Wooden floor is very slippery

michele-p

Can anyone offer advice on how to stop my wooden parquet floor getting slippy? We had it refurbed before moving in, but we seem to be "polishing" it just by walking around in socks/slippers. Our dogs are beginning to slip too! It's regularly swept and hovered. I mopped it with wood floor cleaner the other day, but still feels a bit like an ice rink! Any top tips?

neilmcl

Have you varnished/polished it, if so don't.

michele-p

it was stripped back, sanded and I think varnished by the company we hired to refurb it. But it seems to be getting more slippy with use, especially in doorways

GDB2222

If you wash it with soapy water, does that help? Do a test patch, and obviously you don’t want the floor soaking wet,

tacpot12

I have no expertise here, but I do wonder if sweeping and hoovering it are part of the problem. If you left a amount of dirt on the floor, I think it would tend to cut through the polishing effect of socks & slippers. Perhaps less thorough cleaning is part of the answer? Failing that, there might be a specialist surface treatment that can be applied to increase friction. 

daivid

When I was young my Uncle and Aunt employed a cleaner, she cleaned and polished weekly consequently their parquet was like an ice rink. I do not, my parquet grips fine - certainly walking across with socks is fine, a rushing dog/child perhaps not. If it is really bad you could try lightly sanding with very fine sandpaper - if that goes wrong you would need to re-varnish but that would give the chance to try a non-slip varnish (search non-slip varnish or stair varnish).

michele-p

Thanks for all the replies, I'll definitely do some more research on it. I've messaged the company who sanded it to ask their advice too. 

Tacpot12 - the usually is fine amount of dust, dog hairs etc around, as it's on the ground floor, and as much as I wipe paws at the back door, some still gets in. 

I might try a vinegar solution if the floor people say it's OK. I'll also make sure to keep to slippers not just socks, as that seems to help too.