A good srubbing with a rough terry towel and Murphy's Oil Soap. You can sometimes find it in a concentrate (a jar) in saddle shops or online, which you have to dilute with warm water. Use a strong dilution in any case, whehter you buy it in a bottle or jar (the spray bottle version is probably to diluted for this, and can make things slippery...I think they added something else to it). It removes the sticky, built-up wax and dirt. Smells great, too.

If you can find a very soft scrub brush, this would work well, but wet wood can be gouged easily, so cloth is probably safer. Wipe up the slaning liquid quickly so water doesn't seep into your boards too much.

Is that pic of your floor? That pattern is, as the kid today say, "off da hook"! Gorgissimo! Methinx I'd just go ahead and get it sanded and refinished so it can go ahead and be as amazingly gorgeous as it was meant to be. I mean, seriously. We've all seen parquet, but that is just parquet-meets-M.C.Escher-in-heaven!

Murphy's Oil Soap - you have to scrub it by hand, though, to get the dirt out. The finish is very worn, so my suggestion would be to wax the floors after cleaning. I grew up in the Alwyn Court on 58th and 7th, and all the floors were dark stained oak herringbone parquet that were were waxed 2x a year with a small buffing machine. Once waxed, they are beautiful and easy to maintain - just vacuum and damp mop.

The parquet in my bedroom was really dirty -- I cleaned it with MEX and steel wool, then treated it with tung oil -- now it looks great.

Method's Wood for Good Floor cleaner is great, mop it on with a rough towel.

There's a harsh granular soap avail in hardware stores that comes in a red foil box - I think it's called "Mex". Open the windows! Wear gloves!!

You and your bucket and scrub brush and knee pads scrub that floor -- this stuff takes up poly too, so it's kind of a nice step if you don't want to get them sanded, but are prepared to do a little latex polyuretheneing.

Frank, we're on the same page.
And tung oil is waaay better than poly.

After you clean, try Howard's finish restorer. It is a very diluted stain/polish that you wipe on and wipe off and can bring a finish back to life. Available online and also at homeshows and what not. I tried it on my parquet and it almost looked new.

After you clean it, I'd recommend using some Restor-A-Finish on it. Buy it in the same shade as your floor and just rub it into the scratches. It can work miracles hiding scratches.

i have no idea if this is true or not but a professional floor refinisher told me recently that you should never use murphy's oil soap or similar products on wood floors because it causes the polyeurethane to peel. he recommended a solution of water and white wine vinegar instead. though, from the photo, these floors may not have much poly left on them anyway.

I've heard floor people say no Murphy's as well. I would assume it depends on how old your floors are - and whether they were finished with polyurethane or not.

But are you sure he didn't just mean plain old white vinegar? It is just a floor, after all.

I'm not sure how earth-friendly this is, but the woman who cleans my apartment SWEARS by this stuff called "Brite One Step." It comes in a bright yellow bottle and you can find it in most grocery stores or pharmacies. She used it on my sad, scratched parquet floors and now they look fabulous and shiny!

original blues, you're probably right about the white vinegar ... i have a terrible memory :)

ana.log, I keep hearing this rumor. I just don't think it's true. It might have been true once upon a time, when floors would have been finished with oil based poly and oil soaps were actually made with oil. There might have been a reaction there that caused the poly to unbond. But a lot of poly is waterbased now, and Murphy's Oil Soap is not acutally made with oils anymore (at least that's what I was told). The Murphy's website specifically says that you can use it on poly and it won't cause problems with refinishing.

original blues, you're probably right about the white vinegar ...

yes, it's definitely the cheap white chemical vinegar that comes in gallons and is only fit for cleaning

floor refinisher told me the same thing -
no "product", just vinegar and water on the floors

My ex-boyfriend, who has been in the flooring business for decades, recommended something called Bona-X Hardwood Floor Cleaner. It's environmentally safe and non-toxic, and "specially formulated to clean all types of no-wax wood floors, including all polyurethane and acrylic finished floors and will not leave any dulling residue" (that's from the back of the bottle). It was easy to use and worked really well!

Curtis, the amount of visible nailheads on this (formerly spectacular, agree) floor would prevent me from sanding...

The nailheads aren't a problem for sanding, they can get reset with a nailsetter.

I was told to use white vinegar and water ONLY on my swedish-finished floor.

regards,
trillium

I would also like to say that Howard's Restore-A-Finish is a great product! After my beloved and long-ill kitty died my floor was a wreck, and this product transformed it. But do get knee pads!

I had my floors sanded and polyurethaned about two years ago. At that time I was told by the floor refinisher to use dry mopping once a week - more if I have pets or kids - and to once a month clean the floor with a mixture of water and window cleaning fluid (or vinegar). I was told not to put wax on it, including dusting polishes. Wax apparently makes reapplication of poly to renew the finish difficult if not impossible. Orange cleaner (citric cleaner) was recommended to remove tough to clean substances from the floor.

Not sure if that helps in the particular situation.

I've heard the vinegar and water thing for laminates but never for hardwood floors. hmmm.

Hey, about the vinegar. Yes, it's the do-all mix used by all cleaning people these days. I see even see maids use it on marble, which I wouldn't recommend. But it's for maintenance, not deep cleaning. You need a soap of some kind, and some elbow grease, to get the dirt out of that floor. Or an overall sanding (in which case, don't bother with a cleaning, natch'). After you decide on a finish -- wax or poly, as it's an either/or thing -- then you decide on the maintenance. Finished floors rarely need more than a damp mop. I doubt your floor has any poly on it. Looks too old for that, and the surface looks too porous. It probably had a wax finish at one time.

If you don't trust Murphy's, you could try Ecover, which has some linseed oil in it. It smells nice when you use it, but has a lingering turpentine-like smell that is too close to poison oak for my liking. But it's a good wood cleaner.

Anyone know a good floor refinisher in the New York metro area?

When I removed my carpeting I found oak parquet flooring underneath. Unfortunately, after years of spills on the carpet which leaked through to the padding and on top of the floors, they were stained black with mildew and not a pretty sight at all.
I filled up the cracks and spaces with matching colored wood putty and sanded it smooth by hand. Then I had someone come and sand the floor to remove the old acrylic layer. The sanding took out all the stains and lightened the wood so that I was free to choose any color stain. I actually decided to not stain it any color but just applied 3 coats of water based acrylic and it came out gorgeous.
A damp mop cleans up nicely and easily.

I went searching for "MEX" on the Web and turned up this discussion. MEX was a great solution for hardwood floors that I used 30 years ago, but I can't find much info on it now.

Frank - where did you buy your MEX?

At That time I rented a household-duty floor scrubber, with two 6" rotary brushes instead of one big 18" brush. (A brush is better than steel wool.) MEX did a wonderful job and the floor scrubber made it easy. If MEX is still available, I'll bet you can still rent a floor scrubber where you buy your MEX. If I were doing this today I would also get hold of a wet/dry shop-vac to clean up when you rinse off the MEX. The idea is not to leave so much water on the floor that you damage the wood.

Hi all,
I've just been trying orange oil stuff on my sad, stained, old parquet and am waiting to see what the test area produces.
Great advice here.
Going to look to see if those floor scrubbers can be hired out here in the UK.
I don't want to have the parquet sanded if I can avoid it. I've heard it can spoil the patina - anyone know about this please?
Thanks
sue