I am hoping someone can help. I see no one answered the person above who apparently had the same problem I did. We just bought a 4 year old house with what I believe to be prefinished hardwood floors. My husband, without telling me bought the Orange Glo Hardwood cleaner and polish in the green bottle (made by BonaKemi). He cleaned with it last week and today I tried to use my old hardwood floor solution (don't know the name of it because I put in a spray bottle) and there is this terrible haze on the floor and you can see all the streaks from the cloth mop head. It looks really horrible in certain parts when the light hits it just so. I am really sick to my stomach about this. I used the same cleaner in the bottle I used today on my old 50 year old hardwood floors plus my 2 year old prefinished wood floors in my old house and never had this problem. I am sure it has to do with this Orange Glo Hardwood Cleaner and Polish my husband used last week. How can I safely remove this polish and haze off my floors. Please, someone with some floor know how please help me.

Thanking in advance for any advice.

Donna

Live and learn!!

Call Bona, and ask them how to strip it without harming the finish, any further!!

Have you tried using the vinegar and water solution?
I have always used a very dry damp mop to clean hardwood floors. I have not damaged one yet. I would never reccommend using the hardwood floor cleaners. You never know what is in there. You could test a small spot that is out of sight before using it on the entire floor. Just never us the swiffer wet jet. It will also build up.
It also may come off just damp mopping as often as you can to remove it. I don't think you will have to refinish it.
I have used vinegar and water mixture to clean a very bad looking floor.

Do NOT use this Orange Glo product nor buy any of the ebooks folks are trying to sell you on how to remove the build up/haze. I called Orange Glo's customer service line directly and found out how to remove this product off the floor. Their solution? Plain old ammonia and good old fashioned hands and knees elbow Yup, an entire weekend on my hands and knees, to get the floors back to their original luster because there was so much build up on them.

We've been using this product and at first it really looked nice but then the floors started looking dull and very scratched up. I didn't understand why and then noted streaks where some parts of the floor were shiny and others were dull so I scraped with my fingernail and removed some product. Underneath it was shiny. So I decided to Google and found that lots of people were having the same problem!

Directions from Orange Glo's customer service line:

1. Mix 1/2 cup of ammonia with 1 gallon of warm water.
2. Apply solution to floor with mop in inconspicuous place first to test.
3. Once you determine it's okay to use on your floors...apply to floor and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Wipe up the solution with a clean soft cloth.
5. Wipe with circular motion if there is more of a build up.
6. According to how much build up you have...you might have to repeat the process until it's all off.

I'm very disappointed this product is still being sold in stores as no one should ever use this on their floors!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rantings of a Creole Princess

I agree, this product should be taken off the shelves. I was advised to use in on our brand new hardwood floors for a shine and now all me have are dule residue floors. They look really, really bad. We are so disappointed and wonder if the shine will ever come back to our hardwoods.

OMG. orange glo should be removed from stores. I have a build up that I can not remove. I have tried amonia and a rubber scraper, a teflon scrubber, a majic eraser and mineral spirts. Four hours later I have a four foot section somewhat clean. Help! Does anyone have another idea?

I am so glad I read all these posts. I was about to use OrangeGlo on my hardwood floor to remove the residue from an area rug that had a rubber pad underneath it. The residue is more like a tackiness that the rubber left behind. Anyone have a solution for that?

We just recently moved into a home with Anderson pre-finished wood flooring (I found half a box in the garage). They look horrible. They are a dark cherry color, but have a whitish haze and streaks all over them. When I open the curtains, the light hits the floors and accentuates this. I don't know what the previous owner used, and I'm afraid to experiment. I've gotten contradicting suggestions from professionals... from hot water with vinegar, to a steam mop. I've contacted Anderson Flooring and waiting on a reply.

I just tried the steps Creoleindc posted and they work perfect. If you have heavy build up you will need to do this twice with a mop. However, if you get down on your hands and knees and scrub a bit you only have to do it once. I decided just to mop it twice.

1. Mix 1/2 cup of ammonia with 1 gallon of warm water.
2. Apply solution to floor with mop in inconspicuous place first to test.
3. Once you determine it's okay to use on your floors...apply to floor and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Wipe up the solution with a clean soft cloth.
5. Wipe with circular motion if there is more of a build up.
6. According to how much build up you have...you might have to repeat the process until it's all off.

I have the same problem! Have pre finished hardwood floors with a terrible haze! I think I used Bona once and this happened! I was supposed to use Bellawood cleaner! Also tried English polish! Looks terrible!! Please help! I feel sick!!

I used Bona on my brand new dark wood manufactured floors and they are also whitish, hazy, and show every single foot step. I then used the Rejuvinate brand and it is even worse!!! I tried the vinegar , Dawn, and alcohol mixture I've seen others recommend, and still looks beyond horrid! Oh no!!!!!!

Bona Cleaner, used correctly, will not leave a haze on a wood floor. Bona Polish will. Try Bona Polish Remover.

Rejuvenate floor cleaner is possibly okay, but their Restorer and Refresher products should generally be avoided for wood floors.

I tried bona polish remover! Did not work!!

Hands and knees with old T shirts and mineral spirits. And good ventilation. If that doesn't do it, they are ruined.

I tried both windex and ammonia. Both worked and both required tons of elbow grease. Never using that product again....

I did finally find a product that worked to remove the white haze. It's called Krud Kutter Original formula and can be found online. I sprayed,let I t sit a few minutes and wiped off with towel after towel after towel.... Until my whole house was done. No harm to floor and now I use windex mixed with vinegar and water in a spray bottle to clean it. I spray the microfiber head and change heads very often.

Tie Tac will get all the polish off floor with out harming it. We typically use a buffer to apply it though.

Ammonia-free windex (or something comparable) is the only product we recommend to our customers to clean their hardwood floors with. It is strong enough to get the floors clean, yet won't harm the finish, and evaporates quickly enough, not to damage the planks by absorption into the seams.

Here's a helpful link to a Blog on Floor Care and Maintenance Tips for hardwood flooring: http://www.thecouturefloorcompany.com/floor-care-and-maintenance-tips-westchester-ny.html

The Couture Floor Company

I have a hardwood floor in my office at work and it has a for lack of a better work, layer of buildup from being mopped. I can see the shine under the film where it gets scratched off randomly by shoes, chairs, etc.. The floor originally was cleaned with Pine Sol and water. Then it was cleaned with Mop and Go and this only made it worse. I have since stopped having them clean with anything wet at all. I have tried several cleaners, vinegar solution, straight vinegar, ammonia solution, straight ammonia, and mineral spirits. The only thing that removes it is 000 steel wool at approx 1 square foot per 30 mins and lots of elbow grease. It's a prefinished cherry floor and is beautiful anywhere it hasn't built up a film. I am really hoping someone can give me their solution to the problem. Thanks

honestly at the point your at with your floor at the office would be best to resand. if the floor allows it.

your steel wool attempt did see results, but at the price of time and energy, you could continue to that, but would need to determine if you can afford to spend the time doing it, or paying someone to do it, and then will it turn out to your liking?

I had an absolutely horrible experience with the bona polish, basically the same results everyone else is describing. My floors actually felt sticky as well, so gross. I looked into how to remove it on your own, the ammonia one looked promising but decided I didn't want to waste an entire weekend on my hands and knees. Ended up calling a floor care guy and he came out and stripped it in a day, cost a dollar a foot, worth it in my opinion. If you live in the San Diego area ace floor care were the guys I used to remove the buildup and I was super happy with their work! good luck, but definitely don't use bona polish!!

I had the same experiences as others.. used both Bona and mop and glo orange. Both resulting in a cloudy film. Nothing seemed to work. Then I tried windex and with enough elbow power the film really did come off. I don't feel the floors are back to perfect but sooo much better. Definitely give it a try and do it several times.

It has to be the variation of types of wood as to what works. Bona Floor Cleaner (NOT the POLISH) works on my engineered wood floors and my mother has original wood floors and she uses Bona and other methods, steam etc. her floors are virtually indestructible. We're pretty careful with ours.

I've experienced the same hazy buildup on my engineered bamboo flooring with Bona cleaner. I have never used any other product in the 4 years since the floors were installed. I only noticed the haze in the last few months, so I wondered if the cleaner can go bad, and googled. That's when I found this thread. If I get on my hands and knees, I can easily buff the haze off with a soft cloth, so that gives me hope. Bona is going in the trash, and I will try some of the alternative cleaning methods in this thread.

Norwex, norwex, norwex!!!!! I had this problem and EVERYTHING I tried only made it worse. In a last ditch effort I used my norwex envirocloth (damp)and polishing cloth on a couple planks and it looked good as new! Then a couple more planks, then a couple more. Only problem is I have to clean every individual plank with on my hands and knees to get it all up. I won’t use bona or ANY OTHER chemicals on my hardwoods again!

Another one who had build-up from Bona cleaner (and yes, it was the cleaner not the polish); same problem with Bruce, too. I used a solution of vinegar and water and a microfiber mop and got most of it off, fortunately it wasn't bad enough to warrant a hands-and-knees job. Never again; those two cr*p products are sitting in a box in the basement awaiting the yearly hazmat dropoff. We don't wear outside shoes in the house, that really cuts down the need to clean the floors, regular vacuuming is all I usually do; only reason I have to clean more often this time of year is wet paw prints from the snow, but I'm just going to quickly wipe off with a slightly damp microfiber mop. Did I say never again to the Bona already? Nope, never again.

What about those steamer mops? On hard wood floors? Bona cleaner really put the Sticky hazy every foot print shows up . Need help!!!

Bona ruined my wood floors as well. I used windex and over time the haze does wear off. Now I only use watered down vinegar. I don't know how Bona is still on the market.

No steamers on hardwood. No steamers on ANYTHING other than tile, glass, metal. Steamers can damage natural stone floors as well. Just so you know.

Yes this polish ‘had’ messed up my floors too. I had been putting the polish on about 4 times a month for 6 months.. yikes.. but I found a solution! I bought a $100.00 floor cleaner/polisher from Target and a big bottle of Windex. Mopped the floor with warm water then sprayed Windex all over it.. I did work in sections. I would let the floor and Windex sit for about 5 minutes then started the polisher. After 4 hours I was able to clean about 400sq feet. Yes, it takes time but my floors look FANTASTIC AGAIN. I should note that I have the engineer wood floors but would imagine this would work on any floor. I researched for weeks and weeks and was so sad but cant tell you how happy I am to have my floors in their original state again.
Now my next job is to go on every site I can find where people are having the same problem we all had and give them this solution

OMG You are the best!!! This has been so frustrating for me. I will be sure to add this to my to do list this weekend. Would you mind providing me with the floor polisher you purchased from Target? Thanks!

Large amounts of water and detergent can and will damage wood.

Ouch..."polish 4 times a month for 6 months". Wow. Sigh. These types of products that say, "adds shine and luster to your floor" are always polishes. The cleaners will say, "Does not leave a residue."

That's how to tell the difference. As elisabeth santos describes, she has effectively done a "screening" of the floor with a machine and a chemical stripper (Windex with Ammonia). After that much residue was put down, it is about the only way to deal with this type of contamination.

Used Windex without ammonia, left it on for about 5 minutes & then wiped up the residue with an old towel. Worked great!