A variety of wax compositions are available, which when applied to flooring materials such as wood, tile, linoleum and the like, act to shine the flooring, while rendering it scuff- and scratch-resistant. However, since waxy materials tend to adhere and absorb solid and oily dirt, over time the shiney wax film becomes marked and darkened. Therefore, to thoroughly clean such flooring, it is commonly necessary to remove the coating of old wax prior to application of a fresh floor wax. This wax-removal step can be accomplished by treatment of the waxed flooring with various detergent compositions.
Although floor wax compositions are commonly available as liquids, a number of solid-type products have been designed to overcome the disadvantages of bulk liquid waxes, such as over- or under-application, spillage and the like. Such products include sponges which are intended to deliver aqueous wax dispersions when wetted. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,515 discloses a polyurethane sponge formed to incorporate an aqueous dispersion containing a wax, a surfactant, and optionally, small amounts of a finely-divided abrasive. U.S. Pat. No. 3,088,158 discloses a car-waxing sponge impregnated with an oil-in-water emulsion of a silicone and/or paraffin oil and a mixture of surfactants. While such products may function to deliver a wax coating to various substrates while exhibiting some detersive action, they do not address the need to both strip flooring of aged, soiled wax while simultaneously depositing a coating of fresh wax.