My teenage son decided to clean our vinyl floor with a scotch brite pad and took off the shine when doing so. Is there anything we can do to fix this without replacing the whole floor?

 

Must have been low quality floor for this to happen. Never mind, perhaps we can fix it.

First, let's make sure that the shine is indeed gone. Put a mixture of vinegar and water (4 parts vinegar to 1 part water) in a spray bottle. Put the sprayer solution (after you remove the trigger sprayer) in your microwave and get the solution warm. Spray a liberal amount of solution on a 2' x 2' section of floor. Next, rug the floor with a clean dry cloth. Immediately after, dry off with a new clean dry cloth.

It could be that there is a large amount of residue on the floor and the shine is still there under all the gunk.

If this doesn't bring back the shine, then get a bottle of Johnson's Future floor finish and apply it to the same 2' x 2' section of floor. Get an old (White) face cloth, wet it with cool water, wring it out so it's just damp. Then, pour the floor finish onto the cloth and spread it over the 2' section of floor. Wait at least 1/2 hour and then apply a second coat. If the shine is going to come back, this will do the trick.

If that worked, then comes the fun part. First, you'll have to strip off the test area. Otherwise, the floor will have an uneven shine to it. Sorry, but this is necessary to get a good finished product. Now that you have the floor finish off, wash the entire floor with the vinegar solution spelled out earlier. Again, dry the floor completely to remove any residue. Don't skip the drying step or you'll end up with an uneven shine.

Now comes the time consuming part. You've gotten the floor completely clean and it's time to wax the floor. You'll want to apply a minimum of 4 coats to provide adequate protection. I'll assume that we're talking about your kitchen floor. So, apply the first coat over the entire floor surface. Wait at lease 1 hour before you apply the second coat. If the floor finish isn't completely dry, WAIT TILL IT IS. Don't use fans to dry the floor faster. Let it dry naturally. The longer it takes to dry, the better the bond with the floor below.

Apply the second coat over the middle area of the floor only. Don't apply it under the cabinets. You don't walk there anyway and additional finish isn't needed. Now, block off the entire kitchen area till tomorrow morning. Then, you can apply the third and fourth coats. The first two coats need time to cure before adding additional layers of finish. Appy the third in the middle as you did with the second coat. The fourth coat then goes over the entire surface of the floor. Again, block of the kitchen till the next day.

If you follow these steps exactly as indicated, your kitchen floor should look great for 9 months to a year before you have to strip off the wax and start over again.

Just so I don't scare you completely away from doing this. A year from now, when you strip the floor, you'll only have to re-apply two coats of floor finish. This is quicker and easier than the initial fix and much cheaper than replacing the floor.

Hope this helps.

Ted

p.s. This is one of the services our company offers to our customers. We have the equipment and can do a kitchen is under 2 hours.