Things to do during confinement: EXTREME FLOOR WAXING!!!
First I (hand) scrubbed the floors to get rid of old wax buildup which caused dark patches (and there were also specks of accumulated dirt especially where walls meet floors.) Then I applied wax with a cotton cloth, 4 coats – and then the 1950’s Rowenta Floor Waxer came out. To finish it off I added a top coat of Spado Protective Emulsion (shiny, non-slip and protects from scratches and stains.) I can’t recommend this product enough. Over the past 5 years I’ve tried more or less everything that’s on the market and the Spado is by far the most elegant finish. For a while we even considered vitrification (varnish), but having seen the results at the Chateau de Lapeyrouse here in town we decided that sort of shine really wasn’t a look we liked. Wax becomes one with the wood whereas the vitrificateur looks like there’s plastic-cling-film on the floor.
So that was my exciting Sunday.
My Mazamet 
Non-slip? That’s no fun. Can’t do a running twenty-foot socks slide.
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My thoughts exactly.
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I did a quick search for Spado Protective Emulsion and all I got were women’s cosmetics. You aren’t applying cosmetics to your floors to make them better are you? :o)
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It’s a French company, so I think their products are only available in the EU ☺
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Hand scrubbing does count as extreme. That’s a big floor.
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Looks big, but the rooms here are fairly compact, this one is only about 320 square feet.
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You’re hired. When can you start on my floors? 😛
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I’m currently confined 😛
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Not looking at the headline properly, I saw it as ‘extreme waxing’ and wasn’t sure I should read further. Your floor waxing looks lovely, much nicer than varnish. I had to smile seeing your vintage polisher, as I have a Hoover version from the 1950’s in the loft. We don’t have wooden floors, and as my sister decided I should have it when we sorted out the house after our Mum died, on the basis that I have more loft space, it looks like nostalgia has overcome practicality. I remember Mum using it on our long wooden hall floor when I was little, & if sister & I had been good, we were allowed to stand on the polisher whilst Mum pushed it up and down. Bliss.
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The Hoover is almost identical. So much so that my buffing pads are Hoover 😊. The great thing is the weight. The modern versions are light which means you don’t get enough pressure to get this sort of shine. Does you’re have the light at the front?
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Surely, that’s why Karenjane’s mother weighed down the front end with children. Absolutely the best weights. Dogs won’t stay.
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I’ll have to experiment the next time we have a child visitor!
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Typo: meant *light* at the front.
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When’s the ball?
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I have a painting of that scene:
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ooooh, you win!
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I don’t know about exciting, but it sure looks nice.
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Thank you! I had been thinking of getting a professional in to do it so I’m thrilled I managed on my own 😀
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winter before last, I ripped up horrible carpeting in one of our rooms, and found the wood floor beneath, poor condition but salvagable. I used this orange oil/beeswax stuff and it turned out pretty good, but oy, all of the hand scrubbing and polishing 🙂
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It can feel endless, and sometimes it actually is – I still haven’t finished the floors in the dining room…
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The floors do look amazing, Pinky. My Mum used to have one of those heavy floor polishers too. I’m far too lazy, and old, to use one now. My jarrah floors have a low shine poly coating on them – like that vitrification? They’ll never get that beautiful patina, but my back insisted on compromise. 😉
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Vitrification is a perfectly good solution in some houses, especially more modern ones, I can definitely see the attraction to less work!
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lol – definitely less work! That said, I don’t like the ‘high gloss’ ones. Someone the wood gets lost.
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Fabulous job – that shine is ace!! I did some waxing on the chairs in the kitchen, turned out OK, but nothing like your shine! I should probably have used wire wool as it said on the tin, but there’s none in the house…
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Next time, use a green scrubby and some cilit bang. It’s got oxalic acid in it which is great for for removing old residue on wood.
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Thanks for that tip – I hadn’t thought of the green scrubby!! And cilit bang sounds great too! Years ago, I watched a restorer use oxalic acid on oak panelling before liming it. The finished effect was fabulous!
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Wax on. Wax off. (Since no one has said it yet)
Soon you will be a karate master.
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I remember being told to use oxalic acid on the floors in the last house in France and had a hell of a job finding it. I wish I’d known about the Spado, though.
A beautiful job…sometimes you jut need to do something that seems endless.
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It’s been a wonderful way of getting to jobs that just kept being pushed back. Awful that so many people had to die for it to happen, though 😀
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I cannot tell you how envious I am of that fifties Rowenta! The results of your toil are perfect and I salute the effort. 💕
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We got it at a Brocante for 30€, then I had to figure out how to get vintage parts – which was much easier than I’d imagined 😀
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Well done! On both counts. It’s gorgeous and the floors are a stunning bonus!!
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That’s a very stylish floor waxer you’ve got there, Mr Pink. Sixty, seventy years old and still saving you a horrendous hand job. I mean the Rowneta, not Mike. I’ve missed you, though you’ve been in my thoughts, as has Mike.
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