Easy Hardwood Floor Cleaning Tips for Homeowners

01/21/2019

Hardwood floors are extremely popular for their timeless charm and visual appeal. With proper cleaning and maintenance, hardwood floors can retain their good looks for many years.

In most of the houses, the floors are forced to take on a lot, starting from daily traffic to occasional mishaps and spills. The cleaning of hardwood floors should start with some smart preventive measures that will cut down the time and money spent on hardwood floor cleaning.

Before discussing ahead, please note that each type of floor and/or finish has its specific cleaning requirements. Therefore, before implementing any of the cleaning tips shared here, please make sure that you are aware of the type of finish on your floor and whether the manufacturer has provided any specific cleaning instructions.

Preventative Maintenance Tips suitable for finishes including (Vanish, UV oil, Oil, Wax, Hard Wax):

As mentioned earlier, the efforts to keep a hardwood floor clean should start way before picking up a vacuum or mop. Here are some of the most effective preventative maintenance tips for your hardwood floor.

• Prevent the elements from entering the home: Place entry mats of each entry point of the home. This will make sure that a large portion of the dirt, grit, sand, grease, and other unwelcome elements will never make their way into your hardwood flooring.
• Use of furniture pads and floor protectors: Any heavyweight furniture can scratch and indent hardwood floor surfaces very easily. Floor protectors and furniture pads are excellent alternatives to protect the floor from this damage.
• Humidity Control: Homes in an extremely dry area may experience excessive shrinking of their floors due to low humidity. Use of a humidifier is the ideal solution to this problem. Similarly, in excessively humid climate, the ideal humidity level can be maintained by using an air conditioner or dehumidifier.
• Never place plants directly onto the hardwood flooring, to avoid stains and damage to floors a waterproof tray or dish should be placed under them.
• Do not leave any wet or greasy objects on the floor, liquids and grease can seep through the protective layer causing rings and stains to form on the wood
• Protection while moving heavy objects and furniture: Movement of any heavy object without floor protection can have severe consequences for your floor. This floor damage can be avoided by using protective mats.

After covering the preventative measures, it is time to discuss how to clean dirty hardwood floors.

Hardwood Floor Cleaning Tips:  For finishes including Oil, Hard Wax and certain types of wax.

• To clean your floor, you need a vacuum cleaner, a mop, a bucket and warm water
• Use the vacuum cleaner with the soft brush attachment.
• Fill a bucket with warm water and mixed with the soap recommended by your supplier
• Dip the mop
• Wring the mop until you have no drips
• Mop a few square meters of your floor with the humid mop
• Rinse your mop and start again until you have completed your surface area.
• During the cleaning, the soap will have two objectives, one to clean your flooring and two, to nourish your wood.

Finally, please remember that it’s always better to avoid using industrial cleaning products supermarket cleaning products on hardwood floors. These cleaning materials will not only spoil the finish of the floor, but also could change the colour of your floor.

If you still have questions about proper maintenance and cleaning of your hardwood floor, please contact us right away.