Vinegar Works, But Be Careful

(USA)

What to do? Starring at the old floor in the kitchen that had been covered with asbestos tiles in the 1950's...well, we found a subcontractor that removed the asbestos for us.


We waited a while, with the windows open and air flowing before going back in to take a look at the "surprise" that was hidden for so many years.


Uncovering old hard wood floors is so exciting. Even the worst of hardwood floors looks beautiful after getting rid of the carpet or asbestos/linoleum covering.

But, you just never know how much TLC that new beautiful hardwood floor is going to need! After the asbestos was removed, we did have to finish up a bit more stripping to really get it as clean as we needed before refinishing it.


Vinegar did not help here! I wanted to be as safe as possible, something natural rather than more toxins in the air, even though we had masks and had the professionals remove the tiles.


Also, looking back, who knows a chemical reaction from vinegar and left over asbestos gunk, could have been lethal...so I really advise not even thinking about such a thing as we did.


Having said that, once the oak flooring was brought back to life, sanded, and refinished, my entire job was to make sure that I had that wood taken care of in order to last another 100 years...sounds daunting at first I know, but this is where the vinegar comes in!


Just a little dab will do ya! For the first cleaning-which in the kitchen is more than the other floors in the house-I poured lots (lots) of vinegar to really MOP the floor-it's the kitchen, right? Wrong.


First of all...the smell...no...Made mental note to get”nice" smelling vinegar after that. I used rosemary vinegar from then on. Vinegar with an herb smell is perfect for the kitchen.


But, most importantly, I found it best when I had a common-household-size-mop bucket and added 1/3 cup of the vinegar to it, presto! Smelled good (with the rosemary) and stripped the top layer of grease and gunk from the floor!