Need something quick and easy to revamp hardwood floors, if it exist, lol!

[SammyeGail]

I am back at our house in TN for the week, DH is at a conference in ATL T-W-T. He's leaving in about an hour or so, he has to have dinner with some ppl already there tonight. My son's pre-school teacher has stayed here while we were gone to Panama City, FL DH's first week at his new job, she is going to house sit for us while its for sale.

I am here to get as much done as possible to have the house ready to be listed. Painting rooms more neutral, alot of touch ups, cleaning up clutter, sorting and giving alot of crap away. (Good luck to me!)

So our hardwood floors look rough. The house will be 4 years old in May. I took such care of them at first, but when I got real sick, I just couldn't do things like I used to. They have alot of tiny scratches on them. Its just from the boys playing on them. Furniture and toys, etc getting scooted all around.

I don't know if there is anything I can do myself to give them a face-lift so to speak. I have always cleaned them with part vinegar part water or a steam mop.

Its just all those tiny scratches, they are not deep at all. If anyone has any suggestions they are very welcome. We will also be living here so we can't avoid walking on them :(.

[RunnerDuck]

There are products supposed to quick and easily give new life to hardwood floors, but down the line a lot of them seem to cause problems - ie if you ever want to go back and do it right, refinishing is hard because of a residue. As someone who bought a house 2 years ago where the POs did some moronic quick and dirty things to make things look better but actually caused more aggrivation for us later on - I say it may be better to leave them as they are, then try to do something to make a sale.

There was a thread recently on hardwood floors - I will try to look - where the OP found a product that looked possibly promising... but I still have that "please don't do something cheap to make a sale" mentality. I'd research first and try to get some input from some reliable floor companies in your area.

That said I have heard of using tea to clean the floor - it will even out the color, and supposed to make wood nice and shiny - obviously for darker wood floors, not light - even if this is not long lasting at least it wouldn't be damaging you know? That might be something to consider, if light scratches are the problem.

[oneontheway]

Too funny, I just posted something about having ours redone. I have tried numerous things over the years for our kitchen floor but most of them only last a few days and are a pain to do. One time a took a brush and degreaser and clean them by hand and then put on some polish/wax stuff that was supposed to shine them up, well it did, for about a week. Now I'm just waiting to be able to have them redone. Ours aren't in really bad shape but they do have lots of wear on them.

[Tondi G]

You could try something like this

http://www.orangeglo.com/c-outdoor.html

or this

http://www.howardproducts.com/restora.htm

[Penny's Pappa]

If you want to do it right, I don't think there's any such thing as a quick and easy solution.

The real solution here is to screen the floor (lightly sand with a fine metal screen) to gently abrade the surface of the protective layer and then apply a new coat of protectant (probably polyurethane). This is probably a 1-2 day job.

[boogiemom]

Find some floor stain that matches. Clean ,dry lint free cloth. Wipe some stain lightly over scratched areas. Allow to dry thoroughly. Repeat if needed. Not a long term, permanent solution but does help aesthetically for your purposes. Good luck.

[ohsara430]

Orange glo actually works quite well. I bought the kit at bed bath & beyond. If it's actually scratches or dents in the wood it won't do much, but if it's surface scratches in the protective top coat then you might see some improvement.

[amldaley]

We have used this one bamboo floors and oak floors with great success. (Pet scratches, light water damage, furniture drags, scuffing from sand).

Look around online at different sites for best price. I particularly love their cleaner. A spray bottle of that and a microfiber cloth does wonders!

http://www.rejuvenate.tv/

[Pinky]

What kind of floors do you have? We recently moved from an old house built in the 40's and the floors weren't poly coated... We used Johnson's One Step No Buff Wax and it was AMAZING! We seriously just wiped it on and then wiped it off and the floors looked night and day. I don't know how it would work with the newer floors that have the polyurethane coating on them.

Good luck.

[KpbS]

I am pretty sure the previous owners of our house used this product before we moved in and the floors looked amazing
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=13456909&RN=1019&KSKU=115158&
hth

[SammyeGail]

Thanks everyone! Since this small town only has Wal-Mart and Lowes I bought some orange glo. It didn't do much. I was tempted to buy the Bona stuff at Lowes, I had heard good things about it on here.

I just ordered it thru Amazon, it will be here Thur. I got the refresher. I didn't get the cleaner suggested to use first, I thought I would clean them with the Orange-glo.

I saw one other product at Lowes that said no foot traffic for 4 hours, it sounded like one of those that might make the floors worse in the long run.

BYW, the floors are not stained, they were put in bare. He didn't use polyurethane, some other finish. I have no idea what it is anymore. They are oak and have a very natural look to them.

We'll see what the Bona does, anything to improve them! Its mainly the center areas.

I need to go work on my maple cabinets the cabinet guy only put clear coat on (huge eye roll!). He did come once and touch them up where water got on them. He preached at me that they are not supposed to get wet and only clean with pledge. Its a kitchen. I live in my house. Again, its a kitchen, water splashes. I have little cloudy spots here and there. Applying more clear coat will make them go away.

At least the can says I can apply 5 thin coats for extra protection. I will do that to the tops of the ones around the sink!

[Pinky]

Please post back and let us know how the Bona works.

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Just want to give a HUGE caution. I completely ruined our wood floors by doing a Bruce brand topcoat myself. You literally could write your name with the toe of your shoe thru the topcoat. Doing anything like this will make it impossible for your buyer to screen and topcoat which is the best and way cheapest way to make a floor with scratching look like new. Once you have applied this kind of a finish the only pro fix that can happen is a complete resand. I would not do this if I were you, as stressed as you are this could lead to a much bigger problem.

[SammyeGail]

Please post back and let us know how the Bona works.

Will do! there were alot of good reviews at Amazon, a few trashing it. I also purchased the Bona mop/applicator.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

[amldaley]

Will do! there were alot of good reviews at Amazon, a few trashing it. I also purchased the Bona mop/applicator.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

I have had good luck with Bona but that was on sealed hardwoods. The one thing I have found with Bona is that it works best if you use thier applicator/mop and their associated products. Good luck!!!!

[WatchingThemGrow]

I would read the directions, and have the number of a B&M mom and pop store that sells it -and has experience with it, so they can give you any tips if you need it. I've got the same Refresher, plus the woolen mop head ready to go when we can... Maybe you have to let it sit before walking on it, so you probably need to make a plan to be away for a night or something.

[SammyeGail]

I have had good luck with Bona but that was on sealed hardwoods. The one thing I have found with Bona is that it works best if you use thier applicator/mop and their associated products. Good luck!!!!


I would read the directions, and have the number of a B&M mom and pop store that sells it -and has experience with it, so they can give you any tips if you need it. I've got the same Refresher, plus the woolen mop head ready to go when we can... Maybe you have to let it sit before walking on it, so you probably need to make a plan to be away for a night or something.

Thanks! I had ordered the mop from amazon also. The paint/stain guy at Lowes seems really knowledgeable, maybe I can find some videos on youtube also. If I need anything the Lowes here seemed to have everything.

I do remember it saying not to walk on it for an hour after application. The floors all run together from the entry, dining room (left), living room (right) and upstairs/hallway to kitchen. I hope I can do one room at a time, I was planning to do it after the boys go to bed or at least get settled in their room. DH will be back before I start any of it thankfully!

[almostmom]

I used this last year:

http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemID=772&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C4%2C27%2C181&iProductID=772

and it was amazing! We had our floors finished professionally when we moved in 6 years prior, but they looked terrible in the kitchen after that time. This was so cheap, and got SO many rave reviews, I decided to try it. And the floors look SO much better, it's amazing. They looked like they were totally redone. And it has lasted!

I am very environmental, as is DH, so this was a strange choice for me since there isn't much info on what it is. And though the smell went away incredibly fast, it did smell a bit like superglue! I felt bad doing it because of that, but the smell went away as soon as it was dry. And it was so easy to do, dried in like an hour or so, and seriously looked smooth and shiny right away, and still looks good a year later. I only did one big room, and though it connects to other hard wood rooms, it wasn't that noticeable a transition (the light is also not great in our house). So just wanted to put it out there as an option.

[Pinky]

I used this last year:

http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemID=772&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C4%2C27%2C181&iProductID=772

and it was amazing! We had our floors finished professionally when we moved in 6 years prior, but they looked terrible in the kitchen after that time. This was so cheap, and got SO many rave reviews, I decided to try it. And the floors look SO much better, it's amazing. They looked like they were totally redone. And it has lasted!

I am very environmental, as is DH, so this was a strange choice for me since there isn't much info on what it is. And though the smell went away incredibly fast, it did smell a bit like superglue! I felt bad doing it because of that, but the smell went away as soon as it was dry. And it was so easy to do, dried in like an hour or so, and seriously looked smooth and shiny right away, and still looks good a year later. I only did one big room, and though it connects to other hard wood rooms, it wasn't that noticeable a transition (the light is also not great in our house). So just wanted to put it out there as an option.
They sell this on Amazon and we just bought some but I haven't used it yet... how exactly did you put it on? I haven't used it yet because I'm a little intimidated.

[Penny's Pappa]

The floors all run together from the entry, dining room (left), living room (right) and upstairs/hallway to kitchen. I hope I can do one room at a time, I was planning to do it after the boys go to bed or at least get settled in their room. DH will be back before I start any of it thankfully!

Do you mean you'd like to do one room, let it dry, then do another room? If so, I don't know if I'd recommend that. My experience is with polyurethane, so take this with a grain of salt, but when it comes to applying poly at least you always want to maintain a wet edge (like when painting). Putting it on over a dry edge will leave a noticeable boundary. Better to do it all at once.

[kwc]

The BonaKemi website has some videos, I don't know if they are helpful.
http://www.mybonahome.com/iWantTo/polish-my-hardwood-floor.html

FWIW, when we had our hardwood installed (polyurethane sealer), the floor man said to only use Bona hardwood cleaner. It still looks great.

[almostmom]

First, I cleared half the kitchen and spent a good amount of time getting the floor clean - like scrubbing some of those marks that just hadn't come off in months. Then I believe you squirt it on the floor and take some sort of rag (I think I used an old t-shirt from our pile of rags) and just spread it around evenly. Some soaks into the rag, but not much. I should have probably used gloves, but I didn't. It is pretty watery, so it spreads easily. I tried to make the line as straight as possible between rooms. When this side was dry, I did the other side. Where the two side met, there was some noticeable overlap, but barely, and it's definitely not noticeable now.

Basically it was really simple. Make sure the floor is really clean, because you'll be covering over everything. Then squirt a bunch of it out mop it around so everything is covered. Then wait for it to dry!

I'm sure I got my directions from either the bottle or the comments on the solutions website.

Good luck!

[Pinky]

First, I cleared half the kitchen and spent a good amount of time getting the floor clean - like scrubbing some of those marks that just hadn't come off in months. Then I believe you squirt it on the floor and take some sort of rag (I think I used an old t-shirt from our pile of rags) and just spread it around evenly. Some soaks into the rag, but not much. I should have probably used gloves, but I didn't. It is pretty watery, so it spreads easily. I tried to make the line as straight as possible between rooms. When this side was dry, I did the other side. Where the two side met, there was some noticeable overlap, but barely, and it's definitely not noticeable now.

Basically it was really simple. Make sure the floor is really clean, because you'll be covering over everything. Then squirt a bunch of it out mop it around so everything is covered. Then wait for it to dry!

I'm sure I got my directions from either the bottle or the comments on the solutions website.

Good luck!

So, I'll probably need to get down on my hands and knees and clean the corners and under the cabinet edges real well then before I start squirting? LOL I'm wondering how I'm ever going to get all the dog hair up with the dogs still in the house too.