What cleaning products can and should not be used with the above floor? Is Lysol acceptable? The floor has lost its luster. What will replace it?
Arun

Hi,

You should only use the manufacterer's suggested cleaning products. Bruce makes a wood floor cleaner and that is what I would recommend. There are other brands, Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner and Basic's Squeaky Clean, that work very well. I never recommend household cleaning products such as Murphy's, Spic N' Span or Lysol. They may harm the finish and prevent adhesion in recoating. It may be time for a recoat in which case I would call a local NWFA member to perform this procedure.
http://www.woodfloors.org/consumer/findpro.aspx

How do I know when it should be recoated? Nothing has been done on it in 3 years.

I have been told that this is the "Ford Escort" of floors. How much does recoating run?

A recoat should be done when the floor shows signs of wear. You can ask a wood floor professional to examine the floor to determine if it is needed. An average cost would be about $1.25 per sq.ft. but that can vary greatly depending on size of job, product used, condition of floor, geographic location and local labor costs.
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... screen.htm

Murphy's Oil Soap had a booth at the convention. I spent some time talking with them. Theya re claiming that their product is safe for wood floors and does not cause any recoat adhesion problems. They proudly display samples of recoats over their product and have some customer testomonials from some very prominent floor people, including Berger, who proclaims he has been using it for years.
This certainly goes against everything every finish manufacturer has ever advised and I was interested in this Murphy's marketing drive. Give them credit for facing the heat and I had a good time giving them some. They withstood it well and in good humor.
They were at a loss for words though when I asked them if they had done any tests of recoat longevity over their oil product. They have a fancy, circular explanation of the "oil" thing, bottom line is-it's still an oil-derived product. Anyway, as many can attest, a finish applied over a poor surface may stick and show no adverse reactions to such abuse while their erstwhile floor finisher cashes the check, but the finish will wear very quickly.
My wife once made the mistake of using some such product on our kitchen floor. Pine Sol, I believe...scented Pine Sol. After expressing my displeasure of her actions, I eventually recoated the floor with two coats of Street Shoe. All signs of that finish were gone within six months. She is now my ex-wife.
So, back to the subject, the nice folks at the Murphy's booth had never heard of this phenomenon. Stumped and wordless, I felt some sympathy for the nice people and asked them to just go back to their testing laboratories and please see for yourself. They agreed and promised to report their findings back in a timely fashiion.
Yeah, right.

Yeah Marco,

I was aware that Murphy's has been advertising that their oil soap is safe for wood floors and even got some manufacterers ( can't remember who) to say so. But with the finish manufacterer's cleaning products being relatively cheap, why risk wrecking a floor using anything else? Are you refering to Jules Berger? Ya know, he doesn't use urethane on his floors but a penetrating oil and wax system so he could say Murphy's is ok on HIS floors but not your regular urethane finished floor. That is something I'm sure they didn't bother to mention. I've learned to take manufacterers claims with a grain of salt. Check this one out. I asked Waterlox the correct procedure for applying more finish to an already Waterlox finished floor that was about 5 yrs. old. Know what I was told? Wash it with Spic n'Span then coat it. I didn't do it that way. Common sense told me that was folly. Instead, after vacumning and cleaning with Bona cleaner, I buffed it with a maroon pad ( which really cleaned alot of old dirt off the floors), vacumned again, tacked with mineral spirits and when dry, coated it. Worked great. So as I said, I don't take manufacterers claims very seriously. Their mostly marketing ploys.

How about Zep's hardwood floor cleaner that is avilable at Lowe's?

a towel, lightly damped, on a coated wood floor works good too. Too much cleaning products result in dulling, streaking, footprinting other marks becoming visible on the surface. The marks are in the Residues, not the surface of the floor. See these complaints on a regular basis and all problems begin with cleaning agents.