What would you use?

[MikeB]

I have a carpet cleaning job tomorrow and they also want one wood floor cleaned that they just pulled up the carpet from. Stapes and tack strips will be gone but has a sticky residue from pad.
Any suggestions one what product to use to remove residue? I will be padding it with challenger and cotton pads.

[drytouch]

Hard to say w/o assessing the residue directly, but I've done a fair number of residential recoats.

Probably a red VCT pad, running dry under the OP, to level of the residue and prep the surface, dust, then two coats of Basic water based poly (matte fininsh)

Do everything but the second coat b/f the other carpet, then it'll be dry enough for the second coat.

Don't know if you've got time to prep for that, but it would look excellent. The Basic poly goes on very easily.

[MikeB]

Thanks for the reply but I'm just cleaning the old pad residue off the floor. No refinishing
I was thinking about a cup of white vinegar in a gal of warm water and going over it with a cotton of micro beast pad.

[Hoss]

I would use the gray fiber max pad and Bona hardwood floor cleaner with the weighted Orbot. The red pad can be a bit too intense for wood floors. I am able to get up latex paint spills, scuffs, and scratches with a few passes using that method without causing much impact on the underlying finish. Even with that, the process will leave the polyurethane surface somewhat rough, but it is very easy to follow up with a microfiber mop and Bona refresher coat. The refresher coat is a very thin urethane that will bond to the polyurethane and restore a decent finish. Is is *not* like the nasty Mop and Glo or Rejuvenate stuff consumers are using to treat their floors.

[MikeB]

I used straight vinegar and a white fiber pad with my OP machine to remove the old pad residue. Rinsed with a wet cotton pad and then a dry one.
Worked out well.
Left side is after. Right side is before.
   

[Jamie]

Looks great Mike. good job

Cheers

Jamie

[MikeB]

Thanks Jamie. She loved the vinegar smell too
Not crazy about myself but it works.

---

Hoss, I agree that rejuvenate is awful stuff. Tried it on my own laminate and hated it.

[freemind]

I wondered if the vinegar would work. You were obviously right. I will keep this in the back of my head, should something like this pop up for me someday.

Does the white pad hurt the surfaces at all, on wood floors? I know that you were not so concerned with finish, just asking.

[MikeB]

The white pads didn't seem to abrade the finish at all but I kept it wet with vinegar will running the machine after a short dwell time. Running them dry would probably do some damage to the old finish. In this case I was just asked to clean off the residue if possible so I wasn't too concerned. Their expectations were fairly low and they were willing to let me experiment.
I made it clear to them up front that I was not a wood floor expert.
These were older folks though. People who actually value the honest efforts of others. Not like the 30 something's of today who have a self entitled - unrealistic expectations mentality.
These are the people I enjoy working for , talking to and learning from.

[Jamie]

These were older folks though. People who actually value the honest efforts of others. Not like the 30 something's of today who have a self entitled - unrealistic expectations mentality.
These are the people I enjoy working for , talking to and learning from.

Ain't that the truth!

[encapman]

Mike that turned out AWESOME. I never would have thought of handling it like that. Well done for creative thinking. Thanks for sharing that with us here!

[TheCleaningDude]

Great job!

You were right not to use a red pad. Those and maroon pads as I understand it will finely scratch a wood floor, though this is done intentionally to help with the cleaning. You need to be careful with that stuff.

Good work!

[MikeB]

Thanks guys! The house smelled like a tossed salad for a while until I started laying down Hyrox on the carpets, but she was excited to see the floor looking good again.

[NJP]

Cool!