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bagofchips

UV oil finish hardwood floors: cleaning and maintenance?

8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

If you have UV oil finish floors (Castle Combe, Provenza, Royal Oak, DuChateau), how do you care for them? My manufacturer (Royal Oak) like others has their own "special" cleaner (and I think even a rejuvenator used less often) but I'm skeptical those are the absolute best products out there or that I really need to pony up for their specific product. Two mainstream products seem to be those from Bona and/or Woca.

I'd like to hear what you are doing to maintain your floors. The advice I have is keep them vacuumed weekly or more, clean w/ a microfiber mop w/ oil cleaner a couple times / month (more or less depending on taste and climate). The vacuuming should be passive (keep the agitator turned off or even better just use a hard floor nozzle at the ned of the wand and avoid rollers).

Note: there is already a good discussion about the considerations for choosing / not choosing UV oiled floors here:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2377423/has-anyone-put-down-oiled-wood-floors

Comments (19)

  • 8 years ago

    Some of that I get, but the mfr cleaning products I see out there are not formulated for specific colors and most mfrs have a pretty wide spectrum of colors. I may need to get the MSDS for their cleaner and compare to the mainstream cleaners I mentioned.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    And at the same time, give the manufacturer a call. Get it in writing. I am not kidding about the voided warranty. It happens more than you care to imagine. Get it in writing or don't purchase another cleaner/care/maintenance product.

    Good luck. Remember: MSDS sheets are not like food items. They do NOT have to list the full set of ingredients nor their concentrations. Proprietorial materials do NOT have to have ingredients listed. I wish you luck. Get it in writing..

  • 8 years ago

    I get the risk aversion and agree with it. Right now talk (mine) is cheap. I doubt I'd get that in writing (quite the opposite). Even asking implicates! Seriously, I was just trying to see if I get any feedback here that bottom line all the products are +/- the same or I've used _____ for 5 years and no problems. Heck I was thinking there might even be something superior than mfr's.

  • 8 years ago

    I'll add one more thing I've learned. I'm pretty sure Royal Oak's "specially designed" floor cleaner is nothing other than rebottled cleaner manufactured by Klumpp and sold under many brand names (which is not at all to say it's a bad product).

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    We have good experience with Woca oil maintenance products. It has the most complete care products and though instruction and videos. But again you have to go with your floor manufacturers recommended product even though it may not be the best.

  • 8 years ago

    Woca has many different products, of course. But I've since learned their products are probably best known for "pure" oil finish floors (not UV). I've also learned that Bona may be more typically used for UV *urethane* finishes not UV oil, but Bona is also used successfully. All that said, I you can get what my manufacturer recommends from Behlen instead of their private label a bit more cheaply. Not quite as good a price as Bona, but good enough @ $12 shipped. https://www.amazon.com/Behlen-Hydro-Cleaner-Floor-Ounces/dp/B0168LMBL0

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    @bagofchips

    Is this product good for caring UV oiled floors?

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    Uh oh. Says it is good for "sealed laminate and hardwood". Hmmmm. That is not the normal statement for an oil/hardwax finish (factory UV cured or not). I would REALLY check that out before doing anything with it.

  • PRO
    8 years ago
    Bona does not make an 'oiled' floor finish cleaner. I'm afraid woca is not a very hi performing oil either. Rubio monocoat or pallmans or Loba are THE hi performance oils in the order I listed. The wrong cleaner on an oiled finish can be caustic...
  • 8 years ago

    Cancork, fair enough and thanks for reading the fine print. But Royal Oak recommended it as alternative for their UV Cured Oil products via email after I contacted them in part at your suggestion! The Behlen Hydrocare is the same product as their (Royal Oak's) private-labeled Hydrocare. I may have to ask them once I get the bottle I'll snap a photo of the label and reply (to them) with an "are you sure" message. I suppose the rep @ Royal Oak confused their products (they also make regular poly-sealed floors), but the Hydrocare is definitely what is recommended on their website.

    I had no idea when I started this thread it would be this confusing.

  • 8 years ago

    Thx, I read it. I'm surprised you could use the oil product on those floors - the oil probably soaked into the scratches well (and so they disappeared) but not sure how it would permeate the wood shown in the before photos in general, which seems to have a pretty high sheen to begin with. This also doesn't quite get to how good / beneficial is a product like Woca cleaner with repeated use on a UV oil floor. Aside: Mohawk still hasn't gotten back to my on my inquiry triggered by Cancork's comment above.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    @bagofchips, the high sheen on the photo is because we took the picture when it was still wet. Once it dried, gloss level became fairly flat. I guess you probably confused the Woca cleaner with their soap. You want to use wood cleaner only when you re-oil a floor. Soap and Refresher is what you use to clean and maintain the floor on the regular basis.

  • 8 years ago

    OK. Audience of one here, but you'll have to figure out whether your article could have been clearer in terms of what was done and why, better photo captions and what not.

    On those Woca products, you'd think they'd give it a name other than cleaner more befitting its intended function, like Woca Prep or something. I think most reasonable people would expect "cleaner" to be a product for everyday use.

  • 8 years ago

    If you're referring to WOCA Wood Cleaner (http://www.wocadirect.com/wood-cleaner/), it should be used before the initial oiling and can be used before subsequent re-oilings. The name is a bit misleading but thankfully there are ready resources these days to find out what a product is for and how to use it. Even then it can be a bit confusing, like when using the Rubio site to determine how to treat your worn floor. Then my Rubio rep. nonchalantly told me ignore all the website instruction, mix the Soap 100:1 in a spray bottle, mist and mop, re-oil the floor every year or two with the same oil as used to finish originally. I'm loathe to admit that my one year old Rubio White oiled floor has only been vacuumed, never mopped. Twice I bought and mixed the Soap and ended up giving them to a customer.

    I'm an oil convert, as long as people don't mind taking on a little extra maintenance. While spray painting a paneled wall, blasts of air loosened my floor masking. By the time I finished, paint had dried. I carefully scraped, cleaned with some lacquer thinner, sanded with 120 grit paper and re-oiled. It looks flawless. With a poly finish this mistake could have been a disaster.

    Bona does have a product called Natural Oil Floor Cleaner. I bought one to test but haven't had a chance yet. I'll use it on a showroom floor or my own home rather than a customer's floor. It looks like the one on their website: https://www.bona.com/en-US/Bona-Professional/Products/Floor-Care/Cleaners1/Bona-Pro-Series-Natural-Oil-Floor-Cleaner/

    I agree with your take on products. These manufacturers can't all be formulating their own finishes and cleaners. It's probably best to buy the one you suspect is the same as OEM and try it on a sample or a remote section of the floor.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    Jfcwood, well-explained. Thank you!

  • 8 years ago

    So just for laughs, I contacted Bona via email to get their take on things. At first they recommended Hardwood Natural Oil Cleaner, but they started off saying "For your oiled floors we would recommend...". These aren't oiled floors. It's like they saw the word oil and have never heard of UV cured oil finish. On follow up they started off saying "If your UV Cure Oil Finish floor is an oil based polyurethane type finish..." (it isn't) and then steered me to Bona Hardwood Cleaner. Maybe Bona knows floors... but clearly their support staff does not!

  • 8 years ago

    To my way of thinking a UV cured oil finished floor is an oiled floor. Whether the Bona cleaner is the proper product is another matter entirely.