What I did to the hardwood floors

Most of the house has hardwood floors. I haven't the faintest idea what kind of hardwood. Before we moved in I sent my husband over to mop, then I came and mopped myself, puzzled that I couldn't make the floors look good. It turns out that the floors have completely lost their finish. I did a fair amount of research on the web and found an overwhelming vote for Waterlox -- a tung oil+mineral spirits combination that a) protects the wood and b) brings out the luster. One good thing about Waterlox is that you don't have to refinish -- strip the old finish and sand.



However there are three problems -- Waterlox can be hard to find (VOC restrictions in various states), it's really expensive, and opened containers of Waterlox tend to "gel" and have to be thrown out. Most places carry it only in quarts -- at my local store it's about $40 a quart. Online, before shipping!, $25 a quart. There's a handy online calculator that lets you figure out how much you'll need. I have 1000 square feet of wood floor. For a less shiny floor that takes two gallons of Original, then four gallons of Satin. Online that's 24 quarts of Waterlox, $588.00 plus $56.47 shipping. Yikes.

I started looking at the options. Tung oil takes too long to dry. I found myself staring at the lemon oil in the grocery store. At $5 I could afford it. So I cleaned the floor on my hands and knees with a slightly damp rag, then I sprinkled on a healthy amount of Old English Lemon Oil, and used another ran to rub it in. The oiled cloth picked up even more dirt -- a good thing -- and the floor looks much better. Now, I wouldn't do this again -- it turns out lemon oil is light mineral oil (basically paint thinner) scented with a little lemon oil (not labeled on the bottle but you can find it on the Material Safety Data Sheets). Better choices would have been mineral oil or olive oil, scented if you want. Recipes are available at several sites.

The floor was only slick for about 30 minutes. After that the floor had absorbed all the "lemon oil". I wouldn't call this a "finish", rather I would say I cleaned the floor with an oil product, rather than water. I would still like to use Waterlox...when I have the money. Until then furniture polish will have to tide us through.