Does anyone have high-gloss hardwood floors & regret the finish?
beths96
15 years ago
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cind11
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Does anyone use a steam mop for hardwood floors?
Comments (13)I know of several people that use and swear by steam mops on hardwood. One friend has a 100 yr old house and said her floors have never been as clean as they are now since she started using the steam mop. I do not have hard wood and was told by the manufacturer not to use steam on laminate because it can cause some of them to start to delaminate on the edges. I have a shark steam mop and can tell you from experience the floor does NOT get wet it is dry pretty much instantly. It would get more water exposure by using a wet mop which is much wetter than a steam mop. But it is up to each individual as to whether they want to try it. My friend tried it first in a closet that had the same hard wood as the rest of the house and she was thrilled with the cleaning. When I was trying to decide if I wanted a steam mop and what kind I found my answer right here on GW at the cleaning forum and if you don't think there have been tons of discussions on the topic then just check out this link from that one forum. steam mops IT is a very heavily discussed topic here at GW. LOL If I had hardwood I would likely do the same test, I would try it on a location that is not right out in the open. Or specifically ask the manufacturer of the hard wood if that is a possibility. When I steam mop my tile it is completely dry in seconds after the mop goes over it, I can't risk the slipping factor, which is why it is really good for me. And I can do it sitting in my chair because the mop is so easy to use. I would certainly never presume to tell someone what to do I think we are all intelligent enough to make those informed decisions....See MoreHardwood floors in kitchens: any regrets?
Comments (37)floor specifics, laundry room: we installed tiled slate and I must say not a week now, 6+ years later, goes by when I'm not thankful for this. It's a "lifestyle" choice of course, but we wind up having a lot of soggy laundry around here. One kid (now flown the coop, sadly), swims and sodden gear would strew the floor morning noon and night. And it can all just sit there harmlessly on the slate, no problem. Wet dishtowels -- I toss them in daily from the kitchen -- it's a straight shot from the sink to the laundry room door and I just heave em in. :) dh does yard work and comes in sopping -- *drop*, no problem. Etc. If you're neater maybe you can weather something else, but that slate floor is beautiful in my mind and incredibly functional. Also even though it's slate, it's brittleness is along a plane parallel to the floor not perpendicular, so it's hard. Our sideload washer sits on this and it does some pretty steady spinning and hopping and bouncing, all harmlessly on this hard floor. Highly recommended....See MoreDoes anyone has used Vermeister oil for hardwood floor.
Comments (2)Vermeister Oil shouldn't be any different to any other hardwood floor hardwax oil finish (should be like Rubio, etc). It would be much like the current finish you already have on your floor. If I remember from your other thread, you have a dark stained wax/oil finish on maple. The Vermeister will have all the same issues as what you are seeing right now. It might be a snick better regarding presentation (scuffs that are shinier than the finish) but I wouldn't hold out much hope that it is SUPERIOR to what you have. If you want a natural maple finish, you are welcome to work with a water based polyurethane....but I would NOT recommend the matte. It has the same issues (oil foot prints, shiny drag marks, etc) that you are facing right now with your hardwax/oil finish. A matte finish looks hazy in certain lights, shows oil foot prints (skin oils are SHINIER than matte finishes) and it will look "shinier" if you have dragged something across it (thereby creating a small "polished" streak across your floor). If you must have low gloss, I HIGHLY recommend working with a satin finish. These finishes are SUPER easy to live with. They are the PRECISE gloss level of oily foot prints! They hide EVERYTHING. And as they age, they get DULLER! Yah. The little bit of glow you see on day 1 should be reduced by month #1. And reduced yet again by year #1. If you want a stain on your maple, be prepared for BLOTCHY. I mean NASTY blotches. Like it looks like an elephant used their feet to apply the stain. It is not impossible to get a beautiful stain on maple....it is just SUPER DIFFICULT and might take more than one attempt. When staining maple, the darker the better. The darker the finish, the easier is to 'hide' the blotchy appearance (the floor being too dark to tell the difference between 'blotch' and 'smooth' finish). If you go with a natural colour in polyurethane, I HIGHLY recommend Loba 2K Supra AT in Satin. It is GORGEOUS with a relatively low gloss level (even for satin). It is costly (no where near $250/gallon CND) but well worth it. Loba also has a UV Protect additive to be used WITH MAPLE so that it does NOT turn MARGARINE yellow....See MorePre-finished Hardwood/Eng Hardwood recommendation
Comments (8)Ok...first things first. Janka hardness ratings only apply to solid hardwood. Engineered planks do not work with Janka because the plied layers underneath are often 'soft woods'. Considering Janka measures how much force it takes to imbed a metal ball into the wood, it isn't possible to offer Janka scores for engineered. They just don't compute. The next thing I'm going to point out is the oddity of trying to match the ENTIRE HOUSE to a single room of existing hardwood. You have a small amount of hardwood that is dictating the rest of the house. It's not impossible but it is HIGHLY unusual. In other words, you are trying to put down more than a thousand square feet of flooring by trying to match 150 - 250sf of dining room (I don't know the size of your dining room so I'm only guessing here). That's a little like putting the cart before the horse. Usually we see this the other way around. Usually we have a house full of hardwood (big amount) but the bedrooms have carpet (small amount). The homeowners then agonize over getting a match for the smaller area. That is normal. As for your price range that you are looking at, they are too low and a little thin. The gold standard is 3/4" thickness (solid or engineered). An engineered product with 3mm or more of wear layer is the base level. The thicker the wear layer the more times a floor can be refinished. The Gold standard is 6mm wear layer (usually in the $10/sf range). If you are having a hard time finding floors that you like, you might want to think about replacing the dining room at the same time. This takes away all the pressure to work with low-grade hardwoods just to get a match to a small amount of hardwood. Solid or engineered should be more than what you are looking at for price. Prefinished wood flooring should be in the $7/sf just to start and they go up from there....See Moremetromom
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