It's called burnishing, and all matte surfaces do it. Your matte walls have shiny spots where the hands on it basically polish it. Same with your floor.

@DeWayne

Thank you! is there any way to clean it off? I tried a touch of Dawn. Nope. Bona Deep Floor Cleaner. Nope. A touch of water and vinegar in a test spot. Nope. It looks horrible. Soon my floors will be satin

Hard to tell from pictures, but it looks dirty. If I hadn't seen your claim that only water has been used I would suspect an incorrect product had been used. if you spray a spot with ammoniated window cleaner and clean it with a white paper towel, does any dirt end up on the towel? Does the cleaned spot look any different?

This is a vexing issue, unlike anything I've ever seen, with that pattern on the floor. I'd discount the possibility of material issue or application error as I doubt it would cause that patterning. I recommend buying Woodwise cleaner concentrate and using it regularly to see if it makes a difference.

I don't know how much traffic you have, whether you have pets and/or kids, and whether you have proper walkoff mats at entries. Or maybe it's one of two people in the house who take off their shoes every time they come inside. Regardless of what's causing your current issue, you'll need to use a cleaner on the floor, as plain water is insufficient.

Thank you! The floors are 100 percent clean as I spent 4 hours yesterday cleaning them after my call with Bona. I used their Deep Floor cleaner about 10 times in that area and throught the house and nothing changed. If I use a white rag and water, It comes up clean. We have no pets. Two teenagers and we have a strict rule to anyone that comes in, no shoes. I can see the shine in the path marks that we walk. You can see the one leading right to the refrigerator. :) I tried ammonia and water in a test spot and it came up clean and nothing changed with these marks. Could the sealant not be "working" and that is why we are seeing this the most in high traffic areas?

You have a photo of after when the floor was finished for comparison?

It's most likely dirt and oil build up. Sometimes elbow grease doesn't work and you just need to use machines to do the job. You may need to use a machine to scrub it off. If, you have a 6" orbital. The Festool pad in the link works well. This is what we use to clean edges on deep cleaning jobs. We use a floor scrubber and buffer for the field. Try it with Bona's deep cleaner. If, that does not work. Try a different cleaner. You need a hardwood floor cleaner with a good degreaser. We use Ciranova's "Cleaner" and "Fresh" for basic cleaning jobs.

thank you! this wont damage the finish? or make it a gloss floor (it is ultra matte) ? Before these floors were refinished, we had a company come out out to clean our previous matte floors and fhey did something that caused them to be high gloss. it was very odd and that is why we redid all our floors (and we wanted to chsnge the color).

Test a small spot first.

The sealer is applied under the finish so it can't be the culprit. I have seen the burnishing that was mentioned and it didn't result in the mottled appearance you have.

When you were cleaning it with just plain water, what method and implements were you using?

Thank you Timothy. we were sweeping, then dry mop with bona pad and then we would use a damp bona micro fiber deep clean pad with water and mop- no product. I tried Wiseman last night on the floors and nothing changed. The floors are clean- like wet white rag comes out clean (I spent 7 hours deep cleaning them with bona deep clean) but these marks arent coming out. I can see that they are in all the high traffic area so i have to assume it was the oils from feet but I would think that would come off and it wont.

Frankly, I think the only option is a buff and recoat. I'd probably opt for satin next time. I've used both matte and satin Traffic numerous times and never seen anything like this.