Refurbishing Kitchen Wood Floor?

Have you ever tried lemon oil? you can buy it at walmart where you buy the pledge products. i wash my wood floors and put the lemon oil on them on my hands and knees it is well worth it they have a nice shine

Be careful with using Pledge... it makes the floors very slippery!

Jo Bodey
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 104 Feedbacks

February 25, 20050 found this helpful

These are more renovation/restoration ideas than cleaning. I'm working on the assumption that you have tried all the cleaning preparations and they haven't worked so maybe its the floor's surface itself that's damaged.

You don't mention the floor's finish. Is it bare wooden boards or sealed in some way. For bare wood you can scrub with a fine wire brush or steel wool and a 50:50 mixyure of mineral turpentine and linseed oil. It will lift the dirt which you can keep wiping off on clean dry cloths and leave a nice finish. It will smell for a few days but quickly wears off. The excess mixture should be wiped off then left overnight and the surface will soak up any mixture left and form a barrier. You can repeat this every few months.

If there are lots of stains and ground in dirt these can be sanded off bare wood.

If the floor is sealed the seal itself may be scratched beyond redemption. You may have to buy a commercial liquid polish/paint stripper, strip and reseal.

The first step is to decide if the surface is intact and dirty or scratched and needs refinishing. Rubbing the floor very gently with fine steel wool or very gently with a green scrub, (like a Scotch Brite pad), and detergent will take every bit of dirt off. Do small sections at a time and wipe of loosened dirt with clean dry cloths. Try this somewhere unobtrusive if your floors are sealed and the seal is intact to ensure you don't damage the surface. Once you have done this it will become obvious if the dinginess was just due to ground in dirt or if the actual surface is damaged and needs refinishing.

Regards

Jo