I am renting for the first time and the previous renters left the place a little dirty so I tried to clean the wood floors with what I had on hand, vinegar. It’s been 3 months since I’ve moved in and I’ve mopped a few times with vinegar and I’ve realized that the wood floor has lost some it’s shine and feels different than before. If I touch a part of the wood in an area that I did not mop it has a noticeable smooth feeling but the area I mopped is ruff and small parts feel a bit raised. How do I fix this? I’ve been looking up wood finishers but a lot of them say they have a strong smell or take long to dry. My landlord lives above me so he would smell any strong chemicals I would use and I can’t use something that takes 12 hours to dry since that would prevent anyone from walking on the floor. I also am absolutely not going to be sanding anything or using chemicals to strip the previous finish off. I will mess that us somehow and make it worse.
The quickest drying finish I could find would be Shellac finish. I need something that is quick to dry without an overly strong smell that lingers. I can do it when my landlord is at work so I’ll have about 5 hours to open the windows to let the fumes out then I would be stuck with the smell the rest of the day so I need a not strong smelling wood finish that dryer fast. My landlord is supposed to do a check in in about 3 weeks so I need it fixed by then. I don’t have the money to have this professionally done as well. How do I fix this and how to prep the wood without any chemicals or sanding? This is the 2nd time I’ve done something stupid with vinegar so I will be tossing it after this.
TL;DR: by mopping the wood floors with vinegar for 3 months and removing the finish.
TIFU I damaged my wood flooring in my apartment
r/tifu
Comments
Try mopping with Murphys Oil Soap, it’s for wood floors.it helped my 100 year old wood floors that needed refinishing
I’d try an easy floor polish like mop and glo or such. It’ll help seal in the floor. Then use only things like Murphys cleaner for the floors, it’s gentle and made for wood.
Were you using straight undiluted vinegar? At what concentration?
And are you sure that you aren’t just seeing residue from not using actual floor cleaner?
Before you try any sealer or anything just mop with some normal cleaner like Mr Clean or Fabulouso, then use Murphy’s Wood Soap on it.