Comments on: I wanna see myself in my hardwood floors

Question: I wanna see myself in my hardwood floors

printchick — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:42:19 -0800

What is the best way to clean a hardwood floor? I've gone the Murphy's Oil Soap route and it just leaves splotches, even after I try to wipe it with a rag afterwards. I'd rather avoid getting on my hands and knees. Anything that is tried-and-true and will make my floor shine?

We have a prefinished floor, if that makes a difference. I've searched other threads and they don't quite answer my question. Isn't there some sort of Swiffer product out there for hardwood floors? Any other method that works for you?

By: idiotfactory

idiotfactory — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:55:16 -0800

General cleaning with a 4:1 mix of water and vinegar, then use a dust mop with pledge sprayed on it.

By: LadyBonita

LadyBonita — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:12:49 -0800

Yep, vinegar and water. Or just plain water.

By: jeff-o-matic

jeff-o-matic — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:23:44 -0800

Water alone is usually fine. Spot clean anything really dirty.

Murphy's works best in my experience if you keep it really watered down, otherwise you get a filmy haze. Use half or less of what they recommend. Also, if you really want to go nuts, you could rinse-mop with clean water. Sounds like a fun weekend!

By: melissa may

melissa may — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:25:08 -0800

Idiotfactory is right, but in case you didn't see my earlier comment in your previous search of old threads, I'm including it -- you might find it useful.

By: FlamingBore

FlamingBore — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:04:22 -0800

I use Murphy's and have no problems with it, however I do go over the floors at least twice, the second time with plain water. I live in a dusty city, so it's kind of necessary.

I don't use the recommendations on the bottle though.

By: dragonsi55

dragonsi55 — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:37:32 -0800

Murphy's doesn't work well if the water is hard.

By: hercatalyst

hercatalyst — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:23:17 -0800

Depending on the finish, Murphy's is hell for hardwood floors.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:53:38 -0800

Swiffer does make a wood floor cleaner and it's so easy it's almost fun to clean your floor.
However, it does seem to leave streaks and thanks to a previous AskMe on this subject, I keep meaning to try refilling the bottle with water and vinegar to see if that works better with the swiffer. But you know, I'm hella lazy......

By: theora55

theora55 — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 09:33:36 -0800

I washed all the old wax off my old wood floors using ammonia and water. Then I applied pastewax, let it dry, and buffed. They look great. The floors were originally finished with oil-based varnish. I'm not sure about wax on floors that are polyurethaned.