I have a couple of questions. We bought a 30 year old home that has hardwood flooring. To my knowledge, it has a wax finish. It has gotten scratched because I have a young son who loves to push his trucks down the hall. I'm not too worried about that. I'll wait till my children are grown to worry about scratches. First question: Our floors seem to have a "film" on them. When we stand in one room and look across the hall into the other bedroom (with the sun shining in), we can see footprints where we've walked. How can we clean the floors and remove this film without the floors becoming too slippery? I usually damp mop them with one of those "Swiffer Wet" mops.

Second question: The lady who lived here before said she just bought a container of wax each year for the floor. We tried that after being here a year on a small spot and it didn't seem to help the look at all. How should we do that exactly? That seems incredibly time-consuming to get down on hands and knees and wax the floor every year.

the film is from your swifter, wax floors should never be cleaned with anything that has water in them. wax and water do not mix. To maintain the floor a periodic waxing will be neccessary, a rotary buffer is what you need to apply and buff out the wax to a nice sheen. ITs similar to waxing your car, apply the wax a little at a time and let haze over and buff to desired sheen. A little goes a long way with wax and the more you put down the harder it is to buff out.

Waxed floors should be periodically stripped of the old wax. Over waxing (wax build up) collects dirt and looks dull and is difficult to polish to a shine. Find a cleaner/stripper for WAXED floors and follow the directions. Maintaining a waxed floor is more work. After you get it cleaned properly, you'll need to apply a QUALITY paste wax. I like Trewax. As Kevin said, a little goes a long way. You could use an automobile buffer/polisher instead of a stand up floor buffer. You're still on your knees but it is less work than doing it by hand.