Parquet Floor

gasbill

Hello,
I moved into a 1930s semi a few months ago, and when I moved in the parquet floor was a lovely colour with a good shine. It started to dull a little, so I decided to give it a good polish. I asked a friend I thought might know if it was waxed or varnished, and they said waxed, so I went down to local hardware shop, and bought 2 products - wax stripper to remove old wax, and natural wax.

Followed all the instructions, but now the floor lost the shine and colour - it looks all dull now. Have tried polishing again, but still not as good as before. where There has been any water on it, it has made lighter clolured water marks. I try to keep it dry, but not easy. Do I need to keep putting more wax on, or have I ruined it by using the wax stripper?

Also, is there such a thing as a hand held floor polisher - I used elbow grease, and it nearly killed me and my back, so thought an inexpensive hand held polisher might be a lot easier...

If anyone has any ideas, I would be very grateful.
Thanks

benood

Johnsons Traffic Wax - fantastic stuff, it's more liquid nowadays but that makes it easier to use. You probably need an electric polisher as well - the most basic is all you need (we've got one which is over 50 yrs old still going strong). this sort of thing: Hoover F4002 Floor Polisher.

Apart from that you need to keep going at the polishing don't worry about removing old wax, after a few goes the floor will start to shine up, to be honest we're not the greatest at putting the effort in but when you do it's worth it.

gasbill

Guess I just have to keep polishing!
Was trying to avoid going down the road of an upright floor polisher - they seem quite expensive, and I have absolutely no space to store one. My bit of parqet is not huge, but big enough to be hard work doing it by hand. Would it be possible to use one of those car buffers, or is that just a really silly idea?
They seem to be a lot cheaper...

benood

Yes that would probably work - or an electric drill with a pad attachment.