Striping Wax Off Wood Floors

To strip and wax a floor start by purchasing a floor finish stripper specifically designed for your flooring.

Striping wax off wood floors. And worse yet more coats of finish may never dry. Then use a squeegee to remove the wax and stripper soak up the excess liquid with rags and mop the floor with clean water. For tile floors remove the wax by mopping with ammonia laundry detergent and warm water. There is more than one way to remove wax from an existing finish but none guarantee success.

Hardwood floors are a tradtional flooring choice popular because of the natural beauty they bring to a space. If you do not remove all traces of the paste wax no finish and i mean no finish will stick to the floor. How to remove old wax from floors without chemicals. We have seen floor finishes takes weeks to dry when they got wax contaminated and that was on floors that we actually resanded.

Removing the wax is a bit dicey. A wax coating can help extend the life of your hardwood floors by providing a natural barrier that protects against moisture. Waxed floors such as linoleum or vinyl can flake or become yellow due to age or too many layers of wax. Sanding down the finish can drive the wax even deeper because the friction of sanding heats up the wax.

Next mix the stripper with water according to the instructions and mop it over the floor. You need a product approved for hardwood floors or you risk damaging the floor finish when you strip the wax. Nothing adheres well to wax and even after cleaning the wood grain can become contaminated. You can buy commercial wax removers to make this job less onerous but read the label carefully before purchasing one.

Wax can penetrate the wood making future paint or stain finishes or touch ups difficult or impossible. Many are intended for vinyl linoleum and tile but not hardwood. Then let the solution sit on the floors for 10 minutes before scrubbing it in with a sponge. The best way to strip wax buildup from floors depends on what kind of floors they are.

Removing old wax from wood floors is time consuming but it is not an impossible task.