Whoops, I almost forgot to tell you about how I scrubbed and re-sealed the existing hardwoods right before we moved in (literally, like 26 hours before we moved in). The new hardwoods upstairs were looking so flossy and glossy, I didn’t want the ones in the office, living room, and dining room to feel so 2000 and late. So I gave them some love. Wax on, wax off, baby.
First I swept up the random dust and old faux Christmas tree leaves and all the other stuff that was left behind.
Not a bad pile for an empty looking room, eh?
Then I bought this Bona stuff at Home Depot because I had heard good things about it when it comes to cleaning and glossing up floors that are old/dulled/mildly scratched (you know, floors that don’t need a full re-finishing but could use some moisture/polish to fill in small scrapes and seal them again).
You know, little stuff like this.
After sweeping, the next step was to use their floor cleaning spray, by just working my way around the room spraying it on the floor and following that with the mop (with the cleaning pad on it). This made me mad sweaty, yo. So I give it a 7 on the exertion scale. You’re not just swabbing over the floors like you’re swiffering, you’re scrubbing the heck outta them to get them nice and clean.
Then came the actual sealing/polishing step. This was a lot less rigorous (so you ARE doing the swiffer motion here). The idea is just to gently spread out the liquid that you’re pouring out of the bottle as you work your way out of the room. Oh and for this step you have to use a polishing pad on the mop (it’s more like a lamb’s wool pad while the cleaning one is a bit more scrubbing-sponge-like). Note: see the green painters tape on my mop? That thing came out of the box all wonky and broken, so I had to MacGuyver it together.
In this picture you can see how the floor that I had done was all moisturized and shiny (top left of the pic below) while the floor behind the polish pad is kind of dull and dry.
Sadly, by the time I worked my way out of the room I was only mildly impressed. Parts of it had dried and looked just like they did before (dull, grayed, slightly scratched, etc) while other areas that were still wet looked awesome.
But once they dried… they were all chalky and dry again. I’m not sure if it was just something about our floors and the way they were refinished decades ago (some folks must love this stuff since we heard great things) but it wasn’t an awesome enough result for me to get going on the other two room’s floors. So it was back to Home Depot, where I bought another brand called Rejuvenate. It came in satin and high gloss but I chose high gloss since the floors upstairs are nice and shiny, which we like.
I still used the same Bona cleaning spray and the same Bona mop (with the cleaning head on it) since I already had those on hand and didn’t mind the job they did. It was just the Bona sealer that had left me high and dry (ok, just dry). So I switched ol’ Wonky Mop’s head to the polishing one, but this time instead of using it to spread the Bona stuff, I worked my way out of the room with the Rejuvenate wood floor restorer. The room looked like this before:
And this after:
Granted it still had to dry a bit in that shot above, but the comparison between the Bona stuff and the Rejuvenate stuff definitely left us liking Rejuvenate a lot better. It went on more evenly and left everything rich and sealed looking – even well after it dried. Nothing looked chalky a few hours later, and I was able to apply two coats in each room (you could apply them a few hours apart instead of waiting 24 hours like the Bona stuff required) which was awesome. I even went back and did the office again with the Rejuvenate stuff instead of doing a second coat of Bona in there. And I was so much happier with it.
Here’s the dining room all dry. Flossy and glossy, eh? This is how the living room dried as well, and the office looks the same now that we went over it.
Have you used a floor cleaning and resealing system to bring life back to dull, mildly scratched, or chalky floors? Did you try Bona, Rejuvenate, or something else? Ever tried two different options for a smackdown to the death what’s-better comparison?
Psst – Here’s a post with an update on how the floors are holding up seven months later. Still going strong!
Update – We finally created this Shop Our House page to help you hunt down any furniture/accessories that you see in our house, along with all of our paint colors.
*This post contains affiliate links to projects we have purchased and loved*
Ann says
Thanks so much for posting this! I’m going to try it on our floors. I have experienced the same thing! I have worked on them but the end result being the finish was stripped off. Same with our cabinets. :( I’m hoping this will buy us a little bit of time to protect the wood until we can save enough to really refinish all of it!
Ginger says
We have dark stained hardwoods that show EVERY scratch, dent, and piece of dust. We went through a bunch of things before we finally found (from a recommendation) Holloway House Quick Shine. WE LOVE THIS STUFF. Seriously, my floors actually reflect after I put on a new coat.
http://www.amazon.com/Holloway-House-Quick-Shine-Finish/dp/B000VXVDVQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372877441&sr=8-1&keywords=holloway+house+floor+refinisher
YoungHouseLove says
That sounds awesome!
xo
s
Beth says
The floors look great! We have hardwood floors in our home too and though we have never re-treated them, I do often clean and polish them. How slippery are the floors now? I’m only asking because we have a 3 year old who loves racing his cars and trucks down our hardwood floored hallway and after I polish it, it is always more slippery (which he loves, but I don’t.)so I just wondered how the Rejuvenate made your floors feel. Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
It feels smoother and less dull, but not super slick (Clara doesn’t fall or anything). I’d liken it to the same smoothness as the new floors we installed upstairs. ‘
xo
s
Kim says
Hey, do you have any coupons for Home Depot? Because between stuff I see on this website and stuff I see my neighbors do, I’m going to be running over there a lot this summer.
YoungHouseLove says
I wish we had coupon codes to share, we are just on their mailing list so we get them in the mail (we also have a credit card with them, so we get 5% off each transaction since they match the 5% off that Lowe’s gives).
xo
s
Linda says
Your floors do look great, makes me wish for rain over the holiday so I’ll stay in and attend to mine.
The product that I prefer for this is “Bona Hardwood Floor Refresher”, not the same as the Hardwood Floor Polish you first used. For some reason it is very hard to find, so I order it online. It is waterborne and recoatable and dries to a more natural shine.
If you have pets who have accidents it doesn’t dull afterwards, something every other brand/type of wood floor rejuvenator seems to do.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a great tip!
xo
s
Heather Beals says
Was one bottle enough? I desperately need to do this to ours!
YoungHouseLove says
I think it took two full bottles to do three rooms (two coats in each room). I think it has square footage on the bottle that helps.
xo
s
Tyesha | House Made Home says
I’ve always used Quick Shine, which shines hardwood, laminate, tile, vinyl, stone and most other hard surface flooring. Maybe you guys can try that next time! It’s also pretty inexpensive…$7 per bottle.
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds awesome!
xo
s
Jacki says
We love Rejuvenate at our house….we will hit our two year anniversary of using it on our old oak dining room floor next week (we did it right before moving in…that’s the only reason I remember) and it’s still looking lovely and glossy two years later! It’s definitely in a high traffic part of the house and it’s holding up perfectly! Hope that helps for anyone thinking about it.
Alison says
I am so glad I’m not the only one who didn’t like the result I got from the Bona cleaner! My in-laws gave us one as a gift, so we tried it out (even though I use and love orange-glo) and when I was done, I thought it had ruined our once-shiny floors! In a panic, I went back over it with the orange glo and they came right back to life – phew. I’ll have to give rejuvenate a try – our two kids and their toys have left us with some pretty impressive scratches!
Sarah says
I used Orange Glo on the cherry floors at my old house, and loved it. I think it’s more of an “everyday” cleaner (not that I used it every day!!) rather than a real restorer (is that even a word?!) but it gave my floors a lovely sheen, and it smelled really good.
Rene @thedomesticlady says
Wow those look fabulous! Happy Happy Fourth of July.
Rebecca says
Out of curiosity, how long did they take to dry after you put the Rejuvenate on them? I’ve been toying with the idea of doing this to even out some of our floors, but worry about cat and dog hair “blowing into” rooms with wet floors.
YoungHouseLove says
It only took an hour or two until I could do the second coat and 24 hours later we could walk on them/move furniture back.
xo
s
Layla says
Ohhh, is this the kind of product that’s not really practical to use when you’re already living in the house? Bummer! Even if we were to spend the night somewhere else, we wouldn’t be able to keep the cats off the floors.
YoungHouseLove says
It only takes about an hour or two to dry for the second coat and then you can walk lightly on it again in a few hours but it says not to put furniture back on it for 24 hours. So as long as you kept the cats out for the 2 hours after the first coat (and the 2 hours after the second one if you did that) you’d be good.
xo
s
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
I may need to snag some of this for our house! Your floors looks awesome!
Justynn @ Creative Life Antics says
hmmm, I wonder if that rejuvenate only works on floors? I have some dresser drawers that need some mad attention and I wasn’t sure which way to go.
//Justynn
Janine says
Ooooooo
that’s a really good idea.
Erin Port says
We TOTALLY just painted our house Anonymous by SW in March of this year and I absolutely love the color. We chose it because it wasn’t too brown or too gray either…:) Looks great on your house too!!!
Shannon [Our Home Notebook] says
I love that you could bring them back to life without totally refinished them. They look amazing!
Caryn says
We Love Bona – not sure if it just didn’t go down well on your floors? We had solid white oak, and now Cumaru floors and it looks lovely each time – but our floors have been and are brand new. We buy the rubbermaid mop handle with attached sprayer – saves your hand muscles by not having to squeeze the trigger all the time! You just poor your solution into the bottle and use it with the handle – way better than bona handle; but we love the bona cleaner (use daily to clean up after dogs) and high gloss polish every 1-2 months.
YoungHouseLove says
That sounds awesome! I bet you’re right about it all depending what condition your floors are in, if they’re new, etc.
xo
s
Laurie says
Those look fabulous! I have a hard time with those Swiffery mops. They are just too flimsy for me. I don’t know if I have amazing brute strength but I’ve bent/broke a few of them right in the middle of the handle. They are just so spindly. Maybe I’m putting all my exertion on it at the wrong angle?
Do you do your scrubbing more upright? I tend to do it in front of me a ways which might be why I’m pushing on the handle that way.
And has someone come out with the sturdier version of those yet? I’d invest in one of those rather than replacing the little ones all the time.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes I broke mine too! Hence the green painter’s tape holding it together! I scrubbed the heck outta it, and it seemed to work nicely when I did that (taped mop and all, haha). Wish they were sturdier!
xo
s
maryann says
After breaking manp mops, we’re really happy with the Vileda
http://www.amazon.com/Vileda-Ultra-Max-Mop-Bucket/dp/B007C4VMWC
Emily says
I am *SO* glad to read this! We bought a house in October and the floors clearly needed some help. Not enough to warrant a full on refinishing, but just some tlc. I had no idea these products existed! I’ll definitely give them a shot. Thanks!
Kim says
I’ve always been a Bona lover but I’m going to give Rejuvenate a try. Wonderful results!
Janine says
Oh man. I’m so glad you posted this. Our living room – dining room floors are soooo dry looking and I bought a similar product (the clean clean clean dry dry polish! kit) with really underwhelming results, and the Rejuvenate finish is EXACTLY what I want.
Gonna try this product for suuurrre!
DawnSC says
So glad you posted this! We inherited birch floors when we bought our house ~4 yrs ago – which were lovely when we first moved in but are looking a bit worse for wear with 3 animals and a toddler. We’ve since learned that they are apparently on the softer end of the hardwood spectrum and so get marked up pretty easily. I’ve been considering the Bona stuff, but now I’ll definitely be trying Rejuvenate instead! As a side note, this is the second post with wax on/wax off that popped up on my facebook this week. What are the odds. :)
YoungHouseLove says
So funny! I hope the other one was about ear wax.
xo
s
Amanda Bolan says
I don’t know if anyone told you this – but our Bona mop broke the first day we had it and we emailed Bona customer service- they sent us a super heavy duty mop for free to replace our wonky one. We don’t use the cleaner but have really enjoyed the nice mop and all the mop heads!
YoungHouseLove says
So lucky!
xo
s
beth says
Just curious…would this work for bamboo flooring? We have bamboo tongue and groove, they too need a little love, so what does the bottle say? Your floors came out fabulous! Happy independence day!!!!
YoungHouseLove says
I used up two full bottles so I don’t have them around to check but I think it listed the materials it would work for, so maybe check it out online or in the store to see if bamboo is on there?
xo
s
ale norris says
i may or may not have started singing my best fergie impression while reading this.
our floors are in need of some rejuvenating so i’m super glad you posted this and shared your preference – thank you so much!
Camilla @ Something Is Done says
Ohh! We have some scuffed old oak floors in our house that could use a little sprucing up! Thanks for the review of the two products! I’ll have to grab some Rejuvenate on my next trip to the ol’ Depot!
antiquechase says
I use the Bona cleaner every week and love it BUT BUT BUT…
the Bona Polish is HORRIBLE. It totally messed up my floors in my kitchen. I had to call the company and they sent me something to remove it.
It took about 6 months for it to wear off… I will never use it again.
Just sticking to my regular Bona cleaner… not polish!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah! That’s crazy! It sounds like the majority of the commenters here love the Bona cleaner but the polish isn’t their favorite.
xo
s
Amanda says
So I don’t know why I’m curious about this, but did you return the Bona, or just buy both? Wondering if the store allowed a return on a used item that you didn’t like.
We use Bruce hardwood spray cleaner with the same pad-mop and like it.
YoungHouseLove says
I had used about a third of the bottle so I didn’t try to return it, I just bought the Rejuvenate hoping it would work better and loved it so much I went back for a second bottle to finish the job.
xo
s
ang says
YAY!
i’m glad someone mentioned bruce hardwood cleaner. we use it on our mohawk solid hardwood floors and have had excellent luck with it so far.
just something to look into as an alternative to bona. :)
Kellie says
Yeah, we heard great things about Bona too.
This is my unimpressed face.
I’m glad that the other stuff worked for you, we’ll have to give it a try.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love your unimpressed face.
xo
s
Lora @ Craftivity Designs says
I use Bona cleaner all the time & love it but haven’t tried the sealer. I will be trying Rejuvenate though when it’s time to seal! Thanks!
Ginny @ Goofy Monkeys says
I’ve heard good stuff about Bona as well, but I haven’t tried it. We have area rugs down and I do the between-the-rugs with hot water (2 cloths – one wet, one dry) on hands & knees. It gets it really, really clean from stuff like food spills or potty training “issues”. I like the pledge wood floor cleaner (squirt & mop over clean floors) to help make the floor sparkly and shiny.
melrose says
Thanks for sharing this comparison. I’m going to “Rejuvenate” my dull floors!
Cara D says
What do you use to clean your floors? Ours are new and I had used Black Diamond which I got off amazon. It is great but for some reason after 6 months of using it I can’t stand the smell. I got the Bona floor cleaner but have only used it once and am not loving it. Any suggestions?
YoungHouseLove says
I usually use Mrs Meyers watered down or Dr Bronner’s watered down with an oMop.
xo
s
Jamie M says
How do you keep your hardwood floors clean once you have done this?
YoungHouseLove says
I usually just use watered down Dr Bronner’s soap or Mrs. Meyers soap. Something mild and I don’t get the floors too wet (just spread it around with a moist mop and then rinse with a moist mop with just water on it).
xp
s
Meredith says
Thank you so much for this! I need to do this to my wood floors and I’m definitely learning from your experience! Awesome!
Amy @ a new old house says
The floors look awesome!
Thanks for test driving two of them for us! I definitely need to do this on our floors- and will go with the Rejuvenate, thanks to your results :)
Jane says
Have you tried Murphys’s oil as your hardwood cleaner? I mop my floors every month with that. It was recommended by our previous owners who left the hardwood floors in such a good shiny condition even after 10 yrs of use with 2 babies and cat! So i religiously follow her advice and scrub my floors with diluted murphys’s oil(available at target) .
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds awesome!
xo
s
Layla says
Oh man, you have me practically running to the store for this Rejuvenate stuff! We have the original floors here in our little 1960 ranch, and they look like they haven’t been very well taken care of in the past. The before picture of your living room looks like your floors were really dull in patches, which gives me hope for our floors! How badly would you say was the original finish worn off?
Seriously, this might be my holiday weekend project. =D
YoungHouseLove says
I would just describe them as chalky and dull, sort of like the poly coat was really thin or worn down, but they weren’t all stained and scratched deeply or anything. I think it’s more like a clear seal, so it fills small cracks and shines up dull stuff, but big stains and gouges won’t really be fixed with this (you’d need to refinish).
xo
s
Stephanie says
We have used the rejuvenate and have LOVED it! I recommend it to everyone we know. Which without a DIY blog is decidely a much smaller crowd than you guys. If you have hardwoods I think you NEED to have this.
Amanda T says
This looks like a perfect solution for some of our floor issues. I think you might need to invest in some floss gloss for your next experience! http://flossgloss.com/
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Kristi says
We’ve never tried to polish our floors, but we like the Bona cleaner for an occasional wetmop of the hardwood. Works well on all the ground-in dirt and dried milk drips (courtesy of the toddlers) without dulling the floors. So hopefully you can at least finish off that bottle over time!
Liz E. says
I love this! I want to do it at our house–but it would take a while (most of our floors are hardwood–I’m guessing one room at a time would be best considering all the furniture).
How do you clean it afterward? I generally use a light vinegar water to wash our floors, but didn’t know if that would strip the finish.
YoungHouseLove says
Mild cleaner seems to work for me (watered down Dr Bronners or Mrs Meyers on a moist mop).
xo
s
Chris says
Nice work! Those look beautiful :)
JMB says
Just puttin’ in a vote for Bona. We moved into our house 2 years ago and it has an open floor plan on the first floor with LOTS of hardwood. I wasn’t all that impressed with the original Bona cleaner we used – just didn’t seem to make much difference. BUT THEN, I stumbled across the high gloss Bona and it’s made a world of difference! I joke that we have gym floors now :O)
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that sounds awesome!
xo
s
Erika says
Oh, how I miss hardwood floors. They look great!
Christa @ BrownSugarToast says
Oooohhhh…lovely!!!! Makes me wish we had hardwood in our rental!!
antiquechase says
I
Jen Ramos says
Wow, this looks great! Who doesn’t love a new, shiny floor :)
>>>> Madebygirl.blogspot.com
>>>> MadeByGirl.com
Sammy says
Oooooh, shiny =)
Heather P. says
I’ll have to keep this post bookmarked for the near future. We have hardwood floors in our new apartment’s kitchen, but I have no idea what condition they’ll be in, so I will keep this advice handy!