Residue on Hardwood Floor

As a professional hardwood floor cleaning company, we see a types of hardwood floor residue. Hardwood floor residue is caused by a few soils including acrylic wax, soap residue, airborne cooking oils, pet dander and good old dirt. The most prevalent soil particulate, however, is soap residue from mopping hardwood floors.

Hardwood Floor Soap Residue

Soap residue on wood flooring is caused by two things: 1. Not properly rinsing the floor after mopping; and second, an alcohol-based surfactant common in most wood floor cleaners.

Many hardwood cleaning solutions contain ethoxylated surfactant, a petroleum-based detergent. This surfactant does a great job at removing soils; however, it leaves a residue that builds up over time. Eventually, your floor becomes a sticky dirt trap that requires professional hardwood floor cleaning.

Rinse Hardwood Floors After Mopping

Mopping, or Swiffering, a hardwood floor only exchanges topical soils for soap residue. Yes, your wood floor looks good after the cleaning, but that’s because the soils is gone. What remains is thin layer of soap residue that builds up over time until you’ll find yourself reading web pages like this one 😉

Surfactant-based cleaners must be thoroughly rinsed from the wood floor, or any floor, or it will continue to attract soils. This comes with a caution, however: using more water isn’t always the answer. Nowadays there are many hardwood floors that cannot take a lot of water during the cleaning and/or rinsing. These hardwood floors contain fiberboard that can easily swell once wet.

Hardwood Floor Cleaners That “Shine”

Hardwood floor cleaners can gunk up your hardwood floors if the cleaner contains acrylic wax. I was walking through a supermarket yesterday and glanced down at an array of hardwood cleaners. I couldn’t help to stop and look if any of the wood cleaners had “shine” advertised on the front of the bottle. I was shocked to see most had that most persuasive word. Note: Other synonyms apply: Glow, Polish, Gloss, Rejuvenate, Protects, Revitalizes, etc.

While I’m sure it isn’t true for every hardwood floor cleaner, I’m confident it is for most. The word “shine” indicates the hardwood floor cleaner likely contains acrylic wax. Unlike urethane finish, acrylic wax is a soft, short-term hard surface finish that lasts 3 to 6 months.

The best analogy to help homeowners understand acrylic wax is that it’s like a bad addiction; after using it once, you must keep using it until an intervention occurs. That intervention is calling a professional hardwood floor cleaning service because your wood floor now looks dull and gunky.

The Unfortunate Hardwood “Shine” Cycle

After applying the acrylic finish, the floors look nice and shiny, though it’s really a chintzy type of shine. But after a few months of walking on it, the acrylic looks drab and dull again. This motivates the homeowner to apply more because, well, it’s dull again. This cycle continues until years later the floor is so globby the homeowner breaks down to call a professional hardwood floor cleaning service.

At this point, the customer may not realize what she has been doing to her floor. We’ve seen a customer apply acrylic wax for 10 years without realizing the damage she was doing. After a short intervention, denial and final acceptance, we explained that the acrylic wax must be stripped of the floor, which is far more invasive than simply cleaning it.

Removing Hardwood Floor Wax

If you discover your hardwood cleaner, or your maid’s hardwood cleaner has the word “shine” on it, call the company to find out how it can be removed. But take caution, if your floor contains fiberboard or particle board, you may not be able to remove the wax without causing permanent damage. Wetting fiberboard may cause it to swell causing irreversible damage.

Another option is to have a hardwood floor refinishing company sand the wax off the floor in what is known as a screen-and-coat service. This requires all the furniture to be removed and can get expensive and messy.

Hardwood Floor Paste

Another type of hardwood polish is known as wood floor wax. This product is white paste typically made from carnauba wax. While floor paste restores the luster in a wood floor temporarily, it also permanently damages the floor in terms of its inability to be refinished properly. This is because the cellulose within the wood absorbs the wax.

When a hardwood floor refinisher attempts to remove the surface, the wax within the cellulose will continue to reappear, which stops the new urethane surface from properly adhering to the refinished floor. If you have already applied wood floor polish to your hardwood floor, you will likely need to continue using it until the floor is replaced. Floor refinishers can refinish it, but it takes a lot more effort as the wax requires additional effort.

We hope this information has helped you to understand why hardwood floor is sticking, gummy and grimy. If you have any questions regarding our wood floor cleaning services, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at 615-Dry-Fast or you can get an online quote and schedule now.