All You Must Know About Waxing Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood flooring add traditional class to your house, however not once they’re boring, dinted, or dingy. Thankfully, waxing hardwood flooring is a cheap, tried-and-true option to restore their gleam and delay their life. Forward, we clarify approach for making use of a high-performing wax end that may look so grand, you’ll be strolling on air!

Why wax hardwood flooring?

Popularized within the Nineteen Forties, waxing is a floor-finishing approach during which clear or coloured wax, fabricated from a mix of solvents and artificial and/or pure waxes like beeswax or carnauba, is utilized to a hardwood ground in a skinny layer after which buffed to a shine. It’s totally different from ground sprucing, which types a tough, clear coating. Because the solvents in ground wax evaporate, the wax hardens right into a protecting seal that confers a number of advantages:

• Will increase stain resistance: The wax seal limits the absorption of spills to maintain flooring from staining.
• Minimizes minor imperfections: Wax fades or eliminates the looks of superficial scratches, dings, and scuffs marks.
• Preserves underlying finishes: Wax acts as the primary line of protection towards spills, mud, and filth, stopping them from encroaching on underlying hardwood ground finishes, comparable to oil, and enabling the underlying end to last more.
• Prolongs ground life: The elevated hardiness of waxed flooring permits them to probably final years longer than unwaxed flooring if usually maintained.
• Boosts magnificence: Clear wax lends a shiny look and a glossier really feel that vacuuming or mopping alone can’t obtain. Coloured waxes, out there in hues on the brown spectrum, provide these similar advantages plus a beautiful tint that provides flooring a good richer, deeper patina.

That mentioned, wax gives solely restricted resistance to deeper dents or gouges, and does little to chase away warping or bulging from widespread moisture publicity as a result of leaks or minor floods. Wax ought to be thought-about as a high coat—a closing layer of safety, not the one protecting end, on a hardwood ground.

Is wax good on all flooring?

The most effective candidate for waxing is a hardwood ground that was beforehand handled with a penetrating wooden sealer, lacquer, varnish, shellac, or oil. Wax can bolster the protecting properties of those finishes. Nonetheless, you may as well wax unfinished flooring.

Waxing can be solely appropriate for hardwood flooring in good structural situation; that’s, with no vital chipping, gouging, discoloration, warping, or bulging. In case your hardwood is plagued with these issues, change or restore affected floorboards (e.g., sand away discoloration or fill gouges with wooden filler) earlier than waxing hardwood flooring.

Which kind of wax ought to I take advantage of?

When purchasing for high quality hardwood ground wax, there are a number of phrases that you simply need to search for on the product’s label. We’ve discovered that one of the best waxes for flooring have these traits.

• Stable paste wax or liquid wax: Stable paste wax, offered in cans often incorporates extra wax and fewer solvent (Minwax ending wax is about $17 for 16 ounces). This sort of wax has a thick consistency that should be utilized by hand with a material, however requires fewer coats than liquid wax. Liquid wax is offered in cans or bottles (a quart of Rust-Oleum Satin Wax for Ending is about $23) incorporates extra solvent, so has a thinner consistency and could be utilized by mop, however requires a number of coats.
• Labeled to be used on flooring: Keep away from waxes labeled solely to be used on furnishings, as they harden into an ultra-slick coat that makes flooring slippery.
• Solvent-based, not water primarily based. Keep away from water-based or acrylic waxes on hardwood flooring; they’ll trigger completed flooring to tackle a white tinge and might injury unfinished hardwood flooring.
• It’s buffable. Search for conventional waxes that should be buffed after utility; eschew one-step (i.e., “no-buff”) waxes, as filth readily clings to them.

Wax Hardwood Flooring

There are three phases of waxing hardwood flooring: floor preparation, utility, and buffing. Right here’s easy methods to full every part shortly and successfully.

Put together a Ground for Wax

1. Take away rugs and furnishings from the room.
2. Strip outdated wax, if there’s any, by working a delicate material dampened with mineral spirits or a industrial wax stripper comparable to Trewax Heavy Responsibility Ground Stripper over 2-foot sections of the ground at a time. Proceed till no extra wax residue comes off on the fabric. Slough off cussed wax build-up with fine-grade metal wool.
3. Dry-mop (with a microfiber material pad) or vacuum the ground with a mud brush attachment to eradicate mud and any unfastened wax build-up.
4. If the ground continues to be dingy after dusting, use a sponge mop to take away grime. Work in 3-foot sections at a time, utilizing a store-bought hardwood ground cleaner, like Bona Hardwood Ground Cleaner, or a do-it-yourself equal consisting of ¼ cup of dish cleaning soap and 1 gallon of heat water. Damp mop the hardwood ground with water to take away leftover cleaner, then dry it with a clear towel.

Apply Hardwood Ground Wax

1. Put on gloves and a mud masks to guard your self from fumes in wax solvents.
2. Get into a cushty kneeling place earlier than making use of stable paste wax, correctly utilized by hand (knee pads ought to assist). In case you are making use of liquid wax, stay standing.
3. Seize a putty knife and a delicate, lint-free material if making use of stable wax. For liquid wax, enlist a sponge mop for the quickest utility.
4. Scoop 1 tablespoon of stable wax with the putty knife onto a delicate, lint-free material. If utilizing liquid wax, pour or squeeze 1 tablespoon from the can or bottle immediately onto the hardwood ground, then dip the mop head into the wax.
5. Working in 1- to 2-foot sections, unfold a skinny layer of stable wax with the fabric, or liquid wax with a sponge mop. Begin at one nook of the room and transfer in direction of an exit, waxing hardwood flooring within the route of the floorboards. Once you’ve used up your first batch of wax, apply extra to the fabric or to the ground till you’ve coated the complete room.
6. Let the primary coat dry. This could take anyplace from 10 minutes to an hour, relying on the product.
7. Apply extra coats per the producer’s advice, permitting every to dry in between. Stable paste wax usually hardens right into a thicker layer of safety, so one coat is usually enough over completed wooden, or two coats over unfinished wooden, whereas liquid wax often wants two to 3 coats at a minimal, as every coat is way thinner.
8. Let the ultimate coat of wax dry simply till hazy; at this level, it’s able to buff.

Buff Waxed Wooden Flooring

• Utilizing a towel for stable wax or a sponge mop with a terry material head for liquid wax, rub the fabric, or glide the mop over 2-foot sections of the ground at a time. Begin in the identical nook of the room the place you started and transfer within the route of the wooden grain, buffing to the specified luster.
• Make use of an electrical ground buffer/polisher (these could be rented from The House Depot by the half day) to hurry up the method of buffing. These machines can be utilized on both stable or liquid wax.
• Depart the freshly waxed ground undisturbed for at the very least 8 hours earlier than stepping on it or changing furnishings.

Keep Waxed Hardwood Flooring

Comply with these tricks to delay the life and luster of your waxed hardwood flooring:

• Re-wax flooring sometimes: Verify the label in your wooden ground wax, and rewax on the interval really helpful by the producer. Typically, stable wax coats can final 2 to five years, and liquid wax coats 1 to 2 years. If no re-waxing interval is given, wipe a material dampened with mineral spirits over a small part of your ground and examine it. If the fabric is clear with no whitish or coloured residue, no wax stays. It’s time to re-wax.
• Keep away from wax buildup: Don’t apply contemporary wax earlier than the outdated wax coat has worn off, as over-waxing hardwood flooring may end up in ugly wax build-up.
• Buff out imperfections: In between waxings, fade superficial imperfections by buffing flooring utilizing the guidelines above.
• Preserve flooring clear: Weekly dry-mop waxed flooring with a microfiber material pad, or vacuum with a mud brush attachment, to maintain mud at bay.
• Be even handed with the mop: Keep away from wet-mopping massive areas of the waxed hardwood ground with water; it will probably cloud the wax coat or injury the wooden. Mop hardwood flooring in small sections at a time, and dry every part instantly.
• Preserve ground dry: Wipe up spills as quickly as they happen with a water-dampened material, then wipe dry.
• Use a particular cleaner: Take away stains or discoloration by working hardwood ground cleaner into the offending spot with a material. Use a water-dampened material to take away the leftover cleaner, then dry with a clear towel.
• Preserve filth out: Lay rugs or mats on the foot of doorways close to waxed hardwood flooring to maintain filth from being tracked in.
• Transfer furnishings rigorously: Elevate, slightly than drag, furnishings throughout the waxed hardwood flooring to keep away from dents