Hardwood Floor Cleaning in Alamo Heights, TX
A 1927 Alamo Heights floor has most likely never been stripped, only added to.
Paste wax was the standard for wood floors for the first half of the twentieth century, and in this neighborhood a great many original floors are still carrying it. Every householder since has put another layer on top, because that is what wax asks you to do.
The result is a soft, thick, yellowed film that holds every footprint, goes cloudy in the traffic lanes, and gets a little darker each decade. Underneath it, more often than not, is a floor in respectable condition.
Confirming You Are Dealing With Wax and Not a Coating
Choose a spot in a closet or under a bed. Drag the edge of a plastic card across it with moderate pressure and look at the edge afterwards. A waxy smear that transfers to the card means wax. Nothing on the card means a film-forming finish. A second confirmation: a drop of mineral spirits on a cloth will soften and pick up wax within a minute, while it does nothing at all to a cured urethane. This matters enormously, because a product formulated for a urethane floor put onto a waxed floor produces a streaked mess that people then try to fix with more product.
Why Wax Goes Milky Where People Walk
Wax is soft by design, which is what allows it to be buffed and renewed. Foot traffic works it, breaks its surface, and drives grit into it. Light then scatters off a thousand small irregularities and the lane reads as pale and cloudy while the room's edges stay clear and warm. The wood beneath is generally untouched. What you are looking at along your hallway is a hundred years of a maintenance system doing exactly what it was designed to do, with nobody having taken the accumulated layers off in between.
Taking Off Film Without Taking Off Floor
Wax removal is a solvent and mechanical process done in controlled sections, with the dissolved material recovered as we go so it is never allowed to redeposit somewhere else in the room. It is slower than an ordinary cleaning and it is priced accordingly. No abrasive touches the wood, no water stands in a seam, and the boards are dry within the hour. What comes up in the recovery tank at the end of an Alamo Heights dining room is a genuinely startling amount of amber material, and the floor underneath is frequently several shades lighter than the owner has ever seen it.
The Houses Where We Recommend Leaving It Alone
Sometimes the wax is the right answer and should stay. If a floor has old shellac underneath in good order, if the household likes the deep color that a century of wax has produced, or if the boards have been sanded so thin that any disruption is a risk, the sensible advice is to buff what is there and keep going. We say that when it is true. We also say when a floor is past both options, which means gouges into the wood, worn-through lanes, dark pet staining, splits, and cupping. Sanding and refinishing is a different trade and it is not one we practice.
Not sure whether your floor needs cleaning or refinishing? There are three tests you can run yourself in about a minute, and they will tell you which one you are dealing with before anyone quotes you.
Hardwood problems we handle in Alamo Heights
Do the card test in a closet this evening. Knowing whether you have wax is the difference between buying the right product and the wrong one for the next ten years.
Alamo Heights: 726-245-5767, or book through this page. Fifty dollars off to begin with.
Areas we cover around Alamo Heights
Zip codes: 78209
Hardwood questions from Alamo Heights homeowners
Can we just put more wax on and buff it?
You can, and it will look better for a few months. You are also adding to the layer that is causing the cloudiness, so each cycle gets shorter.
After the wax comes off, what protects the floor?
A thin water-based maintenance coat over the original finish. It does not yellow, it does not need buffing, and it can be renewed without stripping.
Is our floor oak or pine?
In this neighborhood the formal rooms are usually oak and the back of the house is frequently pine. Both take wax and both come clean, though pine is softer and we work it more gently.
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