We have hardwood floors in our nyc apartment. A friend did our floors. He did a deep scrub with Murphy Oil soap and scrubbed with steel wool on scratched areas. Then he applied two coats of bona floor poly satin per the bottle instructions. It looked really nice until some snow sludge dried on it. It wouldn't wash off without scrubbing off the finish.

Did we apply the poly wrong or is there a better product? Seems like the snow and salt should be easily washed off the surface without getting etched into the finish and needing to scrub it off. I can see this happening after an entire winter of snow and salt being tracked in but this happened immediately.

 

I worked for a floor guy & we never used Murphy's Oil Soap or scrubbed it with steel wool. I don't know the name of the poly that we used. I'm not saying that your guy did anything wrong. Snow should easily be removed but salt can kill any finish. I wouldn't have expected much more, out of the finish.

 

I've used the Bona floor poly also. I've found that it is not a long lasting solution. It goes on easy and looks beautiful but the durability just isn't there.

It's not terribly expensive and easy to put down so I just recoat every so often.

I do know, based on personal experience, that an oil based poly finish will outlast a water based poly finish but the smell is a killer.

 

I'm assuming it was salt. It made little black spots in the finish. Is that what salt does normally?

 

Thanks PJMax. How do you prep the floor before applying it?

 

The oil soap left a film that the finish will just float on, steel wool will leave tiny metal flakes that will rust just from moisture in the air, salt reacts with metal.

 

As Joe said, anytime any type of soap/detergent is used on a floor it must be removed prior to applying any finish! same is true for wax. Steel wool should never be used when using a water based finish as any steel fibers left behind will rust! IMO it's never a good idea to apply a water based poly over top of an oil base poly. To redo the floor you just need to sand, remove the dust and recoat. As long as you don't sand down to or thru the stain you can just freshen up the finish with a coat of new.