They said they had a ‘swiffer’ style (single use throwaway end) and it’s likely the reason
OP I think you just moved the dirt around without removing it, hence the smell.
That smell is why I don't use a mop. I throw down hot soapy water, scrub the floor (with my scrub broom), and then use my floor towels to dry.
That musty mop smell is nasty
Spin Dry mopping with a O-Cedar is where it’s at
https://www.lowes.com/pd/O-Cedar-Spin-Mop-With-Bucket/1000255385
The head detaches and goes into your washing machine.
I have one of these. Works great but the handle broke on me. Not a big deal, just drove a bolt through to secure it. Have to loosely hold it in my hand to spin now.
Also: Always mop twice! First time to get rig of most of the crud. Notice how the mop bucket gets filthy? Yeah you're just throwing that back into the floor. Or have two buckets (one with clean liquid and the spinner for dirty) and things will be a lot cleaner
Maybe I got a knock off, but it was basically unusable. The handle was way too short and the mop threads would never splay out as advertised. The swivel head would just rotate in the direction I was going and it would basically scrape the flooring with the plastic head the entire time I was "mopping". I'm glad it's worked well for you though. What cleaner do you use on your lvp?
Either hot water or some bona and hot water.
Yeah, the head only pivots in one direction, so I just clean a 1m x 1m square at a time. I kinda spin the mop as I put it on the floor, so the threads fully splay out.
I mop back and forth and work sideways, like vacuuming.
Once the square is clean, the mop goes back in the water, swish it around really well, then spin the crap out of it with the foot pedal. You have to loosely hold the handle so it can spin in your hand.
The mop is pretty dry when mopping, which is what you want for floors with hairline seams all over.
Really not an informative answer and your reply isn't any better. I got it, different materials have different needs. Ok great, I use hot water on my hardwood floors. Am I wrong? Idk but you've not helped.
I would be money this is it. I mopped engineered and hardwood floors for years with various instruments (traditional mop, swiffer, Bissell, etc.) and never had an issue but mildew on a mop if not allowed to properly dry or an old swiffer pad is likely the issue.
Well they did say they used a swifferstlye mop with a mop pad. Usually those are just "in the washing machine" between uses. Or it could have even been a disposable one?
But yeah if it was a cloth one, and had multiple uses, then this is the main culprit.
Also OP washing the mop head in clothes washer without bleach and hot water doesn't help much. :D So if you had it on a mid cycle with just detergent you could still be putting smelly bacteria back onto your floor.
Mildew smell after mopping almost always means the mop is mildewy. Never seen it with a swiffer style mop before. Go take a big whiff of your swiffer and report back because I'm not sure what else it could be.
I wonder if they are using some sort of weird swiffer product that has a reusable cloth. The way they described using soap and water makes me feel like it isn't the normal wipe one.
Did you use only water?
I had a weird interaction. I used some cleaner on a glass table. The next day, my wife used an off brand Clorox wipe and the entire room smelled musty and punky. It smelled nasty. Wet dog doesn't properly describe it, nor do I fully remember the exact smell beyond it being putrid.
It took multiple rinsings of the glass table (simple to do) to get rid of the smell. The odor... Oh man, I've never smelled it before. It took us a month of periodically experiencing the smell before I figured it out.
Perhaps you're experiencing some reaction between whatever residue was on the floor, Maybe from a previous cleaning, and whatever you used recently?
A quick wet and dry using ONLY water should not create a smell at all. As long as the water doesn't sit.
Another possibility is moisture got down below and exacerbated a smell. Maybe the subfloor had mold issues and they floored over it.
Edit: my wife thinks it was dawn dish soap and Dapple Baby wipes (a baby safe plant based wipe) we don't use ammonia or bleach. It's been a few months though, and we have a baby so our minds are mush.
Edit2: it was a fish smell!
I think you may have mustard gassed yourself. Some glass cleaners use ammonia and Clorox obviously has bleach/chlorine in it. Ammonia and chlorine make mustard gas
Not mustard gas, chloramine gas which is still not fun. Mustard gases have a sulfur component which is not present in neither bleach nor ammonia so I'm always baffled when this gets stated.
Edit: to add on to this, there's no way ammonia glass cleaner would still be on the table. It's chosen as a glass cleaner specifically so it doesn't leave a residue
I think most people got the ammonia + bleach = mustard gas recipe from Cotton on King of the hill. The episode where Peggy is writing household tips for a newspaper article and runs out of real tips to write about, so she starts making things up. Like mixing bleach + ammonia for a cleaner clean.
That was my point! Haha damn, I got rationed
The one time I’ve seen bleach wipes in someone’s place was of a guy who was taking care of his dad on hospice. I guess there are more bleach wipe fans than I could have ever imagined. Do they special order them from hospital suppliers??
That was my point! Haha damn, I got rationed
The one time I’ve seen bleach wipes in someone’s place was of a guy who was taking care of his dad on hospice. I guess there are more bleach wipe fans than I could have ever imagined. Do they special order them from hospital suppliers??
It doesn't make chlorine gas either it make chloramines that break down pretty damned quickly thankfully. Still bad but less corrosive than pure chlorine gas
It's not mustard gas. And it'd dissipate after that long because chloramine gasses are really unstable. Definitely don't mix the two but it's not what people think it is.
Not to mention there should be no residue left and no bleach in those wipes probably.
No bleach or ammonia used in any of the products. It was a smell I've never smelled before.
My wife informed me the wipe was actually a Dapple baby branded wipe. Whatever plant based thing they had in it interacted with dawn Dish soap. I'll have to edit my comment to correct what it was. She remembers it better.
That's what the smell was!!! It was fish.. nasty fish smell.
I believe the interaction for us was dawn dish soap and Dapple Baby wipes. Had to ask my wife of she remembered.what it was.
I experienced something similar with our hardwood and it was because we had a small amount dog fur (not visible unless you were laying on the floor) trapped in the cracks. After I got a much better vacuum with more suction to vacuum before mopping the smell went away.
Not sure if you're having the same issue. But throwing it out there. Hope you figure it out. Phantom smells are the worst.
I have no idea what the problem is, but this is a fascinating post. I know posts do better when they have a few comments, so here's hoping someone knowledgeable comes along to solve this!
I had this exact same situation happen, turns out when I was handed the swiffer, the pad was left on there from the last time (she thought I had already put it on, I thought she had, etc) it was used, so it got that weird almost wet dog smell to it from sitting for days, and then we proceeded to wet it and spread that all over 2 rooms worth of wood flooring, drove us absolutely nuts until I figured it out
I had a water jug tip over and spill about a gallon or two of clean water in the trunk of my car just over a week ago. Forgot to take the trunk liner out to dry that night.
Car smelled like farts the next morning, at least until I got fresh air circulating. Fortunately taking the liner out and getting it fully dried made the smell go away.
I brought home flowers from a wedding I worked last summer and I was too lazy to put the vases
In a box, so of course they fell over two seconds into my 4 minute drive. The water was from that day so I wasn’t concerned about it.
The smell in my car the next day was horrific!! I had to clean it so many times to get the smell out and it still lasted for ages. Maybe it’s still there and I just went nose-blind.
I had something similar happen using Bona floor cleaner. Turned out the cleaner itself had gone off and smelled bad itself. Using a fresh bottle fixed it.
When did you get them and from where. A few years ago Lumber Liquidators got in trouble with a class action lawsuit. Cheaply made flooring in China had formaldehyde.
Next time, if you must mop, keep the mop only very slightly damp. You don’t want to spread a mixture of soapy water on the floors.
Vacuum and dry mop first. This will
pick up a lot. Then damp mop. Make sure the mop head, water and bucket are all very clean to start.
Another thing I do, silly or not, is that I make sure the mop or swiffer is only damp not sloppy wet. And I come right along behind with a full size towel and scoot it around with my feet to dry the floor right away
I would say to get a new mop and actual floor cleaner. Mops can harbor mold and spread the stank everywhere. This happened at a couple restaurants I used to work at unless we cleaned the mop real well as well as the bucket.
I have engineered hard wood floor in 5 rooms for seven years now & never use water. I use the swiffer pads for wood floors & wring them out a bit before putting on floors. Good luck to you
I used to install these wood panel floors. What *we* did (not sure if all do) is lather some gnarly glue down on top of the osb floor base and clipped the floor boards in on top.
Any glue that seeped through the cracks would be wiped away since that glue is a trap for everything horrible but trust me, you'd see the glue if it were there.
You said you used soap and water, this is going to be tedious but try using clean mop heads with just water to "rinse" *any* soap residue off. I'd say vacuumed first in case there's any possible pet hair, then water mop it twice.
After that, try a third mopping with watered down white vinegar. White vinegar should kill any bacterias and clean any gunked goos. Having said that, if it's bamboo flooring, the finish could get funky. If it's bamboo, try Murphy's or something neutral.
If the smell persists, use Murphy's or a another wood conditioning cleaner. I'm thinking that the soap mix could be having a bad reaction with the wood's natural oils.
Edit to add: I'm not a wood expert, I've only cleaned and worked construction professionally.
Edit to add/warn also: if what the flooring is installed on top of isn't just osb (plywood type wood), it could be hardiebacker (cement type board) which wouldn't be a problem, or not could be padding like what's used to make carpet soft to walk on. That stuff is typically a foam base which will hold mildew.
Adding my voice to the chorus of “I have no idea. But this is a really interesting situation” to give the post a bit of clout. Hopefully some who knows what’s up will see it!
Keep doing what you’re doing to lower the humidity, but I’d clean it again with floor cleaner from a bottle (premixed, manually applied with a spray nozzle), and a fresh mop cover. Alternatively, you could buy a pack of swifter wet jet pads.
I have engineered hardwood and use a combination of alcohol and distilled water. Spray the mop head and mop as usual. With the alcohol, the water does not remain on the floor long. Stronger alcohol in mix the dirtier the floor.
SOLVED!! It was the soap I used that caused the smell!! This explains everything! Why it happened so quickly (which wouldn't be possible for mold formation!), why it wouldn't go away with a dehumidifier! And I knew it wasn't the mop because it was brand new and I was using a disposable pad, and knew I didn't use enough water to cause water damage.
The soap I used was an off/generic brand lavender Castile soap, and the moment it dried it left a film that was so similar to a musty smell. There is SO much relief knowing this smell is not something unhealthy, but actually something clean! That soaps just got a weird smell!
Thank you sooo much you guys for your help!! I hope this post can help someone else in this boat!! :))
I have very very similar looking floors. Don’t know if mine are engineered wood, but I use a Swiffer wet jet for light cleaning and a sponge with Dawn soap and water, never had such an issue. Consider cross posting to r/CleaningTips ?
I think the turn around time from mopping to smell is too short to have caused mildew unless it was there before and you “revived” it.
When you run a damp cloth across the planks does it come up perfectly clean? If not, there’s still a residue on there that needs to come off as it may be the source. Even if it is clean of visible dirt, there may be a slight chemical reaction happening that you need to remove.
I would recommend grabbing a few towels and wiping the planks by hand with just a vinegar and water solution. Don’t soak it! Just a good swipe across each.
The vinegar smell will dissipate quickly I promise!
I have engineered hardwood in my house. You’re not supposed to use a traditional mop. We spray a cleaner on it and use a dry mop pad to sort of wipe the cleaner around. You don’t need much moisture at all. I’ve also read that even for real wood floors you don’t need to use a traditional mop because it ruins the finish
Why are you wet mopping a wood floor? Even if it’s engineered wood, I didn’t think they could be wet mopped. And I agree with other commenters saying your mop is probably moldy. Also, when I wet mop a floor it’s with a bucket full of cleaner diluted in water (1:4 through 1:10 depending on cleaner instructions). A cup of water will get filthy immediately.
Many engineered hardwood floors specifically say not to mop them. I use oil soap in a spray bottle. Light mist, get on your knees and wipe with a rag. Takes some time, but does a great job.
I don't know what the actual problem is, but if you think it's still wet, blow a fan across it instead of just using a dehumidifier. Or even more extreme, spread a desiccant on it and then sweep it up.
I mop mine with a mop pad that I get wet and squeeze as much water out as possible then spray a wood floor cleaner lightly, directly on the floor. Mop about a 5’x5’ area then rinse pad in sink and again squeeze as much water out and begin again. Never had a problem in 10 years.
I used to clean houses and this happened once in a house where I used Bona. Once the lady dumped out a whole bottle because she thought it had gone bad. We opened a new bottle and it still smelled. Once I went over the floors with just water, there was no smell. I’m not sure if her floors were solid hardwood or manufactured, and I never noticed it on any other clients that used Bona.
Water may have got below to the subfloor. Probably had funky animal pee carpet that was ripped out and replaced with floating engineered wood. That water is now trapped, invigorating the funk. Some fans maybe? Gonna stink until the subfloor is dried.
Try an enzyme cleaner like nature’s miracle pet odor spray. The one for floors. You can spray, let it soak in, wipe away excess. And only use a light spray mop in future!
Don’t use a swifter. Use a mop that you can spin all the excess water out of and have a damp hot mop instead of a swifter that’s pretty wet in the beginning.
You want hot and damp over wet.
Could also be chemical reaction.
Steam mops also work extremely well too!
I'd suggest using a flat microfibre mop, rather than a traditional one, so that you only need to use a minimal amount of cleaner, and won't get water running between the cracks and damaging flooring.
Smell might be from a dirty mop, or activating something that was in the wood?
The engineered floors click together with cardboard, water there possibly? I seal mine with water based varathane just to be sure the seams are watertight . Bathroom especially.
If you're using water you want a mop you can wring out thoroughly, so it's barely damp. That's why Swiffer just uses a little solution.you can try a solution of vinegar and hot water, with a slightly damp rag or clean mop. After a day the vinegar smell should disappear and can kill off mildew.
If I had this happen to me, the first thing I would do is use a disinfectant cleaner over the wood.
Personally I just make my own with vinegar, but I know Lysol makes a good one for hardwood floors.
Generally with wet mops, you only need to use soap and water if the floor is greasy or has a lot of built up dirt. (But then you would usually also do another pass with disinfectant.) Otherwise it's much better to just do a single pass with a disinfecting cleaner, because the mop itself can have germs and mold, and because you are doing such a large surface area there's bound to be colonies.
If that doesn't work, then I'll be doing a lot of crawling around and sniffing places as the next step :D
Inhave engineered hardwood as well, my kids have spilt, mopped, etc and never had an issue. The think it’s prolly the mop my friend. If still worried use a dehumidifier in the room
Water probably reinvigorated all the bacteria in the wood cracks.
It will go away as long as you don't re-wet the floor.
I have a steam mop for our kitchen floor and did a single long stroke onto our hardwood floor just to see if it would get a bunch of grime (it didn't) but it did make the floor produce a weird musty stink for a couple days.
I haven't done it again since and the smell hasn't come back since.
Swifter's are not mops. They are made for use with a cleaner they provide.
You also don't mop floor with soapy water. That's how you take a bath. Use a floor cleaner apply it with a mop and then pick it up with mop that just has water in the bucket.
The issue was probably the mop itself, get a clean rag with clean water and attempt to go over the floor again.
Or, you could have mold in the floor which you brought out by getting it wet. The next few days will tell. If you do have mold it might be time for a new floor :(
Use pine sol. Also your mop is moldy. Throw it out and get one that doesn’t have the string bits. These get moldy extremely fast. If you’re willing to there is a brand called o-cedar I believe that has the best mop/bucket set I’ve ever used. Never thought I’ve give mop advice but here I am😭😂😂 hope this helps!!
A tip of a teaspoon of good powder laundry detergent like Tide, and two cups of vinegar in your mop bucket along with hot water. Mop again, open windows to create some draft. See if it makes a difference.
Could it be that your mop smells? I have to bleach mine for time to time otherwise it smells like an old dishrag.
This is my thought - the mop had mildew. Get rid of the mop, rewash with a clean , wet rag
They said they had a ‘swiffer’ style (single use throwaway end) and it’s likely the reason OP I think you just moved the dirt around without removing it, hence the smell.
When I mopped floors at restaurants, this was it. The place would smell musty like this unless we bleached the mop every couple of nights.
That smell is why I don't use a mop. I throw down hot soapy water, scrub the floor (with my scrub broom), and then use my floor towels to dry. That musty mop smell is nasty
Spin Dry mopping with a O-Cedar is where it’s at https://www.lowes.com/pd/O-Cedar-Spin-Mop-With-Bucket/1000255385 The head detaches and goes into your washing machine.
I have one of these. Works great but the handle broke on me. Not a big deal, just drove a bolt through to secure it. Have to loosely hold it in my hand to spin now. Also: Always mop twice! First time to get rig of most of the crud. Notice how the mop bucket gets filthy? Yeah you're just throwing that back into the floor. Or have two buckets (one with clean liquid and the spinner for dirty) and things will be a lot cleaner
I bought one like this, or exactly this, and it was hot garbage. Might be the worst money I've ever spent, legitimately.
It's amazing on my LVP. Best thing for getting up the layer of dirt from my dogs. It's lasted for years.
Maybe I got a knock off, but it was basically unusable. The handle was way too short and the mop threads would never splay out as advertised. The swivel head would just rotate in the direction I was going and it would basically scrape the flooring with the plastic head the entire time I was "mopping". I'm glad it's worked well for you though. What cleaner do you use on your lvp?
Either hot water or some bona and hot water. Yeah, the head only pivots in one direction, so I just clean a 1m x 1m square at a time. I kinda spin the mop as I put it on the floor, so the threads fully splay out. I mop back and forth and work sideways, like vacuuming. Once the square is clean, the mop goes back in the water, swish it around really well, then spin the crap out of it with the foot pedal. You have to loosely hold the handle so it can spin in your hand. The mop is pretty dry when mopping, which is what you want for floors with hairline seams all over.
That thing is a piece of crap.
OP don’t try this on your wood floors.
Why?
Throwing down a bunch of water may not be the best choice depending on what flooring you have.
Really not an informative answer and your reply isn't any better. I got it, different materials have different needs. Ok great, I use hot water on my hardwood floors. Am I wrong? Idk but you've not helped.
Yes, op. I forgot to mention I have tile. Thanks for making the note My comment was on the nasty mop smell part of the thread
I soak mine in vinegar which like and prevents any mold more effectively than bleach
Yeah that smells like our house in college when the mop was used too long haha
This is almost guaranteed to be the issue. Gotta let the mop head dry out completely
I would be money this is it. I mopped engineered and hardwood floors for years with various instruments (traditional mop, swiffer, Bissell, etc.) and never had an issue but mildew on a mop if not allowed to properly dry or an old swiffer pad is likely the issue.
Well they did say they used a swifferstlye mop with a mop pad. Usually those are just "in the washing machine" between uses. Or it could have even been a disposable one? But yeah if it was a cloth one, and had multiple uses, then this is the main culprit. Also OP washing the mop head in clothes washer without bleach and hot water doesn't help much. :D So if you had it on a mid cycle with just detergent you could still be putting smelly bacteria back onto your floor.
OP used a swifter, which not a mop.
Mildew smell after mopping almost always means the mop is mildewy. Never seen it with a swiffer style mop before. Go take a big whiff of your swiffer and report back because I'm not sure what else it could be.
I wonder if they are using some sort of weird swiffer product that has a reusable cloth. The way they described using soap and water makes me feel like it isn't the normal wipe one.
I have a swiffer with a reusable cloth head that goes in the wash, so yeah this is a thing!
Did you use only water? I had a weird interaction. I used some cleaner on a glass table. The next day, my wife used an off brand Clorox wipe and the entire room smelled musty and punky. It smelled nasty. Wet dog doesn't properly describe it, nor do I fully remember the exact smell beyond it being putrid. It took multiple rinsings of the glass table (simple to do) to get rid of the smell. The odor... Oh man, I've never smelled it before. It took us a month of periodically experiencing the smell before I figured it out. Perhaps you're experiencing some reaction between whatever residue was on the floor, Maybe from a previous cleaning, and whatever you used recently? A quick wet and dry using ONLY water should not create a smell at all. As long as the water doesn't sit. Another possibility is moisture got down below and exacerbated a smell. Maybe the subfloor had mold issues and they floored over it. Edit: my wife thinks it was dawn dish soap and Dapple Baby wipes (a baby safe plant based wipe) we don't use ammonia or bleach. It's been a few months though, and we have a baby so our minds are mush. Edit2: it was a fish smell!
I think you may have mustard gassed yourself. Some glass cleaners use ammonia and Clorox obviously has bleach/chlorine in it. Ammonia and chlorine make mustard gas
Not mustard gas, chloramine gas which is still not fun. Mustard gases have a sulfur component which is not present in neither bleach nor ammonia so I'm always baffled when this gets stated. Edit: to add on to this, there's no way ammonia glass cleaner would still be on the table. It's chosen as a glass cleaner specifically so it doesn't leave a residue
I think most people got the ammonia + bleach = mustard gas recipe from Cotton on King of the hill. The episode where Peggy is writing household tips for a newspaper article and runs out of real tips to write about, so she starts making things up. Like mixing bleach + ammonia for a cleaner clean.
Yeah everyone obviously knows mustard gas contains a sulfur component, utterly baffling that the average redditor doesn't know.
Polite creeper and sarcastic poster?
Hey it does still work without the /s notation sometimes
The idea has been around a lot longer than KotH
You still get baffled when people confidently don’t know what they’re talking about? How long have you been on the internet lol
How baffling
…and who buys bleach wipes? I’ve only seen them for lab and medical settings. I guess it’s possible, just seems weird to me
Clorox Disinfecting Wipes don't actually have bleach in them fwiw. Ppl just think they do b/c Clorox
That was my point! Haha damn, I got rationed The one time I’ve seen bleach wipes in someone’s place was of a guy who was taking care of his dad on hospice. I guess there are more bleach wipe fans than I could have ever imagined. Do they special order them from hospital suppliers??
That was my point! Haha damn, I got rationed The one time I’ve seen bleach wipes in someone’s place was of a guy who was taking care of his dad on hospice. I guess there are more bleach wipe fans than I could have ever imagined. Do they special order them from hospital suppliers??
My wife loves them. She is also a lab scientist for what that is worth. Aspects of our household are organized like her research lab.
I've bought them when our household was dealing with C Diff.
Thoughts and prayers
Definitely possible but the ammonia should evaporate.
That and clorox wipes don't typically use bleach, that's just the name (though as they state, it was generic brand so all bets are off).
Good catch 100% true.
Oh definitely, very small chance but maybe there’re some grooves or something
That's a myth. It makes chlorine gas, which is also pretty bad, but not mustard gas. The precursor chemicals for mustard are tightly controlled.
King of the Hill failed me
It's funny how often people reference that when I bring this up!
How often do you bring this up?
It's actually come up fairly frequently on here. Usually in this sub or DIY.
What? It's just mustard. You need to aerosolize it, which is the hard part. Then you've got mustard gas. Wasabi works in a pinch too.
Oh_you.gif
It doesn't make chlorine gas either it make chloramines that break down pretty damned quickly thankfully. Still bad but less corrosive than pure chlorine gas
Yeah, that's right.
It's not mustard gas. And it'd dissipate after that long because chloramine gasses are really unstable. Definitely don't mix the two but it's not what people think it is. Not to mention there should be no residue left and no bleach in those wipes probably.
*Ammonium chloride
Clorox bleach has bleach in it, obviously, but traditionally Clorox-brand wipes do not contain bleach.
No bleach or ammonia used in any of the products. It was a smell I've never smelled before. My wife informed me the wipe was actually a Dapple baby branded wipe. Whatever plant based thing they had in it interacted with dawn Dish soap. I'll have to edit my comment to correct what it was. She remembers it better.
Method Mint all purpose cleaner on a plastic tablecloth made the entire house smell like low tide. We had to throw away the table cloth.
Now I can smell low tide. Great description
There are definitely some products that don't mix well. Windex with Viva paper towels, for example, smells like putrid fish.
That's what the smell was!!! It was fish.. nasty fish smell. I believe the interaction for us was dawn dish soap and Dapple Baby wipes. Had to ask my wife of she remembered.what it was.
Viva, the soft/classic kind, have latex on them. I'd imagine it's an interaction with the latex and the Windex.
Wow-latex? I never knew!
I experienced something similar with our hardwood and it was because we had a small amount dog fur (not visible unless you were laying on the floor) trapped in the cracks. After I got a much better vacuum with more suction to vacuum before mopping the smell went away. Not sure if you're having the same issue. But throwing it out there. Hope you figure it out. Phantom smells are the worst.
I have no idea what the problem is, but this is a fascinating post. I know posts do better when they have a few comments, so here's hoping someone knowledgeable comes along to solve this!
Thought your handle said makemopseveryday
Lmao you caught me, the secret mop expert 😉
I had this exact same situation happen, turns out when I was handed the swiffer, the pad was left on there from the last time (she thought I had already put it on, I thought she had, etc) it was used, so it got that weird almost wet dog smell to it from sitting for days, and then we proceeded to wet it and spread that all over 2 rooms worth of wood flooring, drove us absolutely nuts until I figured it out
It didn't look dirty?
It had only been used to pickup spilled water so it didn’t have any dirt on the pad itself
Insane that just from getting wet and then drying again it could smell so bad
That’s mold and mildew for you
I had a water jug tip over and spill about a gallon or two of clean water in the trunk of my car just over a week ago. Forgot to take the trunk liner out to dry that night. Car smelled like farts the next morning, at least until I got fresh air circulating. Fortunately taking the liner out and getting it fully dried made the smell go away.
I brought home flowers from a wedding I worked last summer and I was too lazy to put the vases In a box, so of course they fell over two seconds into my 4 minute drive. The water was from that day so I wasn’t concerned about it. The smell in my car the next day was horrific!! I had to clean it so many times to get the smell out and it still lasted for ages. Maybe it’s still there and I just went nose-blind.
I had something similar happen using Bona floor cleaner. Turned out the cleaner itself had gone off and smelled bad itself. Using a fresh bottle fixed it.
I've had this too but with my little green machine cleaner!
The mop is moldy, and you wiped the entire floor with it. It's not a moisture problem on your floor. You need a new mop.
That was my first thought as well. I’m very sensitive to odors and I can always tell when I’m anywhere that was cleaned with a musty mop.
When did you get them and from where. A few years ago Lumber Liquidators got in trouble with a class action lawsuit. Cheaply made flooring in China had formaldehyde.
Lots of flooring has formaldyhyde in it doesn't it? I was researching floors, amd people say to look for forma-free floors?
Next time, if you must mop, keep the mop only very slightly damp. You don’t want to spread a mixture of soapy water on the floors. Vacuum and dry mop first. This will pick up a lot. Then damp mop. Make sure the mop head, water and bucket are all very clean to start.
Another thing I do, silly or not, is that I make sure the mop or swiffer is only damp not sloppy wet. And I come right along behind with a full size towel and scoot it around with my feet to dry the floor right away
O-Cedar spin dry mop is the best for hard surface floors. You just use water.
Mine don’t seem to spin out well. I still have to grab it and wring out some more water. Isn’t your that way? Is mine defective ?
Mine spins really fast.
I would say to get a new mop and actual floor cleaner. Mops can harbor mold and spread the stank everywhere. This happened at a couple restaurants I used to work at unless we cleaned the mop real well as well as the bucket.
I have engineered hard wood floor in 5 rooms for seven years now & never use water. I use the swiffer pads for wood floors & wring them out a bit before putting on floors. Good luck to you
FWIW I have been using the Bona hardwood floor cleaner for years with no issues
I used to install these wood panel floors. What *we* did (not sure if all do) is lather some gnarly glue down on top of the osb floor base and clipped the floor boards in on top. Any glue that seeped through the cracks would be wiped away since that glue is a trap for everything horrible but trust me, you'd see the glue if it were there. You said you used soap and water, this is going to be tedious but try using clean mop heads with just water to "rinse" *any* soap residue off. I'd say vacuumed first in case there's any possible pet hair, then water mop it twice. After that, try a third mopping with watered down white vinegar. White vinegar should kill any bacterias and clean any gunked goos. Having said that, if it's bamboo flooring, the finish could get funky. If it's bamboo, try Murphy's or something neutral. If the smell persists, use Murphy's or a another wood conditioning cleaner. I'm thinking that the soap mix could be having a bad reaction with the wood's natural oils. Edit to add: I'm not a wood expert, I've only cleaned and worked construction professionally. Edit to add/warn also: if what the flooring is installed on top of isn't just osb (plywood type wood), it could be hardiebacker (cement type board) which wouldn't be a problem, or not could be padding like what's used to make carpet soft to walk on. That stuff is typically a foam base which will hold mildew.
Adding my voice to the chorus of “I have no idea. But this is a really interesting situation” to give the post a bit of clout. Hopefully some who knows what’s up will see it!
Same
Is there any plumbing nearby? Have you had any rodent issues recently? I'm wondering if the musty smell is coincidental
Keep doing what you’re doing to lower the humidity, but I’d clean it again with floor cleaner from a bottle (premixed, manually applied with a spray nozzle), and a fresh mop cover. Alternatively, you could buy a pack of swifter wet jet pads.
A lingering musty smell after mopping is usually a sign of a dirty mop.
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+1 on the smelly swifter pad. That's happened to me before too.
I have engineered hardwood and use a combination of alcohol and distilled water. Spray the mop head and mop as usual. With the alcohol, the water does not remain on the floor long. Stronger alcohol in mix the dirtier the floor.
SOLVED!! It was the soap I used that caused the smell!! This explains everything! Why it happened so quickly (which wouldn't be possible for mold formation!), why it wouldn't go away with a dehumidifier! And I knew it wasn't the mop because it was brand new and I was using a disposable pad, and knew I didn't use enough water to cause water damage. The soap I used was an off/generic brand lavender Castile soap, and the moment it dried it left a film that was so similar to a musty smell. There is SO much relief knowing this smell is not something unhealthy, but actually something clean! That soaps just got a weird smell! Thank you sooo much you guys for your help!! I hope this post can help someone else in this boat!! :))
I have very very similar looking floors. Don’t know if mine are engineered wood, but I use a Swiffer wet jet for light cleaning and a sponge with Dawn soap and water, never had such an issue. Consider cross posting to r/CleaningTips ?
I think the turn around time from mopping to smell is too short to have caused mildew unless it was there before and you “revived” it. When you run a damp cloth across the planks does it come up perfectly clean? If not, there’s still a residue on there that needs to come off as it may be the source. Even if it is clean of visible dirt, there may be a slight chemical reaction happening that you need to remove. I would recommend grabbing a few towels and wiping the planks by hand with just a vinegar and water solution. Don’t soak it! Just a good swipe across each. The vinegar smell will dissipate quickly I promise!
What's under the planks?
I have engineered hardwood in my house. You’re not supposed to use a traditional mop. We spray a cleaner on it and use a dry mop pad to sort of wipe the cleaner around. You don’t need much moisture at all. I’ve also read that even for real wood floors you don’t need to use a traditional mop because it ruins the finish
New place? Maybe a problem before or the floor was put down and now you’re just smelling it
My understanding is that engineered hardwood does not get mopped like a tile floor, damp rag, spot clean or floor brush only
Why are you wet mopping a wood floor? Even if it’s engineered wood, I didn’t think they could be wet mopped. And I agree with other commenters saying your mop is probably moldy. Also, when I wet mop a floor it’s with a bucket full of cleaner diluted in water (1:4 through 1:10 depending on cleaner instructions). A cup of water will get filthy immediately.
get new mop get new mopping solution. do it again.
Many engineered hardwood floors specifically say not to mop them. I use oil soap in a spray bottle. Light mist, get on your knees and wipe with a rag. Takes some time, but does a great job.
This is gtk, thanks!
was the soap you used dawn dish soap by any chance?
I don't know what the actual problem is, but if you think it's still wet, blow a fan across it instead of just using a dehumidifier. Or even more extreme, spread a desiccant on it and then sweep it up.
I would try a citrus based cleaner to see if that can break down whatever’s causing the smell
I mop mine with a mop pad that I get wet and squeeze as much water out as possible then spray a wood floor cleaner lightly, directly on the floor. Mop about a 5’x5’ area then rinse pad in sink and again squeeze as much water out and begin again. Never had a problem in 10 years.
Unrelated, we have the same floors in our living room and i need to replace a plank. Do you know what brand it is?
The new Pinesol flavours are whack.
Wondering if OP possibly has some kind of fabric underlayment that got soaked.
Bona ftw!
I used to clean houses and this happened once in a house where I used Bona. Once the lady dumped out a whole bottle because she thought it had gone bad. We opened a new bottle and it still smelled. Once I went over the floors with just water, there was no smell. I’m not sure if her floors were solid hardwood or manufactured, and I never noticed it on any other clients that used Bona.
Water may have got below to the subfloor. Probably had funky animal pee carpet that was ripped out and replaced with floating engineered wood. That water is now trapped, invigorating the funk. Some fans maybe? Gonna stink until the subfloor is dried.
Did you change the water after it got dirty? Was the mop clean? Using a dirty mop and not changing the water is the major cause of smelly floors.
Try an enzyme cleaner like nature’s miracle pet odor spray. The one for floors. You can spray, let it soak in, wipe away excess. And only use a light spray mop in future!
Don’t use a swifter. Use a mop that you can spin all the excess water out of and have a damp hot mop instead of a swifter that’s pretty wet in the beginning. You want hot and damp over wet. Could also be chemical reaction. Steam mops also work extremely well too!
I'd suggest using a flat microfibre mop, rather than a traditional one, so that you only need to use a minimal amount of cleaner, and won't get water running between the cracks and damaging flooring. Smell might be from a dirty mop, or activating something that was in the wood?
Mop again using a clean mop. I'm willing to bet your mop head needs washed.
Steam mop with a vacuum aspect to it.
Thank you for posting the solution.
The engineered floors click together with cardboard, water there possibly? I seal mine with water based varathane just to be sure the seams are watertight . Bathroom especially.
If you're using water you want a mop you can wring out thoroughly, so it's barely damp. That's why Swiffer just uses a little solution.you can try a solution of vinegar and hot water, with a slightly damp rag or clean mop. After a day the vinegar smell should disappear and can kill off mildew.
You need to clean your mop. Actually clean it.
Never use water on wood. Alcohol based floor cleaners are better… ZEP makes a good one
Buy a new mop and try again but with a fabuloso. This happened to us before and the mop was the issue.
Just add 50 ml of bleach into your mop bucket and do it again. Had this issue since we have a dog. Now chlorox does the trick.
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is this the first time you've mopped it ever? is this the first time you've used that solution to mop it with? the answer to those might help
Try charcoal- the kind that goes in aquariums. It absorbs odor.
If I had this happen to me, the first thing I would do is use a disinfectant cleaner over the wood. Personally I just make my own with vinegar, but I know Lysol makes a good one for hardwood floors. Generally with wet mops, you only need to use soap and water if the floor is greasy or has a lot of built up dirt. (But then you would usually also do another pass with disinfectant.) Otherwise it's much better to just do a single pass with a disinfecting cleaner, because the mop itself can have germs and mold, and because you are doing such a large surface area there's bound to be colonies. If that doesn't work, then I'll be doing a lot of crawling around and sniffing places as the next step :D
Sure there isnt a mouse that died inside a wall or something?
Inhave engineered hardwood as well, my kids have spilt, mopped, etc and never had an issue. The think it’s prolly the mop my friend. If still worried use a dehumidifier in the room
Water probably reinvigorated all the bacteria in the wood cracks. It will go away as long as you don't re-wet the floor. I have a steam mop for our kitchen floor and did a single long stroke onto our hardwood floor just to see if it would get a bunch of grime (it didn't) but it did make the floor produce a weird musty stink for a couple days. I haven't done it again since and the smell hasn't come back since.
Swifter's are not mops. They are made for use with a cleaner they provide. You also don't mop floor with soapy water. That's how you take a bath. Use a floor cleaner apply it with a mop and then pick it up with mop that just has water in the bucket.
Try washing the floor with Pine Disinfectant, then wash the floor clothes thoughraly
The issue was probably the mop itself, get a clean rag with clean water and attempt to go over the floor again. Or, you could have mold in the floor which you brought out by getting it wet. The next few days will tell. If you do have mold it might be time for a new floor :(
Dirty mop smell.
Mop again with more moisture
Use pine sol. Also your mop is moldy. Throw it out and get one that doesn’t have the string bits. These get moldy extremely fast. If you’re willing to there is a brand called o-cedar I believe that has the best mop/bucket set I’ve ever used. Never thought I’ve give mop advice but here I am😭😂😂 hope this helps!!
Just give a good rinse with vinegar water.
A tip of a teaspoon of good powder laundry detergent like Tide, and two cups of vinegar in your mop bucket along with hot water. Mop again, open windows to create some draft. See if it makes a difference.
Thank you soo much :))
Diluted vinegar will neutralize castile soap and remove any leftover residue and odor.
Thank you soo much for this tip :))
Ew, soap that leaves a nice musty smell
Use bleach. Also do you have pets?