What Do I Use To Clean Hardwood Floors

How to clean hardwood floors

In that location's zilch that brings warmth and dazzler to traditional and contemporary homes similar hardwood floors. Immovability and longevity are hardwood floor's greatest benefits, but fifty-fifty the finest hardwood floors must be cleaned and maintained properly.

Learning how to clean hardwood floors isn't difficult—as long equally you use the right wood floor cleaner and follow these tips, you lot'll be a pro in no time. Here's the all-time style to clean hardwood floors and go on them looking new longer.

What'due south the All-time Forest Floor Cleaner?

Keeping even exotic hardwood floors clean and maintained doesn't require special ingredients and methods. Because hardwood floors are made from natural materials, knowing what not to use on wood floors is just as important as knowing what to clean hardwood floors with.

Commercial wood floor cleaner ingredients can vary, merely information technology's essential to avoid cleaners that aren't pH-neutral or aren't specifically designed for your floor. The Key is to know the type of hardwood and how it'due south finished to choose the right commercial cleaner, and always, always, always read the characterization on the cleaner to be sure. Many synthetic floors look like real hardwood, and they are not! So make sure you do the research before cleaning.

Although natural cleaners like distilled white vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda are safe and effective all over the house, they aren't condom for hardwood floors. The aforementioned goes for also much moisture. You should never steam make clean your hardwood floors or use too much h2o with any wood floor cleaner. Skip oils, waxes, furniture sprays, or anything with ammonia.

So now that you know what not to use on your hardwood floors, what is the best wood floor cleaner?

How to Clean Wood Floors the Correct Fashion

In most homes, the best woods floor cleaner is plainly sometime soap and water, and the merely tools yous demand are a broom, vacuum, and mop. The best mop for wood floors is a microfiber flat-head or cord mop you can easily wring out. You can control the corporeality of moisture in the mop, and the microfibers pick upwardly dirt and grime meliorate than some traditional mops.

Mix one tablespoon dish soap and one quart of water in a spray bottle. Going with the grain of the wood, spray a light mist of your cleaning solution onto well-nigh a 3×3 expanse and start mopping. Remember, water and moisture can harm hardwood floors, so you only want only enough cleaner to become the job done. Move across the floor backward equally y'all mop to foreclose walking on the wet flooring. There's no need to rinse; simply allow your hardwood floors dry out. If they expect a little dull, you tin use a clean, dry microfiber mop to buff dorsum the smoothen.

Routine Cleaning and Maintenance for Hardwood Floors

Sweep Daily

Sweeping daily is a critical step in the regular maintenance of your hardwood floors. Pocket-size particles from your shoes will carry through your dwelling and can easily scratch the wood's surface. A good broom with soft, durable beard is a wise investment to get the job done.

Vacuum the Floorboards

Unlike what about people call up, the vacuum is not just for carpeting. Use your vacuum extender attachments and circular brush accessory to suck up the dust bunnies forth the baseboards, equally well as the particles between the floorboards that may have been missed while sweeping. Remember: $.25 and bobs might not seem similar a large deal, but those pieces could end up scratching the wood.

Wash or Wax Surfaces

Your floor'due south surface seal will determine the best method of cleaning. Here's the quick dominion of thumb:

Use uncomplicated soap and h2o if your floors are surface sealed.
Wax if y'all have oil-treated or untreated floors.

Surface-Sealed Floors

Surface-sealed floors are sealed with urethane, polyurethane, or polyacrylic to brand them stain and h2o-damage resistant. Your floor installer has likely recommended a floor-cleaning product to utilize for cleaning, but sometimes it'southward not possible to use those products either due to toll or availability. If this is the case for your own floors, your best solution is soap and water.

Apparently soap is mild plenty that it won't tedious or scratch your finish like other abrasive cleaners will. Simply add a quarter loving cup of dishwashing soap to a saucepan of water and first mopping. Make certain you wring the mop out completely before using it on your floors, because fifty-fifty though your flooring has been sealed, excessive water is still tough on woods.

If yous look up how to clean hardwood floors, you might see advice about adding vinegar to the h2o. While some people swear by this, we wouldn't recommend it. The acidity in the vinegar can ho-hum the wood over time. Stick to good ole fashioned soap and water. And here's a pro-tip for you lot: Use distilled water instead of tap if you lot want to forbid streaks on the floors.

Oil-Treated or Untreated Floors

Penetrating-seal, oil-treated, lacquered, shellacked, varnished, and untreated floors require a bit more labor-intensive upkeep since these surfaces are not as resistant to moisture and general habiliment and tear, and therefore are generally treated with wax.
Here'south how to shine a hardwood floor that's untreated: About one time a year, utilise a flooring stripper to safely remove the old wax from the panels. Once the floor has dried, apply a thin coat of new wax and let the fresh layer dry out. For the all-time results, apply a liquid wax or paste wax that is specifically designed for wood floors (acrylic or water-based waxes can discolor your woodwork).

Preventative Care Tips

Preventative care makes all the deviation in the earth when it comes to an investment like hardwood floors. Here are some tips to remember:

Put floor protectors on your furniture legs. These are pieces of felt that stick on the lesser of your burrow or chair legs so they don't scratch the flooring when y'all bump or motility them.
Take off your shoes when y'all enter the house. While y'all might retrieve this rule only applies to carpeted floors, the bits of rock and debris under your shoes can hands scratch your forest flooring.
It's not just your anxiety that you should worry about. Trim your dog'south nails then those paws don't get out scratches in the woods.
Exist merely equally cautious with wine spills on forest floors as carpeting. The wine can warp the wood if left too long.
Sop upwardly excess water that might spill on your floor. Certain, it will dry on its own, only prolonged exposure tin damage the soft woods.

At present that you lot know how to make clean hardwood floors, check out our library of professional cleaning guides and first planning your adjacent projection. Whether it's through our professional how-to's or 1 of our popular residential cleaning services, The Maids wants your dwelling house to exist a cleaner, healthier identify to live. Find out more and get your free estimate today.

How to Make clean Hardwood Floors 6 min read was last modified: January twelfth, 2022 by