How To Get Wax Off Hardwood Floors

Instead you want to try to evenly scrape off as much of the top wax as you can to get to what is sticking to your floor.

How to get wax off hardwood floors.

Wax provides good protection for your floor if it is finished with a penetrating sealer and it can make polyurethane lacquer and shellac finishes. While waxes vary most contain an emulsion of paraffin or carnauba an extract from brazilian palm trees in a solvent when you apply the wax the solvent evaporates and only the wax coating remains. Then let the solution sit on the floors for 10 minutes before scrubbing it in with a sponge. A small application of cleaner on a microfiber mop is all that s needed to clean your floors.

If waxing a floor that doesn t need it the wax will react negatively with the finish and create a cloudy look. Floors that have a polyurethane finish do not need to be waxed. When cleaning hardwood floors less is more. To gain a better understanding of how to remove it it s good to have an idea of the ingredients in floor wax.

Take care to dry any remaining water as standing water can easily damage the surface of hardwood floors. Using an ice cube to harden the wax drippings is one way to remove wax from hardwood floors with minimal scraping required. Try working in sections with a mop and going over it with a dry microfiber cloth on a dry mop. If you re trying to remove wax from linoleum floors use diluted isopropyl alcohol to scrub the floors.

Simply hold the ice cube in place on the wax for 30 seconds even if the wax has already cooled. For tile floors remove the wax by mopping with ammonia laundry detergent and warm water. You don t want to pick at the wax since this can damage your floor. Lay the bag or towel over the wax.

If the wax is fresh and still malleable you may need to hold the ice cube for a minute or two. Removing old wax from wood floors is time consuming but it is not an impossible task. How to remove wax build up on hardwood floors. When the whole floor is stripped of wax to remove wax buildup give it a final cleaning by mopping the surface of the wood with hot water.