Typical maintenance of SWEDISH FINISH hardwood floors is easy. Dust mop with Original Endust to get rid of light dust and ‘dust bunnies.’ If the floor needs something more just mix 1 gallon of water to 1 cup of white vinegar and DAMP WIPE the floor using a soft cloth. This means you NEVER get the floor WET – JUST DAMP. NEVER use enough water that it ‘beads up’ on the floor. Just a damp cloth will do fine.
There’s no need to wax the floor – ever. All floors get micro abrasion over time. It’s this micro abrasion that dulls the finish of the floor. If time goes by and you need another coat of finish to bring back the luster we can often do that without going through the entire process of refinishing. Instead of sanding the floors down to bare wood and starting over, we can just sand the surface of the existing finish and apply another coat. This is called a Buff-N-Coat.
A word of caution about other flooring products: there are a number of products on the market that claim to be good for hardwood floors and for the most part they do what they say they’ll do. However, they often do MORE than they say they’ll do. Most leave a residue on the surface of the wood that makes the floor impossible to recoat with SWEDISH FINISH in the future. This means that if you want another coat of SWEDISH FINISH in the future to bring the luster back it won’t be able to bond through the residue contamination and in many cases this residue contamination will react with the SWEDISH FINISH and ruin the Buff-N-Coat.
Just use the vinegar and water and damp wipe. Vinegar is a fantastic cleaner and it’s inexpensive. Never use abrasives on the finish. If you have a mark on the floor that just doesn’t want to come off try a little lacquer thinner. It works fine on SWEDISH FINISH; we use it frequently when we prepare a floor for another coat of finish. Be careful to never leave a rag with lacquer thinner lying on the finish or on any other valuable item. It is a powerful solvent and a little bit goes a long way. Never use paint thinner or mineral spirits on a SWEDISH FINISH floor. It contaminates the floor and it will cause a reaction when SWEDISH FINISH is applied in the future. Again, white vinegar and water, Endust on your dust mop and you’re in business.
If you decide to use a Waterborne Urethane Finish the cleaning process is very similar. Use Endust for dust mopping and for cleaning use a solution of 1 gallon of water to 1 cup of Windex. Again, DAMP WIPE ONLY – NEVER WET. Use NO ABRASSIVES OR SOLVENTS (like lacquer thinner). Waterborne Urethanes are not SWEDISH FINISHES and they need different products.
After your floors are finished they need to ‘cure’. SWEDISH FINISH comes to about 90% of its strength in a week and it is ‘cured’ in a month. You can get on the new floor the day after the last coat of finish is applied wearing stocking feet. The finish looks hard but it is still soft. You can set furniture in place the day after the last coat is applied as long as you don’t drag it across the floor – you just pick it up and set it in place. Waiting a few days is even better. Leave area rugs off for at least a week so that the new finish can breathe and cure evenly. Underneath chair legs and furniture you can put small self-adhesive pieces of carpet or thick felt. These should be cleaned regularly so that no sand or abrasive stuff gets stuck in them and harms the floor.