Is it good to wax a hardwood floor?

Mopping floor with wax

So, is waxing a floor a bad idea?

I went out on a job last week to clean a floor and put another coat of finish on it. While cleaning and preparing the floor, I noticed the floor turned white when it got wet. This is a sure sign of wax on the floor. I asked the customer, and sure enough she had been maintaining her floor with a wax. Because the floor had been waxed, we were unable to put another coat of polyurethane on it. I learned this the hard way several years ago.

Thoughts about waxing

  1. Waxing is not a bad thing. It does increase the routine maintenance of your floor since it will require periodic stripping and re-waxing in order to stay looking nice.
  2. If you have been waxing your floor and would like to improve the look, you have two options.  Strip and wax it again, or hire me to do a complete sand and refinish (:
  3. Expect to pay a little more if you’d like your waxed floors sanded and refinished.  Because it requires much more time and sand paper on a waxed floor the labor and material cost is higher.
  4. If you have waxed your floor, and would like to hire a professional to work on them, don’t withhold that information from them. We’ll figure it out and your credibility will be lost.
  5. Wax is not a bad way to maintain your floors, it’s just not as common as it used to be. My personal opinion, there are better finishes. Finishes that look better for much longer and require less maintenance. However, wax is easier to repair and touch-up. It is also a more user-friendly type of finish.

If you’d like more info on hardwood floors and wax, give me a call or fill out our form to schedule a consultation.

Mike Totta

816-507-5281.