Hardwood floor finish dilemma.

I screwed up. I didn't do my homework before I went to work on our new house. The waxed hardwood floors haven't been neglected, but haven't been waxed in probably several years. There was minimal traffic but lots of dust and cobwebs. So I used the swifter wet jet. Yup, I know that's bad. But I didn't find out it was bad until after I put 3 coats of wax on it. The floorIng doesn't hold the shine, it smudges pretty easily. First question. Is that the nature of a waxed hardwood floor? Does it smudge easy? If not, is it really screwed up because of the wetjet? If that's the case, can I fix it and how?

We have an ancient floor buffer/carpet scrubber combo that seems to work well. But my husband thinks that his uncle (who owned the house before us) used the brushes and not felt or microfiber for buffing. So that is how I buffed the floors between wax layers. Is that ok? Is that where the smudges are coming from? Did I just make things worse?

Thank you for your help, I'm hoping you are going to tell me I don't have to sand it down to start from scratch.

 

Welcome to the forums! It may help us to see what you see. A picture or two would be the way to do that. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html

How old are the floors. Today's flooring takes no wax, so with a wax buildup, introducing water to it could be a contributing factor.

 

Thanks for the welcome! I am mobile now, I will post pictures later when I get to a pc.
For now, the house was built in 1981, the floors are original. Thanks again.

 

I can't seem to get the images over. My home computer wont alter the file to jpeg and my work computer wont let me upload images because we are restricted. Hopefully you can copy and paste these images.

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Hold on for more advice, but I can't see a reason the floor couldn't be buffed out. I would rent a professional buffer.
It looks like maybe too much wax was applied.
It's not an endorsement, but you might want to check out Bona floor care products. That's the only company I know that offers products for most floor problems.

 

Do you think that using the Wet Jet and then waxing on top of it would alter the wax? I waited for the floors to dry first before waxing.

 

You had wax UNDER the water, which caused an emulsion effect. Then you waxed on top of it? Compounded injury if that is the case. Were these prefinished floors or did someone have to stain and apply polyurethane to them?

 

Looks like there is a bevel between each board which would indicate prefinished flooring.

 

I'm pretty sure they are prefinished.

 

Then why wax them? Normally they only need cleaning. If they get beat up, then they need a total refinish. IMO, waxing floors went out in the 70's. I use the Orange Glo products on my prefinished bamboo in my rental cabin, and it works fine. We are pet friendly and the floors show no signs of damage.

 

I guess just because the guy before us did. I don't know anything about this.

 

IMO there isn't anything wrong with waxing the floor but you do need to be careful not to get too much wax build up. I wax our hardwood about once a year. The biggest downside to waxing the wood is ALL the wax needs to be removed before the floor can be refinished.

Your floors don't look bad especially considering they are 36 yr old. I'd call it a day and go on to the next project

 

I guess my problem then might be the process of waxing and buffing. I used a paste wax and put it on by hand with a microfiber towel. I let it set for over 30 minutes according to the container and then buffed with our Regina heavy duty semi-commercial buffer. That buffer is probably as old as the house but seemed to work great. My husband had me use the brushes instead of the pads. Would the pads work better at getting the excess wax off? Should I be doing something in between application and buffing to decrease the excess wax?

 

I can't answer that as I buff our floors by hand .... probably why it doesn't get done but every yr or so
If the wax hasn't worn away between coats it's generally best to strip the wax, maybe not every time but every so often.