Re: [Callers] Sticky floors

A couple people have mentioned wax as a possible remediation for sticky floors. There are several potential problems with wax: 1. As with any floor additive, you could get on the wrong side of the hall owners if you use it without permission. Note also that wax, unlike, say, corn meal, will not easily be removed by sweeping at the end of the evening. 2. If you have a finished floor, and there are areas where the finish has worn down to the bare wood, then wax can get worked into the grain of the wood, making it difficult for future coats of finish to adhere properly. See http://www.waterlox.com/faqs/woodworking/apply-wood-finish-over-previously-… 3. When you sprinkle wax by hand, it's practically impossible to apply it evenly to the entire floor. Having (relatively) slippery spots next to (relatively) sticky spots can be particularly hazardous. If dancers apply wax to their own shoes, it can rub off onto the floor, creating local slippery spots. (My experience with corn meal, btw, is that it tends to get more evenly spread around floor by dancers feet than dance wax does, though it's still hardly perfect in this regard.) I have occasionally danced on floors that were waxed and machine buffed with good results, but note the following contrasts with the situations described above: * The machine buffing spread the wax uniformly, avoiding local slippery or sticky spots. * Either the floors in question were never intended to be given given some other finish (e.g. urethane) or the wax was applied over a coat of finish that was never allowed to wear down to the wood. * The waxing was done with permission of the floor owner. Also, the people doing the waxing had researched brands of floor wax that would give an appropriate level of slipperiness for dancing without being too slippery. (Note, however, that a puddle of spilled water on any waxed floor can be extremely slippery.) --Jim