w1613s

Approaching 3,000 sq. feet of red oak floors with multiple layers of urethane coating, 2 really furry cats who love disseminating cat litter and fur balls everywhere, one husband who likes to work in the yard (powdery sand plus lots of organics) and two messy children who, though now out on their own, still leave their marks.

I have been taking care of the above footage since 1973. Wet mop it with a 1 to 1 combination of water, clear ammonia, and rubbing alcohol. That covers all the issues and, darn, does it work well. Everything sparkles and it hasn't poisoned anyone yet.

Please note that the concoction is good for cleaning just about everything.

;-) P

Wintersewer

How does it smell?? What do you apply it with?

Kathryn Garcia

NORWEX cleaning tools.....a mop and a cloth and water!!! I clean my whole house using just WATER and their speciality mops and cloths. I can clean my windows, mirrors, fixtures, car windows with just a NORWEX cloth and WATER!!!! I clean my tiles with JUST WATER with the Norwex mop. CHECK THEM OUT !!!!!! GOOGLE NORWEX!!!!!!!!!

marshaKay

My very good friend, a floor installer, said use nothing but vinegar and water. Anything else, and it voids all his warranties.
I guess that means everything else is just too harsh. I've used V & W for years and my wood, laminate and tile sparkle and shine and look like the day they were installed. No rinsing ever, either.

QuiltedCello

Bona's a floor cleaning system. I was introduced to it in Finland, I want to say it's a Swedish line, but it's pretty easy to find in the US. I get it at Ace Hardware, they order in anything special I want but they have all the basics in. Plus, they are pretty even in prices for most places, since shipping kills you on weight.

Toxicity is pretty low, AFAIK. My blind cat drank some cleaner once - he went to the vet right away, but never got sick at all and his blood work was always good. Kansas State didn't think it'd harm him either. You don't want them to intentionally drink it, and I close the little pest out of the room I'm mopping now, but anything off the floor should be fine.

Prism99

One thing to be aware of is that finishes on floors can vary a *lot*. A polyurethane finish is not used on all wood floors. Our floors were new 8 years ago and sealed with some kind of water-based sealer. Some of the cleaning methods mentioned on this list would ruin this type of finish. I think the oldest wood floors (50 years ago or so) were sealed with some kind of varnish. After that, polyurethane was used to seal floors. Polyurethane is still used on some floors, but definitely not all.

Be careful!

QuiltedCello

Even highly diluted vinegar is harsher on my floors than the Bona. Vinegar alone is too strong, dilute enough to it being "safe", it's too much water so the risk of raising grain is high. My neighbor did my floors and he uses Bona himself, but doesn't sell it.

Shrug, my floors look same as move in day other than the back entry, but I wear work boots daily and that floor gets the most shoe traffic, and the music room floor, but that's not scuffed, it's got holes from my cello pin and those are acceptable in my world.

mjhaess

I do not use steam on my wood floors....I use Johnsons wood floor cleaner. I do use the steam on my tile floors in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Evy

I think some of you just solved a mystery for me that has been driving me nuts. We have solid oak floors; they are sealed and we've been in our home for about 4 years. For at least the last 3 I've used my little shark steamer on them. In the last few months, I've noticed some discoloring and have discovered little "balls" of something stuck firmly on them that appear to be coming out of the wood. Our walls are knotty pine (we have a log home) and I know that the resin in the knots runs, it's just part of it, but I'm wondering if this stuff that's stuck on the floor is actually coming out of the wood. You can't sweep, vacuum or mop these balls up. I have to take a plastic credit card and literally scrape them off.

Wintersewer

I tried to find out info about NORWEX, but it was nothing but annoying. The website is hard to read, or rather the catalog is impossible to read with small light colored print. I HATE having to buy from a person. HATE!!! I got an email stating that she would contact me within 5 days. What kind of service is that?????? Their claims sound too good to be true anyway.....so......