sounds like alot of work - but the shine lasts at least a month. I just damp mop between applications.
We had the same problem in our old house. The first thing I did was use Murphy's Oil Soap which you can buy anywhere. Then I would use Orange Clean Floor Oil every other week to restore some of the luster. THe only thing with the orange oil is you have to put it on, and then wipe it off, so it takes some time. The floors turned out beautiful after some TLC. Good luck!
If you've already cleaned the floors, good old fashioned floor wax will give them a nice shine and protective coating - it lasts much longer than the other polishes and cleaning products. One word of caution is that it does make them shiny, so also a bit slippery. I wouldn't recommend it for the stairs or other areas where you're concerned about the kids falling. I've used one by SC Johnson, but there may be others. Just check out your local home center.
The Steam Shark got 4 out of 4 stars on a recent news update, so we bought one for our hardwood and tile floors - LOVE IT! It does a great job. You'll also find great cleaners in the book "Clean House Clean Planet". I would not recommend any floor waxes because they just attract and hold onto the dirt, causing more work.
We too moved into a house with wood floors. The need to be refinished but we are waiting until the kids get older. I have really been pleased with the Orange Glo product. Best of luck!
Hi Jeanette,
For the paint stains, get a product called "Goof off" -- it took off all the sloppy paint stains left on our hardwood floors by the previous owners.
I use Murphy's Oil Soap as well for cleaning - gets the job done, but nothing special.
Good luck!
M.
I use the Halloway House Quick Shine. It is the only one I found that puts a shine on my need redone hardwood floors. You can get it at Walmart.
Hi Jeanette,
I guess you could try Murphy's Oil Soap. That's always a safe bet for wood. My mom swears by a certain cleaner--I will get the name from her and email it to you soon!
Denise
Murphy's Oil Soap for old hardwood floors. You can get at Target, Wal-Mart, etc... A. D
I use the swiffer wet jet (requires batteries) which has a hardwood floor formula. It's really easy because you press the button to dispense the cleaner, then mop. No hands and knees!
I agree with Katie S., vinegar and water pulls all of the oils off of the wood safely. You'd be surprised how much oil gets on the sloor just from the bottoms of your feet and then attract dirt and grime.
