If I were you.I'd contact the company and see what they recommend. Are you talking about the cleaner or the restorer product?

This is not typical of this product. My guess is you used too much aand/or waited too long to wash the floor. The purpose of the cleaner is to clean it before using the Restorer. To wash the floor you just use a water on the Kemi pad. So to get rid of it, all you have to do is use the Restorer. No need to rinse.

I am aware that this is supposedly not typical of this VERY popular product. I can take a brand new board out of a box that has never been installed, mist Bona on it, and wipe it IMMEDIATELY and see the tiny white spots beginning to appear as it dries. We have not used too much, unless lightly misting it is too much. Bona has a mild detergent in it according to what I have been told. I have several bottles of the cleaner (the refresher is not for this type of problem, nor has Bona offered it as a solution at this time). Our installers were the first to use Bona on the floors. I observed their simple mist and wipe method. The first signs of residue were after their initial cleaning. I thought it was dust, so I used Bona again to remove the "dust" and realized that it was the Bona leaving a film, and not dust on my floor. We have cleaned this floor according to Bona's instructions, but our floor looks terrible. It was such a pretty floor before the use of this product. I was hoping that some of the people who have also had poor results mentioned on this forum would be able to tell me how or if they removed this. Water alone doesn't touch this problem...it is stuck in our floor. We have also been told you do not need to rinse this product. At this point, until Bona gives us an answer, or we find one elsewhere, I am doing nothing but vacuuming. We need to be able to clean the floors as allergies are of concern and that is why I have posted here.
Thanks for any help.

Vinegar is often recommended for wood floors, and it is also known for cutting soap scum residue, so that is what I'd try here. I've also seen recommendations for 1/4 cup vinegar per quart of water, which might be a good place to start, increasing the vinegar if it doesn't do what you need it to.

Jean Marie

Don't use vinegar. You are misunderstanding the point of the cleaner. It is not a cleaner for everyday maintenance. It is used, perhaps leaving a film, for a pre-prep for the /Refresh/Restorer.
To clean the floor, you DAMPEN the pad with water , not soaking wet, and clean with that. It will get rid of your current film and also keep your floors sparkling. The trick is to keep the pad clean. If you are cleaning with a dirty pad you will get a dirty floor.

I had dark floors, lived on a dusty farm, and had animals come in the house with dirty paws. Cleaning the floor with the pad was very very effective. After six months or so, because of heavy use, I would use the cleaner, and then the Refresh/Restorer. I had like new floors.

Really, you should try this. The product is a good one and it is misuse that seems to create this confusion.
Good luck! Your floors sound beautiful. And floor installers have a lot of misinformation.

I apologise for missing the part that it is stuck in crevices and you have allergies. I can't answer your question since I never had this problem.
Perhaps you could try scrubbing by hand (UGH!) the floor with a microfiber pad or cloths damped with water and get it out.
Good luck.

I'm confused hamtonmeadow. Are you saying that you only use Bona twice a year and are just cleaning your floor with a damp microfiber pad? I agree, that would probably work. My cleaning woman uses the Bona every two weeks and I don't see a build up. Don't mean to sound stupid here. I wasn't sure I was getting what you said exactly.

We have used Bona the way the manufactuer of it suggests. They, as well as the company who manufactured the floor, say to not use a damp pad on the floor. They say to spray Bona cleaner right out of the bottle and wipe immediately with the microfiber mop/pad. We have tried scrubbing and cannot get the cleaner out of the crevices, heavy grain, or handscraping on the floor. We have not misused this product and can prove that to anyone who enters our home and watches us spray a board, and let it dry. The process of build up occurs very fast. Our installers sprayed it just once and it got the dusty look after one cleaning. At this point, if we were to use vinegar and water the manufacturer will void the warranty. Meanwhile we are stuck with Bona stuck in our floor.

I just used Bona as it was recommended by many and it also left a film on my brand new hardwood floors. I bought the product for general cleaning of spots, etc. Any help with this problem!

You can read my post on GardenWeb, But I'm more than positive that the BONA is whats leaving a residue on my floors. Problem is, been using this crap for 3 yrs so I've got 3 yrs of build up to work thru. It may be the chemical reactgion in the wood and Bona thats causing the problem. I dont know and no one will tell me. But try this, it'll take more than once I'm sure. 1 gal warm water, 1/2 cup white viniger, 1 tsp dawn dish soap using a micro fiber flat mop spritz the floor lightly and run the mop over it using some pressure, if your mop gets real dirty before your done rinse it out or you may just spread the gunk around.

I had the same problem, my floor was very dull looking so I started to wash it with water and alcohol. I sprayed the floor and used one rag to wash it then another to dry it,I found that drying it helped a lot. I filled a spray bottle nearly full adding about a cup of alcohol and did this on my hands and knees. It took a few times and I started to notice the shine coming back now my floor is perfect and it does seem to resist most spots

I have been told and read many times not to use Bona for this very reason.

I have been using Bona Cleaner for years and unfortunately it left a horrible cloudy residue that showed every mark, footprint etc on my once gorgeous Brazilian hardwood floors. I started using vinegar about a year ago to remove the build up. This seemed to work a bit initially, but after a while the cloudy floors came back. After following MANY posts on this product, I found a post that suggested using straight up Windex to remove the cloudy film. WHALAH! After an arduous cleaning of my floor on my hands and knees for about three hours last night, I have successfully removed the buildup. I sprayed the Windex generously in 4' foot sections, left the product on for a couple of minutes, scrubbed in circular and then in a back and forth motion with a Scotch bright pad using only the scour side of the sponge. I then removed the sudsy mess with a paper towel until dry. So the good news is that the cloudy film is now gone. Yay :) Bad news is that my floors no longer have the luster they had before. That said, they still look at least 75% better than they have for the last couple of years. Now I need to find a decent cleaning product that will add back a little more shine but with out the build up. Needless to say, that won't be Bona.

I think this is an older thread but someone recently posted and I am another one to say I had the same problem with Bona. Had beautiful expensive light colored hickory engineered wood floor put in our kitchen, dining room and living room in May. Manufacturer said to use Bona so I ran out and bought that and did. It immediately was sticky and especially in my kitchen everything I dropped on the floor stuck. I couldn't even sweep it up. After much reading I also read about the Bellawood Lumber Liquidator floor cleaner that has an alcohol base. I just hand scrubbed my kitchen floor and all of this black gunk came up on the microfiber towels. It's probably all the dirt that was sticking to the floor. Gross! My floor now looks perfect and even feels clean!!! It's possible that just alcohol and water would have worked too. Bellawood has zero smell. Not certain how they do that. The bottle of Bona will be dumped asap. Maybe it works on urethane finished floors but not on the coating that goes on engineered hardwood.

I've used a few Bona products for our engineered wood floor. The laminate cleaner has never left a residue, but the polish absolutely did and I was very unhappy with how it looked. I will say that it goes away in a fairly short amount of time, and I opt not to use that particular Bona product now.

We had engineered hardwood floors installed just four months ago. With two dogs, kids and a muddy yard, I have been using the Bona cleaner on a regular basis (after vacumming). It is to the point now that footprints, pawprints, etc appear to be permanent and are very difficult to buff out...leading me to believe that it my cleaner and build-up. After reading reviews, I am sickened to know my nearly brand-new floor could be seriously damaged. Bona is going into the garbage immediately.

I have an 80 year old oak floors, I use Bona and it's wonderful I suggest the problems arise from what ever finish is on the "engineered" wood.

Bona_ hate it. Its left a film over my Brand New family room wood floors. I know this because my Grand room, which is almost never walked on, had only been cleaned with Bona twice in a year. The family rooms another matter, it was being cleaned almost weekly. The build up is terrible ! the more I walk on it the more foot prints I see.. If you Google this there is almost nothing negative about this stuff !!! Im sure not a happy customer... Now to get rid of it !!

I am having the same issue....now when spot cleaning with anything other than the Bona floor polish there is a cloudy look to the floors! Is the Bona cleaner & my hardwood incompatible?

I just used Bona as it was recommended by many and it also left a film
on my brand new hardwood floors. I bought the product for general
cleaning of spots, etc. Any help with this problem!

Windex.. Blue windex. It took the gunk off. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't want to use it all of the time due to the ammonia in it. I'm thinking some warm water in the Bona mop will be my go to from now on.

I am so happy to find this discussion. I have a new home with polyurethane finished white oak hardwood floors. I have spot cleaned and dust mopped regularly. I recently have mopped a couple of rooms with the bona floor cleaner and it left a dull haze on the floors! It is also sticky. I plan to throw the bona out before I make the floors worse. It is so hard to find any discussion about the negative side of using bona. Thankful for all of the advice!

I used Bona on my hardwood floors. The film is disgusting and I have tried vinegar and water and that doesn't remove it. I also tried my floor steam cleaner and that did not take it off. I am sick about the way my floors look. I poured the remainder of the Bona down the drain and will never use this product again. I would appreciate any suggestions if someone has had success in removing this mess from their floors.

I got on my hands and knees and used a scrubber and some of the white residue came up on the pad. I really hate to think I will have to clean the whole floor in this manner. I keep checking this site and hoping for a miracle solution to this problem.

My issue is with the Bona Floor Polish. I only used a small amount in the kitchen and immediately it created a dull finish. I tried to remove it with a warm damp cloth and it didn't work. My floors are engineered hardwood. I do not want to ruin the very shiny finish by trying to remove. Help! Question: Has anyone successfully used a product/technique that removes the dull finish WITHOUT removing the shiny finish on the floors? I have reviewed everyone's comments and suggestions for removal and a lot of people say the wood finish is also removed in the process.

SAFE SOLUTION DISCOVERED! Successfully removed white dull residue of the Bona Floor Polish with Pledge Multi-Surface Cleaner. It has not dulled the finish of my floor. Luckily the polish was only used in a small spot so I won't have to use a lot of time and product cleaning up.

I bought a place with hardwood floors and they need a good cleaning. I used Liquid Gold Floor Restore and was very happy with the results. I generally use a damp mop for cleaning but I thought I would try a cleaner specifically for hardwood floors(since I had never had hardwood floors before.) I used Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner and used the Bona mop to apply the product and it left a film on my hardwood floor. I took a dry paper towel to the floor to see if I could wipe the film off and discovered the black residue like keith_3761 did. That is what prompted me to go to Bona's website and thankfully there is a local Bona certified craftsman near me(whatever that might mean) and did some other research which brought me here. Disappointing when my efforts to protect my hardwood floors could have actually ruined them. I'm thankful I only used this product once and I'm hoping it won't take me months/year to get this horrible product off my floors. Such a shame so many consumers are having the same issue with Bona products. Has anyone heard of Bona sending out one of their certified craftsman to fix the floors?

I have read thru almost all of these comments. I just want to be sure, of what to do. I have a brand new hard wood floor. I was told to use only Bona cleaner as they are the best. I just cleaned my floor for the first time, with a microfiber pad mod and lightly spraying Bona. I have a film on my floors, you could see it almost immediately after cleaning. I can see footprints and it dulled my floor! HELP, how do I get this film off... I want to do it right as I have only applied one cleaning of Bona. I am throwing this stuff away! How do I remove?

Thanks for all the posts here. Helped me solve a big problem! Have used Bona for several years and no problems. We've had snow and ice this winter and with 2 dogs, lots of this has come in on our Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors. I used Bona in the mudroom and while it seemed to clean, as it dried left sticky streaks. My cleaning lady came the next day and used Bona all over the floors and what a mess! Sticky looking, dull etc.

My husband used Murphy's Oil Soap and it just left the floors even worse. A cloudy film on every thing. FYI, we used this in the past and liked it, but switched to Bona. After searching the internet and here, I bought some ammonia free Windex and used that and thankfully that worked. I used microfiber towels and sprayed the Windex directly on the floor and "skated" on the towels. Took a while, but this really worked and it was easy to see the areas I missed.

My floors look shiny again and know that I can't continue to use this method for regular cleaning, but this got the cloudy mess off my floors.

I don't know if too much Bona was used, or maybe it was a reaction to the salty slush. Whatever I do moving forward, I will test out before doing the whole floor. It took a lot of work to get this mess cleaned up, but am so relieved this worked.

Bona is a defective product and should not be used at all. i also used it on brand new wood floors and they lost their luster after one use. i also followed manufacturers instructions and it is just a BAD product that should be removed from the market.

I've never used BONA before and we recently hired a cleaning lady who I found out, does use it. Every time she does our floors get hazy and incredibly sticky; I HATE it. I've purchased Bruce (green bottle) from Home Depot and will continue to use as it takes the film and sticky off first time.

I just used the bona clean & refresh and floors looked good. About a day later I used the hardwood bona moist wipes and immediately my beautiful floors got a hazy white film. I cleaned 5300 square feet of wooden floors with the cleaner , how to undo this? Called bona and apparently the clean and reread product is a wax. And to get the white hazy sticky film off the floors they recommend 1 cup ammonia in 1 gallon of warm water and get cleaning.

Another one here who had problems with Bona - left a residue. I wet mopped (microfiber mop) a couple times with a water-vinegar solution and that helped, but the residue is still there in some spots, particularly over the bamboo flooring in my great room -- the flooring still looks so dull when the sun hits it. I didn't get down on my hands and knees and scrub it off, maybe that will help in the great room. Mopping on the vinegar solution helped more on the oak flooring, not sure why - maybe it has to do with the finish? I'm afraid to try the windex on the bamboo, I don't know what it's finished with. Anyway, now I only use a small bit of plain water to mop up paw prints.

I have been reading these posts with great interest. I made the mistake of re-applying Bona over itself because it was looking streaky right after I first applied it. But I have a window cleaner called Sprayway Glass Cleaner which is ammonia free. It worked! I was surprised at how much brown gunk was on the paper towels as I wiped and cleaned. My floors are wood with polyurethane and years ago my wood refinished told me to NEVER use anything but water to clean these. No added vinegar either. Just well rung out wet rag.

Also read many of these comments as have recently had the 'cloudy film & footprints' problem on jarrah floorboards that were renovated about 18months ago. Spoke to the company who did the work, they suggested vinegar which did not work so took a deep breath & did a test patch with plant based, ammonia & chlorine free window cleaner. Huge success and now my floorboards look beautiful again with no ill effects. Will only ever use water & well rung out microfibre mop from now on.

Our cleaning crew uses Bona on our engineered wood floor every two weeks. We live on the oceanfront in Hawai‘i and always assumed the white scum showing every footprint was due to salt in the air. Yesterday, my wife tried to clean it with Bona, and it looked worse! Today, I tried using a well-wrung out sponge mop with plain water and dried it with a bath towel. It looked slightly better, but had streaks. I then got down on my hands and knees and washed with plain water and a well wrung-out towel and dried with another towel. The floor looks beautiful and shiny again, it does not show footprints, and the bottoms of our feet aren't brown. BTW, my hands felt as if they had been in Elmer's glue when I finishted, and I am nursing sore knees. We'll never again use Bona on the floor!

After trying ammonia and water, mineral spirits, and several other options to get rid of the hazy, waxy buildup from Bona Polish on my hardwood floors, and scrubbing for almost 20 hours, I gave up. Finally found the solution...Trewax Wax Remover (think its now called stripper). Worked like a dream...quick and easy. Just follow the directions on the label and dilute the product with water. Says its not for hardwood, but according to the manufacturer, as long as your hardwood is sealed, its fine. My Brazilian Cherry floors look new again. NEVER EVER USER BONA PRODUCTS ON HARDWOOD FLOORS.

Can you please tell me what other materials did you use with the tree wax remover?

The builders cleaning company applied bona gloss polish on brand new floors in our new construction home which were a satin finish. We had bought some furniture from the builders staging and they polished around everything without moving chairs, etc leaving very obvious marks all over. Tried numerous products to removed and finally found that Spray Nine worked wonders. It took 3 days to finish all the floors but theyre back to brand new. I worked in small 2’x2’ sections. Spray to coat and let sit for a minute or two without letting it dry out, scrub with dry washcloth, wipe with fresh water microfiber cloth and buff dry with clean microfiber cloth. I am so glad I was able to save my brand new floors, hope this is helpful and will work for you!