Homeowner Forum / Cleaning / March 2005

Household ammonia.  Use about one cup to a gallon of warm water.  A
scrub brush cleans better than a mop.  Wet an area, allow it to "rest"
for 5 minutes, scrub, and sponge dry.

I doubt that your detergent is the problem. Almost any detergent should
work. Sticky floors are, almost 100% of the time, caused by over use of
detergent and/or mopping with dirty water.

Detergent directions are written to accommodate an expected soil load.
Your floor might not be dirty enough to justify using the recommended
amount of detergent: you probably need much less. Next, make sure your
mop water isn't getting too dirty. If that's happening, you're just
redistributing the soil--in a more uniform layer. No matter what size
bucket and/or how much detergent you use, that quantity of solution will
only hold so much soil. After that, the soils starts going back onto the
floor.

I've cleaned more than one place that had so much "soap" residue on the
floor that I didn't have to add any to the mop solution--for a day or
two. Customers sometimes ask, "How did you get the floor to look so
good?" And they are puzzled when I tell them that I didn't use any
detergent. Granted those are extreme cases, but we can lose track in our
homes, too.

A clean floor is never slippery or sticky.

When I die, I want to go where dogs go!

It might be from wax build-up.  The people who lived in my house before me
must have waxed the floor regularly without ever stripping it.  It was a
horrible mess and was sticky.  I think the owner used one of the one-step
clean and wax products.  I stripped the floor with a product by Armstrong
called "New Beginnings."  The also make a decent cleaner (One and Done" and
wax Shine Keeper.  I have found these produces at Lowe's and most anywhere
that sells Armstrong flooring.  One I had the floor stripped, I waxed it and
then just used hot water with a little cleaner.  I eventually replaced the
floor.
http://www.epaintstore.com/paintsupplies/cleaners_menu.htm