Kitchen Hardwoods: Scrubbing the Goo Off the Kitchen Floors

I have been working away on the floors in the kitchen. Most of the green felt is off, so now I am cleaning the gooey brown adhesive off. To do this, I fill one bucket with hot tap water, then scrub the floor down with a sponge. A second bucket is used for squeezing out the sludge. Little by little the yellow pine is being uncovered. I find it helps to soak up the last bits of goo with a paper towel, then lay pages of the Houston Press down on the floor so that any remaining moisture that rises through the cracks when you walk across the floor is soaked up.

Here's a look at the initial process that I used for cleaning the linoleum adhesive and green felt backing off the hardwood floors.

I later modified that technique after I developed trigger finger in my right index finger. I discovered that the majority of the adhesive could come off simply by using a sponge over a larger area. This helped prevent gouges on the floor and was less painful, since using the scraper caused my hands to ache the next day.

Tiffany will be coming over later to help me work on the house, with wine of course. I’m looking forward to making more headway and we can get sucked into mindless tasks like cleaning the hardwoods, paint stripping, or painting.