I almost forgot to mention that I scrubbed and re-sealed the existing hardwood floors right before we moved in — literally about 26 hours before moving day. The new hardwoods upstairs looked so glossy that I didn’t want the office, living room, and dining room floors to feel outdated, so I gave them some attention.
First I swept up dust, stray faux Christmas tree leaves, and the usual debris left behind.
Not a bad pile for an empty-looking room.
I bought a Bona floor cleaning and polish system from Home Depot after hearing good things about it for brightening and sealing floors that are dulled or mildly scratched — the kind that don’t need a full refinishing but could benefit from moisture and polish to fill small scrapes and reseal the surface.
Here’s some of the products I used.
After sweeping, I used the Bona cleaning spray, working my way around the room: spray, then mop with the cleaning pad. It was a sweaty job — I’d rate it a 7 on the exertion scale. This isn’t just a light swipe like a disposable mop; you’re scrubbing to get the floors truly clean.
Next came the sealing/polishing step, which is less strenuous — you use a swifter motion to spread the polish. For this step I switched to a polishing pad (a softer, lambswool-type head) rather than the scrubbing pad. Note: my mop arrived a bit wonky, so I temporarily fixed it with green painter’s tape.
In the photo below you can see the difference while the polish is still wet — the treated area looks moisturized and shiny (top left), while the untreated area behind the pad appears dull and dry.
By the time I finished, I was only mildly impressed. Some areas dried looking about the same as before — dull, slightly scratched, and gray — while other areas still wet looked great.
Once fully dry, many sections looked chalky and dry again. That could be a result of how our floors were refinished years ago. The Bona sealer just didn’t give a consistently satisfying result for us, so I decided not to continue with it on the other rooms. I went back to Home Depot and bought a different product called Rejuvenate, choosing the high-gloss formula to better match the shiny floors upstairs.
I kept using the Bona cleaning spray and mop with the cleaning head for the initial clean since they worked fine for that step. The difference was the sealer: instead of the Bona polish I used the Rejuvenate wood floor restorer with the polishing pad. Below is the room before treatment:
And here’s the same room after applying Rejuvenate:
The Rejuvenate product applied more evenly and left the floors looking rich and sealed even after drying. Nothing looked chalky a few hours later. One big advantage was that I could apply two coats a few hours apart, whereas the Bona instructions required waiting 24 hours between coats. I ended up redoing the office with Rejuvenate instead of applying a second coat of Bona, and I was much happier with the results.
Here’s the dining room fully dry — glossy and refreshed. The living room and office dried to the same finish after using Rejuvenate.
Have you used a floor cleaning and resealing system to revive dull, mildly scratched, or chalky floors? Did you try Bona, Rejuvenate, or another brand? Ever test two options side by side to see which performs better?
P.S. I posted an update on how the floors are holding up months later — they’re still going strong.
*This post contains affiliate links to products we purchased and liked*