We recently moved into a new house with all hardwood floors. However, nearly all the hardwood floors are sticky to walk on (it feels like spilled pop). I can see places on some of the floors where they tried to put finish on them. It's almost like they're drying, but the stickiness never goes away. Will all these floors need refinished again? Could they have used a product that was incompatible with the preexisting finish? Please advise.

Thanks,

Jill

Jill,

It's hard to say what the problem is. I suggest trying to talk with the previous owners to find out what was used on the floors. Did they hire a cleaning company after moveout? Did they hire a company to restore the floors? If they aren't accomodating, you will need to find a HARDWOOD flooring professional in your area experienced in finish on site floors to do a jobsite inspection and recommendation.

Thanks for the advice. I contacted the realtor who sold us the house to see if they can contact the previous owner. I also have emailed a local professional for a quote.

Jill:
Just a question to help clarify your situation: Does the finish look old? Or is it newly refinished?
Charlie

The floors look fairly nice. In some spots if you look at it with the light at the right angle, you can see a shiny line, like they started putting on a finish and then stopped. For the life of me, I cannot remember if the floors were sticky when we looked at the home (maybe two months ago) but we have owned the house for a week now and they are still sticky. In one room, though, you can see a line around the outside that looks like plain wood with no finish on it, but the rest of that floor is very sticky.

Jill:
So, my next "guess" (question) is: Is it real humid where you're at and very hot? Perhaps 80% humidity and 90 + degrees?
Charlie

Charles,

I live in Wisconsin. It has been pretty hot lately, but not above 90. Humidity is high too. But since we've been painting, we've had the A/C on and nothing has changed.

Jill:
I was asking these things to rule out other possibilities. The only thing I could suggest before having to refinish the whole floor is to wipe a 2 square foot area with a good grade of mineral spirits. Let it dry a couple hours and see if that helped. If it DOESN'T help, then it sounds like a refinish job.
Please, let us know if this helps. It's a bit of a head scratcher!
Charlie
P.S. If it was a curing issue, then the air conditioner should have helped after about 2-3 days.

Charlie,

What is a good grade of mineral spirits? What will this do to the finish? Will it take it off or just make it better? Yes, it's definetly a head-scratcher....and very frustrating as we would like to move in soon. I'm still waiting to hear back from the realtor to see what the previous owner did to it. Hopefully they will have some answers.

ps, the A/C has been on since Saturday with no change.

Jill:
I'm talking about a grade which is not "recycled" material. Sherwin-Williams has a good grade for under $10.00 (usually)/gallon or Home Depot has a good grade (virgin grade??) for about $5.00-6.00/gallon.
Mineral spirits (same as paint thinner) is always safe on every finish I know. Sometimes it may remove enough residue to allow it to finish drying/curing. It's only a slim chance it will work, but it's a cheap check on the situation.
Four days of a/c should have told the story. And usually moisture and high temps would have an effect during the drying process of oil-based poly OR on old shellac finishes (sometimes). Otherwise, try the mineral spirits and let us know what you find.
Charlie

Charlie,

Well, we tried the mineral spirits. We applied it to a spot on the floor and did some scrubbing on it. On the parts that were scrubbed fairly hard, it did take off the stickiness. But then it looked like there was no finish left on it at all. On the parts that the mineral spirits were just applied and wiped off, it had no effect. Unless anyone has any other suggestions, we are going to rent a sander tomorrow. There is no way I'd be able to scrub 4 bedrooms floors.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jill

Bad idea! Unless you have sanded and refinished floors before, I highly recommend you do not try this. Have you called a professional out to give a FREE, NO COST estimate and evaluation? If not, do that first.

One place that I called gave me a quote over the phone...wouldnt even come see the floors. Plus, they were not available until October. We have an empty house as we have not moved in yet, and need to get this done soon. Plus, there is no way we can afford to have it professionally done.

Jill:
DON'T SAND IT, YET!
Perhaps you could rent a low-speed buffer and get maroon pads. Mop on some mineral spirits over about a 100 square foot area at a time (don't flood it on . . . just a nice wet coat) and run the buffer slowly over this area. After using the pad on 100 square feet, you can turn it over for the next 100 feet. Then throw it away after 200 square feet. Then buff the same area with terry cloths under the buffer driver, maybe dampened with a little mineral spirits (without the maroon pad). Repeat as needed til clean. Wait overnight before proceeding to the next step.

Vacuum; then pad on a coat of SealCoat (True Value) OR Universal Sealer (Home Depot); they're both the same product. If using this SealCoat, you won't need to abrade anymore than what you've done with the maroon pads and mineral spirits. (Some object to what I just said, but SealCoat ensures adhesion of old and new finish coats.)
After about an hour, you can put on either water-based top-coat OR a good oil-based. I recommend the "user friendly" oil-based. You only need one coat of the oil-based. Get a good brand like Park's Pro Finish easily gotten at Home Depot, too.

However, (disclaimer, disclaimer). . . if you don't feel comfortable or confident, then use this recoat recipe and ask a professional to do it.

Hope this helps.
Charlie

Okay Charlie...

I'm gunna owe you big! We rented the buffer and bought pads and spent all afternoon doing the sticky floors. It totally helped! Some places were still a little tacky, but we left fans on and will check again tomorrow. But it doesnt appear that it needs any other coats on it. Do you think it's okay like this? They still look good.

Thanks for everything,

Jill