Sunday, November 09, 2014

Hardwood Floor Products Comparison

Several days ago I asked for hardwood floor maintenance ideas- products specifically.  I've got hot water and vinegar as a general solution good for all applications known to man, but these floors...well, they've seen better days.  They were dull and scuffed and kind of sad, but according to my husband worth reviving (insert additional conversation about quarter sawn wood and guitar sides and that's all I understood.) so attempt to revive them I shall.

All of that to say that I was looking for some STUFF that I could use.  Since I bought the stuff, I've gotten even more recommendations, but the stuff had already been bought, you know?  So don't feel bad if your suggestion didn't make the cut!  Because there was no cut.  There was just me and my inability to time things correctly.

Show us the stuff.

Okay, yes, sorry.  The stuff.

First, useless before photo of a section of the floor.  A section that was less dull than the other sections.  Because the other sections were covered in boxes.  What can I say?  I aim to please.




Rejuvenate Floor Cleaner- $13.29


Before we even start, I'll say that a big problem with my comparison is that I'm comparing two cleaners against a polish.  So...apples and potatoes.  So maybe it's not really that fair?  I don't know.  I did all the work already, so I'm writin' it.

Rejuvenate Cleaner was the most expensive of our three candidates, so that's already a mark against it in my book.  It needed to be REALLY good to be my favorite, you know?

The second mark against it was its smell.  If smell doesn't matter to you, then ignore this, but really the smell was not great and I had to wonder if I really wanted to greet every visitor to my house with that scent.  Answer: probably not.  Only if the product is REALLY REALLY GOOD.

On the plus side, this is a "no-bucket" cleaner, which means you spray it on and wipe it off.  If you have small kids or pets, both categories of which we have many, this is a huge selling point because you try keeping everyone away from where you are the entire time you're doing the floors.  Impossible.  Mom is the gravitational center of the house- all living beings are inexplicably drawn to her side no matter the lameness of her task.

We'll see how it performed at the end.

Murphy Oil Soap- $7.75

Murphy's is an old standby for all the things.  We probably all remember it from our parents' or even grandparents' houses.  I actually didn't even have to order this because I already had it from the old house.  Boom.

If I had needed to order it, it would already be in the lead because if it's sweet-tastic low price.  The volume that you use of this per cleaning is tiny, so this bottle is going to last a really long time.

Very bueno number dos: the smell.  I LOVE the smell of Murphy's.  Not because I spent my life in a high end furniture store, but because I've spent a whole lotta time around horses.  And despite their tack not being made out of wood, people luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv to try and clean leather with Murphy's.  The smell reminds me of a tack room.  In a good way.  Not in a manure way.

Ahem.  So, that's two tallies in the yes column for Murphy's so far.

The downside is that you need a bucket of water in which to dilute your Murphy Oil Soap which results in wet floors and I know it sounds dumb that I care so much about wet floors but really....they're just such a hassle!  The kitchen, fine.  But throughout the living areas of the house?  Badong.

Halloway House Quick Shine Floor Finish- $11.99

This is the product that is specifically meant for shining and doesn't claim to be a cleaner.  In fact, the directions suggest that you apply it to an already clean floor- which I did for the first comparison test.  But really, ain't nobody got time fo' dat, so Dweej of the Inexperience advises one to sweep up the big stuff and then jump straight to the Floor Finish and don't tell anyone, because you use a wet sponge (or thick rag in my case) to rub it in.  Uh, how is that not washing?  Anyway, that's what I did after the first patch and what I think you should do if you try it and it'll be our little secret.

The smell of this I do not love.  So, performance needs to wow me.  As for price, lower than Rejuvenate but higher than Murphy's- so it can do not as well as the former but better than the latter and still keep my attention because I'm practical and numbers-minded like that.

RESULTS, RESULTS, RESULTS!

Ready to be underwhelmed by my camera's inability to capture subtle nuances of hardwood floor?

Yes, this is the first "after picture I took.  Not so interesting is it?  You can soooooooooooort of see a difference if you look below the sections I have taped off, but really, not so much.

But then I got wise and thought "shine.  light.  Flash!"  And I turned on the flash that I have heretofore never used on my camera and took this:
Aha!  Now we can see a little mo' bettah.  Just a little, so I'll use words.

The Murphy's is the least shiny.  You can barely see a reflection there.  But it smells SO good and is more of a cleaner anyway, plus: cheap.

Rejuvenate takes second place in the shininess competition, but the smell isn't great and the price is high, so....yeah.

And the clear winner of the Easy Shine category is the Halloway House Floor Shine.  Shoot, look at that reflection down there!  It was remarkable.  In fact, lemme show you another one in another spot so you know it wasn't just a fluke:


Do you love that scratch created by the previous owners as they dragged a heavy piece of furniture acroos the floor?  The kicker is that they decided it was too much of a pain to move and left it right there for us.  Which means the terrible damage was for nothing.  My favorite!

Anyway, look at how much shine there is in the middle there (mirror like reflecting, anyone?), meeting up with the super shine at the bottom which I had already treated with the Halloway House because I was just that excited.  In fact, I think you can see the line of shine coming up from the bottom of the photo and stopping right before these three boxes.  Can you see it?  The shiny at the bottom edge and in the center section is Halloway House, while the other two products are on either side.

So, what is my conclusion?  Halloway House for shine maybe once or twice a year (I don't need my house to look like The Jetson's vaction home in the fake future country) and then Murphy's for cleaning throughout the year.  Poor Rejuvenate just couldn't justify it's high price-tag, bless its heart.

If you us a different product than these and swear by it, feel free to leave it in the combox.  I love second-guessing myself, truly I do.  Gives me a project and boy do I love me some projects.





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42 comments :

  1. I use Murphy's 90% of the time on our hardwood. I put a few drops in a spray bottle( from the hair aisle) with hot water and use a cloth diaper/cloth thing on a stick. I let my little kids go around spraying the stuff too. They can dust or spray the kitchen chairs too. My husband does not like the smell of Murphy's so I've tried others recently and they are not good. I do want more shine sometimes so I will try to remember the Quick Shine. The old owners left some floor cleaner here years and years ago and that stuff made the floors look incredible but the bottle got tossed and what brand/name it was is lost. Now that was two kids ago so maybe it was just clean and shiny because it wasn't getting mud leaves sand and food on it all the time.

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  2. Aw man, darn those previous owners and floor damage... I lifted up a corner of the carpet in our future nursery to see how the wood underneath looked. In addition to it being warped and obviously full of mold (yay!), it was also scratched at least a quarter inch deep as though a bear was clawing at the floor.

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  3. Orange Glo - Imma show you as a comment on the book of faces..

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  4. I use Murphy's too. And I'm so embarrassed to say this because it seems so obvious, but when we first moved in I actually damaged my floors because I used too much water on the floor while mopping. I couldn't figure out why the varnish was peeling off in some places and then my mother kindly recommended that maybe I should use less water/use a towel to dry floors and we had no more problems after that. So you are probably thinking "um duh!" But just in case you hadn't mopped hardwood before, now you know :)

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  5. We have laminate, but I use a similar system as Becky. One can not justify hours on hands and knees to clean floors that, 5 minus after they are clean they will be peed on, have milk splattered on, muddy feet will tromp through whilst I shout I JUST CLEANED THE FLOORS! So, I too use a swiffer with an old diaper, old towel, microfiber cloth from the $ store, etc., and I spray my cleaner and swiffer away. Fast, easy, and not so painful when it is undone moments after I finish!

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    Replies
    1. What kind of house do you have where there is urine on the floor? Anyways I use the quick shine Holloway stuff and it actually has a protective layer so things don't stain and are easy to clean up after you apply this wax it really is great.

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  6. I use Murphy's too and love Orange Glow on occasion. I like the way it helps my cabinets look refreshed.

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  7. I have not used Orange Glow myself, but I have witnessed its wonders. I would try it if I were you. I will never again use Murphy's on my floors. Dark wood is very unforgiving and it took several times to "rinse" the murphy's filmy residue off the floor. My favorite is Shaklee's H2. it's another water and bucket situation, but worth the time, and if the kids or dogs wander in at the wrong time, I don't have to worry about crazy chemicals messing up anybody's feet/paws.
    good luck!

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  8. Oooh, shiny! I love shiny things, so if we had hardwoods I would probably be that hopeless woman following behind her toddlers with a spray bottle and rag trying to keep up the sparkle (yes, totally that person.) One thing I WON'T recommend is bowling alley wax. Yes, my dad used to get after our long farm table with that stuff all. the. time. (See where the shiny-addict part of me comes from?) That led to a lot of slidey plate moments and a perpetually frustrated mother (even if it was awesome for us kids when we wanted to play Old West saloon beer-slinger.) You're welcome for the (not) awesome advice! ;)

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  9. That last comment had me at "...don't want to have children." You should obviously have more children, Dweej. Stat.

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  10. I know this is going to sound like an Amway-type pitch, but honestly it's not. I like the cleaning products from Melaleuca (I know, pretty weird name). They are non-toxic, they smell great and they work incredibly. The downside, is that you cannot just pop online and buy them; you have to sign up as a member first and you'd have to dig someone up in your area to sign you up. But for me, it was worth it because I've never used anything that worked so well and was absolutely worth the money. Heck, their Sol-U-Mel got rid of that terrible cat-pee smell. I use it for almost everything. I haven't used their floor polish since I have fake wood floors. And, even though I mentioned Amway, it is not a multi-level marketing scheme. I don't make any money with them; I'm just a big fan of their products and how they do business.

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  11. Wow kind of trick you did here Dwija? The woods are still in pristine condition. I am going to share this to my friend so she can also do this to some of her condominiums for sale in singapore

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  21. I'm afraid to use the quick shine product now. It definitely makes the floors look good as I've tried it in an inconspicuous space, but now I'm reading people that say that after a while it gets all gummy and you pretty much have to get some kind of heavy duty wax remover to get it off. Seems like magic in a bottle but then makes the floors worse. Not sure

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