[bluebeast]

My hardwood floors are sticky and turn our white socks black. We just bought this house and I guess they came into the house and either waxed or polished the floors before we singed the papers. That's fine and all and I appreciative it but the floors are now sticky to walk on and turn our white socks black. Anyone know anything about hardwood floors? How the hell so I get the floors not be to sticky. The floors look clean but they must not be. Thanks in advance.

 

[pkstang]

have you tried washing them???

 

[bluebeast]

have you tried washing them???

Yes we have, no luck

 

[Topfun99]

Talk to your real estate agent. If work was done on the floors at some point during the buying process, it would be that someone messed up (previous owner/contractor) and should be held responsible to repair the surface.

 

[redwhite]

My guess is someone tried to clean them with some type of solvant and ruined the urethane sealer. Now it's gummy and sticking to your socks.

.

 

[lyonsperf]

wash the floors with murphy's oil soap. let dry then use dawn dish soap with a sponge pad. The idea is to get the paste wax off the wood but not saturate the wood with excess water. If all else fails lowes and home depot sell wax stripper made for wood floors.

 

[rugdr]

What course of action you need to take depends on a couple of things. If the floors are pre-finished and they tried to wax them, then you will need a professional cleaner to come in and clean the floors with a solvent that will not harm the finish of the floor. Pre-finished floors do NOT need to be waxed, but yet so many people believe this to be true. If the floors are sand and finish floors then it sounds like someone tried to clean them and ruined the polyurethane finish, just like redwhite stated. Either way, the floors need to be either cleaned professionally or worst case scenerio, have them sanded and refinished to correct the problem. Either way, it sounds like someone has some explaining to do and someone other than yourself is responsible.

 

[Topfun99]

What course of action you need to take depends on a couple of things. If the floors are pre-finished and they tried to wax them, then you will need a professional cleaner to come in and clean the floors with a solvent that will not harm the finish of the floor. Pre-finished floors do NOT need to be waxed, but yet so many people believe this to be true. If the floors are sand and finish floors then it sounds like someone tried to clean them and ruined the polyurethane finish, just like redwhite stated. Either way, the floors need to be either cleaned professionally or worst case scenerio, have them sanded and refinished to correct the problem. Either way, it sounds like someone has some explaining to do and someone other than yourself is responsible.

X2 - I would suggest NOT attempting to correct the problem until you have talked to your real estate agent. They should help you sort it out.

If someone screwed up the finish, it could be very expensive to restore. If you do anything to try and fix it (washing was probably not a problem) then you may muddy the waters and allow the blame to be shifted to you.

 

[Gumbydammit]

I have one more suggestion for you. I have had customers come into my store complaining of the same thing. Chances are the previous owners used something like Orange Glo ( thanks Billy Mays) to try and make the floors look shinier than they were. The Orange Glo leaves a residue that will show every foot print, can get tacky, and will turn socks black. I had a customer use it in his office and it took 5 white polishing pads and a few quarts of cleaner to get it off. The pads all turned black as the ace of spades, but in the end the floor looked great and he's happy.

Depending on where you are in Maryland, you may have an ORECK store near you where you can rent an Orbiter floor machine. go to www.oreck.com and go to the store locator. Once you find a store, go to their store 'site' and scroll through to see if there is a free rental coupon. The coupon will save the $50 rental fee on the machine. This way, all you need to do is buy the pads ( about $5 a piece ) and the Wood Floor Cleaner ( about $17 a quart ) and a multi - use bonnet ( about $20 ). The machine is really easy to use and will clean the residue off if it is what I think it is. Spray the cleaner on the floor, sparingly, use the polishing pads to scrub up the residue, and use the bonnet to buff the haze away. If you are afraid of using the white polishing pads, you can just use the bonnet, but it will take longer.

Once you get it clean only clean it with a quality product like Bona http://www.mybonahome.com/funmop

If you have any questions, pm me and I'll give you my phone #.

Good luck.

 

[1970ls8]

How would you clean the 'sticky' hardwood floor that is is great shape after you pull up the carpet?
Use what?

 

[taxman]

wash the floors with murphy's oil soap. let dry then use dawn dish soap with a sponge pad./QUOTE]
The maid said to add some Windex to it too.

 

[1970ls8]

tried murphys
will try dawn

 

[bluebeast]

Thanks everyone once we get all these boxes out of here I will try these.