Wooden floor looks greasy

[ComradeJing]

What can I use? My wooden floor looks really greasy and smeared. What can I use to get rid of the horrible smeary look that won't damage the wood?

I use Johnsons soapy wood cleaner. You dilute it in water, then mop, no need to rinse. It leaves the floor smelling sweet and looking glossy. Method wood floor cleaner does the same but I get through it very quickly as you use it neat.

I suspect something has affected the finish. So is it varnished, waxed, oiled or bare? How old, and when did it go wrong?

What have you been using to clean and polish it?

Is it in a kitchen or bathroom?

Has anything spilled on it?

Right. The house is new to us but the floor - in the kitchen and dining room- is approx 6 years old. When we purchased in November DH and I do not remember the floor being like this. Having said that a cleaning company did a clean as the old owners moved out and it's possible that they did this.

It's some kind of pre treated wood. I don't think it's waxed. We don't think it's laminate but we really don't know. DH thinks its a pre varnished veneer.

The smear is across the ENTIRE floor from end to end. I have only used water and a microfiber mop (so not actually wet mopping - just a damp mop head) and twice I've used the method good for wood cleaner. Last Tuesday I even - in desperation - used a steam mop. The smeer was worse if anything.

I believe the old owners (they left cleaning products as they moved country) used 'orange glow' but from what I've read only that is terrible for floors and I've not tried it.

Sorry that's a bit of an essay but I wanted to give as much infor as possible!

if it really is varnished, then the finish will not easily be damaged, so I'd start by stripping the surface clean. It might be that is has an incompatible polish on it.

try rubbing a small test area with a rag moistened with dilute flash or other GP cleaner in water, and rub dry. If it dries clean, then clean off the rest.

if the surface feels soft after cleaning, something has atacked the varnish. Sometimes it will harden up after it dries. I don't know what to do about that, short of sanding off and revarnishing.

If your attempts at cleaning strip off the finish and you go back to bare wood, it was probably an oiled or waxed surface, and you can re-oil or re-wax, but you will probably need to clean off the incompatible polish. It might for example be a silicone polish applied over hardwax. Some floor clean-and-polish treatments leave a film that builds up over time, and has to be periodically stripped off. I'm thinking of Johnson's Kleer, if it is sold here, instructions s/b on the bottle.

You do need to work out if it is a laminate or a hardwood floor. Look at the edge of the boards in a doorway, where they will have been hidden under a cover strip.