We have 1930s oak parquet flooring in our lounge and entrance hall. It was
professionally cleaned and re polished some 2 years ago but is not looking
that good, and requires a lot of maintenance.
Does anyone have experience of a longer lasting finish that requires less
maintenance? It currently only looks good when still freshly washed and
still wet so a product that gives that freshly washed look would be good.

Mike

On Apr 24, 12:09*pm, "Muddymike" wrote:
We have 1930s oak parquet flooring in our lounge and entrance hall. It was
professionally cleaned and re polished some 2 years ago but is not looking
that good, and requires a lot of maintenance.
Does anyone have experience of a longer lasting finish that requires less
maintenance? It currently only looks good when still freshly washed and
still wet so a product that gives that freshly washed look would be good.

Mike

I would only wash a wooden floor in extremis. The traditional method
for parquet is old-fashioned wax polish. my parents, which has had
over 50 years of it looks fantastic.

Jonathan

On Apr 24, 12:09 pm, "Muddymike" wrote:
We have 1930s oak parquet flooring in our lounge and entrance hall. It
was
professionally cleaned and re polished some 2 years ago but is not
looking
that good, and requires a lot of maintenance.
Does anyone have experience of a longer lasting finish that requires less
maintenance? It currently only looks good when still freshly washed and
still wet so a product that gives that freshly washed look would be good.

Mike

I would only wash a wooden floor in extremis. The traditional method
for parquet is old-fashioned wax polish. my parents, which has had
over 50 years of it looks fantastic.

Jonathan

So how do they clean it? We use a wooden floor soap recommended by the guy
that cleaned and re-polished it. Ours have been badly abused by past owners,
covered with fitted carpets and loads of spilt paint! The guy that did the
re-polishing used an expensive 2 pack polish and it looked great for a
while, sadly he is no longer around for advice.

Mike

On 24/04/2012 15:34, Muddymike wrote:

So how do they clean it? We use a wooden floor soap recommended by the
guy that cleaned and re-polished it. Ours have been badly abused by past
owners, covered with fitted carpets and loads of spilt paint! The guy
that did the re-polishing used an expensive 2 pack polish and it looked
great for a while, sadly he is no longer around for advice.

Mike


I'm no expert, but I think if you use any water-based cleaning product,
it's best a case of "damp" rather than "wet". If you liberally douse
your parquet with a very wet, heavy rope mop every day, it'll soon be
wrecked. If you have something that you could describe as "a wet-wipe
wrapped around a block on the end of stick", then you're introducing
considerably less water.

I also think excessive water can make the tar (if you've got the old
bitchumen type adhesive) leach up between the blocks where some of them
aren't as tight together as they could be.

Michael