As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. All claims are strictly my personal opinion.
To polish hardwood floors, clean them until they’re free of dust and residue, then spread a thin, even coat of a polish made for your finish with a microfiber applicator, working with the grain, and keep traffic off for 24 hours. To buff them, run a low-speed or orbital floor machine with a soft white pad over the clean, cured finish. Buffing evens out the sheen of the finish that’s already there; polishing adds a thin new layer on top. Neither one removes wood or replaces a worn-out finish.
Below is how to tell which your floor needs, how to identify its finish first (polyurethane, oil or wax each take a different product), how to buff with a machine or by hand, the polish method step by step from the polish maker’s instructions, how often to do it, and when a floor is past both and needs a recoat. The guidance comes from the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) and from the finish and polish makers Bona and Junckers.
⚡ Quick Answer
Buff when the finish is intact but looks dull or uneven: a clean floor, a white pad and a slow floor machine such as the Oreck Orbiter.
Polish when fine scratches and traffic lanes show: a polish matched to your finish, such as Bona Hardwood Floor Polish on polyurethane, applied thin with a microfiber pad.
Recoat when the finish is worn through in places: buffing and polish can’t rebuild it.
Buffing vs Polishing Hardwood Floors: What’s the Difference?
The two words get used for the same thing, and contractors also say “buff and coat” when they mean a recoat. On a hardwood floor they’re three different jobs.
Buffing
Buffing is mechanical: a floor machine with a soft pad, or a cloth by hand, rubs the surface of the existing finish to even out its sheen. Nothing is added. The NWFA’s maintenance guidance puts it simply for waxed floors: if the floor dulls, try buffing before adding more wax.
Polishing
Polishing adds a thin, temporary layer. Bona describes its hardwood floor polishes as a urethane acrylic blend that restores a floor’s protective layer, adds sheen and fills micro-scratches so they’re less noticeable. It’s a maintenance coat that sits on top of the real finish and wears away with traffic.
Buff and Coat (Screen and Recoat)
A buff and coat is the step beyond both: a buffer with a sanding screen scuffs the old finish and a fresh coat of floor finish goes on top. That’s a permanent new layer of polyurethane, not a polish, and it’s covered step by step in my guide on how to refinish hardwood floors without sanding.
First, Identify Your Floor’s Finish
Junckers, which makes both wood floors and the products to maintain them, divides home floors into three finishes and says the polish has to match: using the wrong product leads to residue, slippery floors or damage. Check before you buy anything.
Polyurethane or Lacquer
Most floors finished in the last few decades, and almost all prefinished boards. The surface looks like a clear film with a distinct sheen. These floors take a polish made for sealed, synthetic finishes, such as Bona Hardwood Floor Polish, which Bona says is for unwaxed, unoiled, polyurethane-finished floors. Junckers warns against wax-based products on them because wax interferes with future recoating.
Oiled
Oiled floors (hardwax oil, penetrating oil) feel more like wood than plastic and look matte. Junckers says they don’t need a traditional polish at all: they take a maintenance oil or a soap with a little oil in it, and periodic re-oiling.
Waxed
Older floors, often over a penetrating sealer, with a soft, low sheen. Junckers recommends a compatible paste wax and warns that water-based or solvent polishes can break the wax down. To test for wax, the NWFA describes rubbing a little mineral spirits on a white rag (yellow or brown residue means wax) or putting two drops of water on the floor (white spots after about 10 minutes suggest wax); the full tests are in my screen and recoat guide.
How to Buff Hardwood Floors
With a Floor Buffer
- Clean the floor first. Vacuum, then clean with a hardwood floor cleaner that leaves no residue. Any grit under the pad gets dragged across the finish.
- Fit a white pad. White is the softest standard floor pad; a red pad is slightly more aggressive. Don’t use the green scrubbing or black stripping pads sold for tile.
- Practice in the middle of the room. On a rotary buffer, the NWFA advises starting with a polishing pad in an open area and setting the handle at waist height: raise the handle and the machine moves right, lower it and it moves left. An orbital machine doesn’t pull, which is why it’s the easier choice for a first time.
- Work with the grain, keep moving. Overlap each pass by about half the pad width and never let the pad sit in one spot while it’s turning.
- Finish the edges by hand. A buffer can’t reach the last inch or two along baseboards; a microfiber cloth or a white hand pad does the same job there.
- Dust mop afterwards to pick up the fine residue the pad lifts.
A low-speed or orbital machine is what you want; high-speed burnishers made for vinyl tile are a different tool. My roundup of the best floor buffers for hardwood floors compares six machines, from a 10″ orbital for small rooms to a 17″ rotary.
By Hand
In a small room, hallway or bathroom, you can buff by hand with a clean microfiber cloth or a white non-woven pad on a pole or a flat mop. Work a small area at a time, with the grain, using light, even pressure. It’s slow but safe, and on a waxed floor it’s the traditional way to bring the wax back up to a sheen.
How to Polish Hardwood Floors
These steps follow Bona’s instructions for its Hardwood Floor Polish, made for polyurethane-finished floors. Other polishes work the same way, but always read the label of the one you buy.
- Test first. Bona says to try the polish in a small area to make sure you like the look.
- Measure the room. Length times width gives the square footage. Bona says a 32 oz bottle covers 500 sq ft and a 24 oz bottle 350 sq ft, so buy enough for the whole floor before you start.
- Clear and clean. Move the furniture out, dry-dust or vacuum, then clean the floor so it’s free of scuffs, spills and residue. Let it dry.
- Rock the bottle, don’t shake it. Bona says to rock it gently for 30 seconds to a minute for an even sheen; shaking adds bubbles.
- Pour in an S pattern and spread. Pour a little polish directly on the floor and guide the puddle back and forth with the grain using a microfiber applicator pad and fingertip pressure. Work in small sections toward the door.
- Keep it even, not thin. Bona warns against rubbing polish in like a cleaner and against spreading it too thin; it needs an even layer at the right coverage.
- Wait. Socks only for 1 to 2 hours; furniture, rugs, pets and normal traffic after 24 hours. If you want a second coat, Bona says to wait a full 24 hours.
What Not to Do
Bona lists the mistakes that cause a cloudy or milky floor: pouring polish into a spray mop, a spray bottle or a bucket; applying it with a sponge, string or wring mop; dampening the applicator with water; and rinsing and wringing the pad mid-job. Bona also says it doesn’t recommend polish on a newly installed or newly refinished floor; let a new finish do its job first.
How to Buff a Waxed Hardwood Floor
A paste-waxed floor is the one floor where buffing really is the main maintenance. The NWFA’s advice is not to over-wax: when the floor dulls, buff it before adding wax, and in light-traffic areas and under furniture, wax only every other time so build-up doesn’t form. When you do rewax, spread a thin coat of a paste wax made for floors, let it dry as the label says, then buff with a white pad or a cloth until it shines. Never put a water-based polish or a polyurethane recoat on a waxed floor; Junckers and the finish makers both warn against it.
How Often to Buff and Polish
Bona’s polish guide says to polish every 2 to 6 months in high-traffic homes and every 6 to 12 months in low-traffic ones. Buffing a cured finish can be done whenever the sheen looks uneven, since it adds nothing. Junckers’ advice is to keep to a maintenance schedule rather than waiting until the floor looks dull, and to dust often in between: grit underfoot is what scratches a finish in the first place.
💡 Pro Tip
If you think you’ll screen and recoat in the next year or two, buff rather than polish. Polish has to come off before a new coat of finish will bond: Bona’s recoat finish data sheet requires a floor free from wax, polish and oily residues, and Bona sells a separate polish remover for that job.
When Buffing and Polishing Aren’t Enough
Buffing and polish only work on the finish you already have. If the finish is worn through to gray wood in traffic lanes, peeling, or scratched into the wood itself, no polish will fix it. A dull floor with an intact finish needs a screen and recoat; bare or damaged wood needs a full sand and refinish, which my guide on how to refinish hardwood floors walks through, with the machines compared in my guide to the best sanders for floors. To compare what each option costs for your rooms, use the hardwood floor refinishing cost calculator.
Common Mistakes
- Using the wrong product for the finish: wax on polyurethane, a water-based polish on wax, or a tile polish on wood. The NWFA specifically warns that self-polishing acrylic waxes made for vinyl and tile make wood slippery and dull quickly.
- Polishing a dirty floor: the polish seals the dirt in.
- Wet-mopping before or after: the NWFA says standing water can dull the finish and damage the wood.
- Too much polish, too often: layers build up and look cloudy. Strip with the polish maker’s remover and start again.
- A high-speed burnisher or a stiff scrubbing pad: both are made for tile and concrete, not a wood finish.
What You Need
Everything to buff and polish a polyurethane floor, plus the machine and pad if you buff with a buffer. Specs come from the makers; I don’t show prices or ratings, which change daily.
Bona Hardwood Floor Polish, Low Gloss
Polish for Polyurethane-Finished Floors
A urethane acrylic polish for unwaxed, unoiled, polyurethane-finished wood floors. Bona says one 32 oz bottle covers 500 sq ft, socks are fine after 1 to 2 hours, and furniture, rugs and pets can go back after 24 hours. The low gloss version gives a satin look that hides scuffs; for a mirror finish there’s a high gloss version of the same polish.
- ✅ Fills micro-scratches and evens the sheen
- ✅ No machine needed
- ✅ Dries to walk on in 1 to 2 hours
- ❌ Must be removed before any recoat
- ❌ Not for waxed or oiled floors
Best For: Refreshing a dull but intact polyurethane floor between recoats.
Bona Microfiber Applicator Pad
Applicator for Spreading Polish
The pad Bona’s instructions call for to spread its polish: you guide a puddle of polish back and forth with the grain using fingertip pressure on the mop. Bona is specific that polish should not go on with a sponge, string or wring mop, or with a pad dampened with water, which is the usual cause of a cloudy, streaky result.
- ✅ The applicator Bona’s method is built around
- ✅ Even, thin coat without streaks
- ❌ Needs a compatible Bona mop frame
Best For: Anyone applying a floor polish by hand.
Bona Floor Polish Remover
To Strip Polish Build-Up Before a Recoat
Bona makes this remover specifically to take off its Hardwood Floor Polish and heavy build-up. It comes in a 32 oz ready-to-use squirt bottle that covers 200 sq ft, and Bona says to use it with a nonabrasive pad. Keep a bottle on hand if you polish regularly: a floor that’s going to get a screen and recoat has to be free of polish first.
- ✅ Made for Bona’s own polish
- ✅ Works on wood and other hard floors
- ❌ Covers only 200 sq ft per bottle
Best For: Removing polish build-up, or prepping a polished floor for a recoat.
3M White Super Polish Pad 4100, 13″
Pad for Machine Buffing
White is the softest of the standard floor machine pads, and 3M sells the 4100 as its Super Polish Pad. This case has five 13″ pads for 13″ machines; buy the 17″ size for a rented rotary, and the maker’s own pads for an Oreck or a 12″ machine. Use it dry to buff a cured finish or to buff in a wax.
- ✅ Gentlest standard pad for wood
- ✅ Five pads per case
- ❌ Check your machine’s pad size before ordering
Best For: Machine buffing a finished hardwood floor.
Oreck Orbiter ORB600MW Floor Machine
Buffer for Beginners
If you want to buff with a machine, an orbital one is the easiest to start with. Oreck builds the Orbiter’s head to move in a random orbit, so it doesn’t kick sideways or leave swirl marks the way a rotary buffer can, and Oreck lists polishing, waxing, scrubbing and sanding among its uses. The motor has a 5-year warranty. It’s my top pick in the best floor buffer for hardwood floors roundup, which compares it with five other machines.
- ✅ Random orbit, easy to control
- ✅ Also scrubs and screens
- ❌ Uses Oreck-size pads
Best For: Homeowners buffing their own floors for the first time.
How I Put This Guide Together
The finish types and product matching come from Junckers’ wood floor polish guide; the polish method, coverage, dry times and frequency from Bona’s instructions for its Hardwood Floor Polish and its polish guide; the wax test, buffer handling and maintenance warnings from the National Wood Flooring Association’s Sanding and Finishing Guidelines. Product specs come from the makers. More on how I choose what I recommend.
🏆 The Verdict
Identify the finish first. On a dull but intact polyurethane floor, buff it with a white pad or apply a thin coat of a polyurethane floor polish such as Bona Hardwood Floor Polish with a microfiber pad, and keep traffic off for 24 hours. Oiled floors take maintenance oil, waxed floors take paste wax and buffing. If the finish is worn through, skip the polish and recoat.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get my dull hardwood floors to shine again?+
Is it better to wax or polish hardwood floors?+
Can you buff hardwood floors without refinishing?+
Should hardwood floors be buffed?+
Can I buff my own hardwood floors?+
What is the difference between buffing and polishing a floor?+
Can you buff hardwood floors by hand?+
Conclusion
Buffing and polishing are the cheapest ways to keep a hardwood floor looking good between recoats, as long as the product matches the finish and the finish is still intact. Identify the finish, clean thoroughly, buff with a soft pad or apply a thin coat of the right polish, and keep a polish remover in mind if a recoat is coming. When you want a machine for the job, start with my best floor buffer for hardwood floors picks. Questions about your floor? Ask in the comments.
