Can Mineral Spirits Clean the Grime Off Your Dirty, Waxed Floors?
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- Опубліковано 1 сер 2024
- So you've got old waxed floors, but the idea of stripping and rewaxing makes you want to call Empire Carpet. Eight Hundred Five Eight Eight ... anyone, anyone? Ok, I'm dating myself.
Can a quick once over with some mineral spirits make these dingy floors any better? Well ... yes ... and no. - Навчання та стиль
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I know your video is 2 years old and I'm sure you have figured it out by now. . but I think since you have so many wax floors you might want to buy a small buffer. As a kid, we would help my mom wax and buff floors twice a year. We always did it as kids part of spring and fall cleaning. My mom's floors were stunning. She had a buffer it was the size of a stand up vacuum. Your videos are very helpful!!
Yes! I actually acquired two buffers from my mother in law’s basement about a year ago. They are the best thing ever!! That is so cool about your mom. I hope to get to that level someday soon with my floors 🩷
WOOD FLOORS generally benefit greatly by using oil soap, available at your local Wal-Mart or supermarket. It's a clean SAFE liquid soap, amber in color like pancake syrup, and you don't have to worry about getting it on your skin. It not only cleans but leaves a shiny residue. Mineral spirits are great when a solvent is needed, but always start with the gentlest and safest and work up from there. It's called "the theory of progressive abrasion" in pro-cleaning circles.
thanks, Kelly. I've read that oil soaps can leave residues that over time build up and are very hard to take off so I'm reluctant to use them. This is a confusing area for me. Does it depend what is already on the floor ie varnish, wax, poly?
@@OldWorldFarmHouse I used to live in an old house and wasn't sure WHAT had been put on the floor previously. But I can tell you that I always had good results with the oil soap, not just on wood floors but tile, linoleum,etc. Got things clean and shiny and is easy to work with. Not sure? EXPERIMENT!
Using it is great for cleaning (it removes dirt, liquid’s stains, etc. ) concerning your expectations: after aplying the spirit and cleaning it, you have to rubb/ polish the wax remaining ( a regular vintage waxed floors polisher will do). Also, using spirits removes always a part of the wax, so in old houses, maids used to use the spirit cleaning 4 times and rewaxing it again, then 4 more cleanings with spirit and so on.
Thanks for sharing! I do need to rewax. I keep thinking I need to totally remove the old wax first, which is very daunting. But perhaps just rewaxing over what is there might be enough ?
@@OldWorldFarmHouse From what I've seen, it doesn't look like having water stains. So, you can dust it with you vacuum cleaner, then do the cleaning with white spirit and let it dry (normally doesn't take long). If in certain areas you have spots, stains, deep dirt, remove it with a little knife or a scrubbing metal "sponge" (normally used for washing pans and so after cooking). Then apply a THIN layer of new wax over this one. If the layer is too thick it won't shine and will become noisy and sticky when you walk. Let it dry again. Once it Is dry, take the polisher and polish it (normally it has 3 different set of disks. First use the hard brush one; then the softer brush one and finally the one that looks like a fluffy cloth). Your floor will be shinning and reflecting light and doors, etc. Occasionally you'll just have to polish it again with the machine. I've my floor waxed this way and learnt it with people that had maids in their family homes that knew how to do it. Normally, I just do the white spirit stuff 3 times a year and pass the machine more frequently but with no wax nor spirit. Let us know when you do it and how it looks like after. :-)
@@mariojspnascimento thank you! That is great advice! I hope to try soon!
This is my personal experience, and I'm by no means an expert. I hope it helps you! On this floor, going over it lightly with the mineral spirits cleaned it but didn't take up wax or make it cloudy. I tried this on a different, though also waxed, floor, in my house and started taking up the wax right away. So be sure to test first, depending on what your goals are.
I keep researching and learning about floors and I hope to post more videos about the floors in my house and my attempts to care for them properly, in the hopes that it helps others.
Recently I ran across this very thorough discussion of wood floors and cleaning by a contractor and I found it very helpful, so I"m linking it here. www.justanswer.com/home-improvement/01zd6-safe-use-mineral-spirit-prepare-hardwood-floors.html
Stripper and rescreen and refinish …. Best results.
I just did this to my floor. How long does it take for the mineral spirits to dry completely? I’m nervous for the results because of the hazy wax build up.
Hi Katie, I think the mineral spirits dry and dissipate more or less right away. I've had good results cleaning most of my wood floors this way, but actually one room the wax did haze up a quite a bit. You can see how I dealt with that unexpected development in my video How to wax a wood floor. Here's the link. ua-cam.com/video/XXx72Gj7_Vc/v-deo.html Basically I stopped cleaning them with mineral spirits and wiped them down with a product called Restore a Finish, then finished with a coat of paste wax.
I'm not to a stage where I can totally strip and refinish a floor, so both of these videos are about my attempts to improve the looks of my floors in the interim.
I'm by no means an expert. These are my lived experiences with very old waxed floors. I hope this helps and I hope your floor turns out well.
Those floors are beautiful and could benefit to having more wax applied and buffed. Lundsmark makes a liquid paste wax that could be applied and buffed, if you want to achieve a glossy surface. If that were my house( I wish btw) I would get a floor buffing machine and wax twice a year, and buff with the polish once a month.
thanks Derek! I've been planning to wax this floor and I'm really excited about it. Other things keep getting in the way but when I get to it I'll def make a video about it. When you say buff with polish, what is the polish product you're thinking of? Is it the Lundsmark product you mentioned? I'm definitely after the glossy!
@@OldWorldFarmHouse I would look up Lundsmark liquid paste wax on Amazon. When you wax you polish it off to a shine.
I got an old table for free and it’s dirty. I put orange polish on it but it just smells bad. I don’t use it to eat off of. Will mineral spirits clean it enough to make it useful?
Hi George, without seeing the table, I couldn’t say. Sorry can’t be of more help!
Have you done a house tour? Thanks!
Not yet! I’ll do one soon.
@@OldWorldFarmHouse Fabulous!
Did you ever get your floors shiny?
not yet! I'm going to wax this floor later on this summer hopefully so stay tuned!
You should have used a dissolver and removed the wax
Someday I will. Didn’t want to open that can of worms just yet.