Probably is some builders grade of off brand flooring. I thought dark colors were good except a lot of people complain about dust showing. I love the shiny look but for us old people, I'm going with a matte finish.

Maybe you're right deals. I dunno but almost everything else in the house is first rate, there is even a built-in stereo system throughout the house, heated marble floors in the bathroom, etc. But, who knows maybe they ran out of money and that's why I got the crappy wood and they didn't move in LOL!! You're right about one thing for sure though, matte finish is it!

Have you tried the Swiffer Sweeper? We just had our yucky "golden" oak floors refinished a dark Coffee Brown. Although we have a handscraped finish, it works for us. I use the Dry pads for sweeping and the Wet pads for cleaning. The directions are on the box.

The Swiffer won't pick up large pieces of trash/food but I think it's kind of fun to use (as far as cleaning goes, which I loath!). I carry my Dust Buster while Swiffering and vacuum up things the Swiffer won't pick up.

Do NOT get the Swiffer Wet Jet; it puts too much water on the wood.

P.S. If you have kids you can buy them each a Swiffer. I let them decorate their's with stickers and markers and we have Swiffer races and play "follow the Swiffer".

If an eating utensil dents your floor it is likely you do not have a hardwood floor, rather some sort of soft wood. For the life of me, I can't figure out what kind of finish would do what you describe. Does your floor even have a finish on it? Polyurethane is water resistant. Water drops should bead up on it. So, determine what is on your floor, especially what is making it smear. I once had a cleaning company "renovate" my floor and unknown to me they used a tinted wax that years later I am still having trouble with. Your problem is a mystery to me.

Did you try water and vinegar? When I went to buy Bona cleaner the salesman told me that 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water works just as well.

Did you check with the builder? We bought our house at a auction in 1991. We are one of 16 homes built and the builder was unable to sell any and so the bank made him put them up for auction after one year. These were semi custom homes that he was trying to sell for $550,-$625,000 at the time. They are damn good looking homes but when it came to the kitchen cabinets and flooring he really cut corners. They did provide us with a list of contractors who worked on the homes.
I think you said you had some extra pieces, take them to a flooring place and see if they can tell what it is. Tell them you want to do another room in your house to match the existing........nice aren't I? :-)hehe

Anniem: I was thinking about your dilema on the way to church this evening and I agree with what msgreatdeals says - find the largest flooring showroom in your area because they should have the largest selection of wood samples, and therefore may have a match to your extra pieces. Ask for help identifying the floor. If they can match it, contact the manufacturer and see if they can recommend a solution. Once you know the manufacturer, you can google them and most will have a customer care phone number.

your not really keen on using water to clean wood. The less chemicals you use the better. I'd venture to say you have enough 'cleaners' on it that you already have a reside. BonaKemi makes an easy swiffer type microfiber. You shouldn't need any cleaner. You might want to mist the cloth with water then go over the floor. If its really bothering you can recoat the floor with a matte finish which may help. YOur issue is more with the clear finish and lack of graining which shows a lot of 'stuff' vs an oak with character. Not to be unkind but advice on here should be taken with a grain of salt. Ask a flooring store

All wood will dent
All wood will scratch

Most consumers that have never owned a home with wood floors, have their very high expectations, dashed in a hurry, the same as you. Wood is wood. It does what wood does. It is not a piece of furniture, unless you treat it like one, and do not live on top of it.

Go to you wood dining room table, and drop the same thing on it from the same height... Tell me the outcome of that.

I have used Bona floor cleaner on my oak hardwood floors with great results. My floors are a medium tone, so I would be very surprised if that would not work for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bona floor care

I hear you about the residue issues. It's worse, I think, the shinier your finish is, and yours sounds pretty glossy. We tried everything on our site-finished satin waterbased poly floors, and ultimately the only thing that works without leaving a residue is using some simple white vinegar diluted in water (about 1/2 cup per gallon). Damp mop with this. Smells great.

(I know some folks say vinegar is not advisable, but I can't recall what their reasoning was, and our floors look great using this method.)

We have shiny floors too! We started with the Wey Jet but it streaks and smudges. Water works ok but I still see smudges and such. I was afraid to try the vinagar based on some other posts...so if someone has a sure firemethod..please post.

PS: I tried that spoon drop thing on my neighbor's dining room table...sure enough it left a ding...moved the place mat back and ran out of the house...........................just kidding!

I feel your pain... however, I think it might help to put things into perspective. First of all, dark hardwood is going to show dirt/dust, that's just a fact. We 'wish' for those gleaming, shining hardwood floors that we see on the home improvement programs, but those wishes are not very realistic. I know from personal experience.

What is more realistic is doing a regular vacuuming and washing, say once a week (unless you have dogs in which case, twice a week). The vacuuming is key because it sucks up anything that might scratch your floor when you move on to washing it.

As for 'washing' - well, here's my thought. If you've picked up most of the dirt with the vacuum cleaner, then really what you want to do is wipe off that last thin layer of dust and leave a shine on the floor. Get yourself a bunch of microfibre mop covers and a microfibre mop head. Mix together a spray bottle of say, 1/3 vinegar, to 2/3 water. Spritz your floor lightly, then wipe it up with your microfibre mop, being sure to change the mop head as it gets dirty. The mop covers can just be tossed in the washing machine, washed and be ready for the next round.

I know this works brilliantly with laminate floors and can't imagine why it would work with hardwood. You're not soaking the floor with water as you're rubbing it dry as you apply your vinegar/water spray. Vinegar is one of the best eco cleaners we have to work with and it definitely leaves no residue - why not try it? You're not going to damage your wood if you spritz lightly and rub it dry (which you will be as part of the cleaning process) You will be shocked at how much dirt your microfibre clothes pick up!

Best of luck with your floors

Someday, if you want to start over, I suggest sanding the floor down and using Rubio Monocoat. It is a beautiful penetrating oil (30+ colors). Completely matte. You won't have to worry about the shine, because it is beautiful without it!

The hardwood is most likely good quality but the issue is the color of the wood as well as the finish. All hardwood will dent with dropped utensils etc. The last comment is the one that I would reccommend as the best solution to this situation. I too am struggling with my medium colored maple hardwood that is manufactured through Mirage flooring ( which is an excellent quality of hardwood) I will never go with the satin finish and a darker colored hardwood again. Perhaps replacing or refinishing will be the only option. This is an expensive lesson but really it is impossible for me to be happy in my gorgeous home with this floor!!!!

If you read about hardwood floors and windex, it sounds like you have a huge wax build up on your floor. I had this too from using BONA (don't use) when you spill it will leave spots and smears. Go online and read about using windex to remove all the old wax. I had to soak with windex for 3-5 minutes, then use a kitchen scrub brush and it was disgusting what was scrubbed up, then take a rag and clear water and clean it all up. You may need to repeat if years of was, and repeat the rinse. My floors look absolutely beautiful now and I will NEVER put wax on them ever again.

I know your post.is old.....but my story is EXACTLY the same....down to someone else original home. I hate hate hate...this whatever wood floor it is. The wood on the stairs is the real deal and easy to clean. This floor is a mess 5 minutes after spending hours cleaning it. Bona is.the.best....but.it's hard work. And why on earth do people think wood is ok in a kitchen? ???????? What did you wind up doing? Thanks

I guess it depends on the floor and the finish. I have white oak throughout my main floor including the kitchen. Finish is a mid brown, as I recall we mixed pecan with lighter stain. Eggshell level shine. My floors are 18 years old this month and are just now needing to be refinished. I have always vacuumed followed by a microfiber application of quick shine that I get at the grocery store. I vacuum about twice a week and do the cleaner about once a week to 10 days. Still love my floors.

I used to see those dark floors on design shows and was dying to redo mine. Then people I know who had them complained how they show every speck of dust. Sarah Richardson said on one of her design specials that the dark floors are stunning but mid Browns are most forgiving. Funny how her ideas changed once she had kids lol.

Heres an older pic of mine to show color. So funny to look at old pic as those green chairs are gone and the tv is now a flat screen over the fireplace.

I agree with you. I, too, just bought a house with an engineered wood floor, mainly because there were few choices with anything else. And the wood is everywhere. Why would anyone want a high maintenance kitchen floor, where it's almost impossible to prepare a meal without spilling something on it? Or in the dining room, or bathroom, or foyer? I'm almost ready to remove the floor and replace it with anything else.... but that cost is similar to the cost of replacing the roof. Many people who are in love with their engineered wood floor use carpets everywhere! But I think that's ridiculous. After all, if it's so beautiful, why cover it up? I have no real solutions, but I'm venting over the nonsensical fashions to which we are subjected.

I have very dark engineered wood flooring throughout my first floor. I had no idea how fragile it was because they market it as durable! That’s a crock, everything scratches or leaves a ding. Solid wood dings and scratches to, but not as easily and definitely easier to touch up. It has a slight sheen and yes some things leave it streaky, I use a dilute water vinegar solution and that works fine between getting on my hands and knees.

This house has changed owners many times since this post from`13 years ago because every couple who lived here divorced. Eventually the house was converted into a rest home for nuns. Then it sat vacant and was a notorious party house for juvenile delinquents. It is scheduled to be demolished to make way for an Amazon distribution center.

I hate wood floors on general principal. Unfortunately, I've had 3 homes with hardwood floors. They are a pain to keep clean, even the relatively good quality ones. It sounds like the individual who started this thread got a really lousy soft wood without a proper finish. Now I live in an older home with 30 year old hardwood floors that are showing their wear badly. I don't have the wherewithal to go through having them pulled up and putting down something else (preferably tile - even tile that looks like wood) - anything but wood. I can't for the life of me understand why people love wood floors so much. They damage easily (even the best of them), and pets and children are a disaster. They require so much care and cleaning that they are SO not worth it. We had someone come out to give us an estimate on refinishing the floors (a living room and master bedroom) and he told us the area (approximately 600 sq ft) was too small for him to bother with. We've read about all the various products one can use to freshen up floors, but they all seem to have their drawbacks. Not only that, but we're in our 70s and moving all of the furniture ourselves is next to impossible. I wish we had had tile put down before we moved in! And don't get me started about stainless steel in kitchens! I feel the same way about it!

This post has come to life again, so for anyone seeking it out because they have the same problem, I wanted to jump in with some personal experience.

After the oak floors in our new-construction house began cupping and buckling (the builder had rushed the build, since he was trying to finish a spec house on the same deadline, but had since decamped to another state due to a sex scandal), we saved for a few years and replaced it with engineered cherry flooring. This probably would have been about the same time as the OP's post, which as of this comment is 13 years old; the manufacturer was a Swedish company called Kährs, and since our local distributor had just started carrying it, there were no red flags in terms of bad reviews or negative customer feedback.

That cherry floor looked great--for about ten minutes. EVERYTHING scuffed and scratched it. A puppy just innocently living its life? Scratches galore. Someone dropping anything heavier or sharper than a pillow? A guaranteed ding. A kid running a toy car over it? A tell-tale track of scuffs. Anyone wearing shoes (and I'm not talking stilettos)? Scuffs, scratches, and dents. It was ridiculous, like, we couldn't believe how quickly and easily the floor accumulated damage. Whatever finish was on that cherry, it did absolutely NOTHING to protect against ordinary wear and tear.

We tried everything to clean, protect, and rehabilitate that floor. Shoes, even slippers, became forbidden in the house. We had a network of rugs from one end of the house to the next. Every chair not only sat on a rug, it had felt floor protectors and ugly wool socks on its feet. We swiffered like mad. For ten years, all the measures we took were futile, and just ended up causing us added aggravation and frustration.

Finally we gave up, realized we were going to have to bite the bullet and install our THIRD hardwood floor in fifteen years, and replaced every square foot of the cherry. This time, we went for a harder wood (hickory), though the major problem with the Kährs had obviously been the finish. We put in a fairly pricey but beautiful hand-scraped wide-plank floor (Baroque Flooring Bavarian XL) and it was FABULOUS--everything the Kährs wasn't. It was gorgeous, it was tough as nails (pets were no problem!), and it was easy to clean.

The moral of this story: Sometimes there's just no way around a bad product, except to replace it. The sooner you can afford to do it, the happier you'll be.

>i grew up with hardwood planks all over the downstairs and even up stairs HOWEVER .... MY MOTHER i remember vividly her having them "redone" sanded down and resurfaced of sorts and then stained to a newer lighter in shade. Now 30 yrs later it's even darkens with age and other multiple cleaners over time i presume

Here's the problem with this is the price and the large scale is cumbersome. 

I now low and behold but my doing 

But am in a much smaller home and one story but main living room area is the darkness of nightmares from double hocky sticks.   Ya know what you've all previously state

It's down to my just grabbing some simple stick on after it's clean and call it a day... just roll with it any thing is better than those days i struggle with those feet grease right after I've cleaned it 

One suggestion for those not yet already made this plunge into the black or darkest brown abyss of floors

Is if you must love the look of wooden floors these days they have the most unbelievable even to the touch tiles that look like dark wood and other shades but the darker tiles 

Do not leave the greasies or even other small crumbs hard to see trust me so much nicer and easier

But for now,  I'm going to go with the stick on ! With a smile

Rather than replace the hardwood floors with a tile that looks like wood or try to refinish the wood floors, I'm thinking of a good quality wood-look laminate - put down professionally. Tile require having the current floors dismantled, and refinishing requires moving a lot of heavy furniture (only to end up after it's done with the same issues that one usually has with hardwood floors). Laminate can be put down directly on top of the wood floors, or so I'm told. Truthfully, I probably won't do any of these things, since I'm getting on in years and I'm tired of renovating this old house. I realize that that there are wood floors that are much better than others and finishes that are much better than others (the finish on our engineered wood floors in our previous house was pretty darned good). The better the quality, the more expensive they are. Wood floors are so darned expensive, so much work to maintain, and require such babying - why the heck is it worth it unless you're filthy rich and can afford to have someone take care of them for you? I live on a lake. Why the heck would anyone put wood floors in a house on a lake? Obviously, they were here when we moved in.