How To Clean Solid Hardwood Floors

Cordless Hepa Vacuum Cleaner

Cordless vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters are ideal for homes with multiple levels and stairs.They are designed to have powerful suction and come with a range of attachments to make cleaning hardwood floors a breeze. Theyre lightweight and depending on the battery capacity can clean up to 40 minutes before needing to be charged again. HEPA filtration helps to attract allergens while releasing cleaner air.

General Wood Floor Cleaning Tips

There are several things you can do regularly that will make maintaining your beautiful hardwood floor considerably easier

• Ensure you have good quality doormats at all entrances to your house, preferably made from coir matting, to catch as much dirt as possible before it enters your home.
• Immediately wipe up any spills on your wooden floor. Liquid left standing on the surface of the wood is more likely to be absorbed into the timber, which can cause stains or movement within your floor.
• Sweep, mop or vacuum your hardwood floor regularly. This will prevent any abrasive dust or grit accumulating, which can scratch the surface of the wood and damage / dull the finish.
• Use a vacuum with a soft brush head. It is not recommended that you use a vacuum with a hard head that can mark the floor. The same applies for heads with a rotating brush as these often have a support bar underneath that could potentially scratch your floor.
• No steam cleaners. It is not recommended that you use steam cleaners to clean your hardwood floor as they can breakdown the finish as well as potentially cause damage to the floorboards.
• Use felt pads on the base of all your furniture, to prevent anything scratching the wood.
• When mopping your floor, use the minimum amount of water. Use a mop you can ring out well so youre not applying an excessive amount of water over the timber.
• Avoid household cleaners and detergents as they can be abrasive, causing damage to your wooden floor.

Remove Dirt And Debris

Start by sweeping up any loose dirt and dust that accumulates on your floor. Hardwood floor experts highly recommended that you use a vacuum designed for cleaning. Look for a vacuum that does not use a rotating beater brush that can scratch and damage the finish, so you can clean up any dirt and debris safely.

Using a broom or traditional carpet vacuum cleaner for hardwood floors may cause sand, grit, and dirt to scratch the finish of your floors. This could expose the raw wood to moisture during the cleaning process or through daily traffic. Vacuuming up the debris eliminates this potential problem helps to keep the finish intact for as long as possible.

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Vinegar Ammonia Or Other Alkaline Products

These may be a great option for tile or vinyl flooring, but ammonia, vinegar or similar solutions even when diluted are too harsh to clean your wood floors with.

Over time, these solutions can strip away the finish exposing the bare wood of your flooring.

Instead, use a recommended cleaner that is specifically made for wood floors.

How To Clean Hardwood Floors The Right Way

Hardwood floors add a beautiful touch to just about any room, but there’s some debate about the best way to clean them.

“There are several different mixtures to use for hardwood floors, and you’ll want to be sure to try any cleaning solution on an inconspicuous area first,” Natalie Wise, author of “The Natural Home: Tips for Cleaning with Natural Ingredients,” told TODAY. “A pretty fail-safe way is to use good old soap and water.”

Donna Smallin Kuper, author of “Cleaning Plain & Simple,” offered a word of caution, “Some hardwood floor manufacturers recommend using a mop dampened with water only, and may even void a warranty on new floors that have been cleaned with any other cleaning solution.”

Follow our easy steps to transform your floors from dull and grimy to gleaming, gorgeous and clean!

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How To Deep Clean Hardwood Floors

Deep cleaning means that you will pay more attention and use several tools and products to keep your floors squeaky clean. You should practice deep cleaning once or twice a year.

When Is It Time To Refinish My Hardwood Floor

Every three to five years, youll likely need a maintenance, also called glaze, coat, which is application of a new layer of the floors finish. If your floor starts to look dull or has tons of scratches, water damage, or places where the finish is worn down to the raw wood, it may be time to sand the old finish off and apply a new one. Its generally not a DIY job because its labor-intensive and requires a high level of skill for even sanding and application of finishes. When the time comes, get several estimates and look for contractors who are certified refinishers.

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How To Choose A Hardwood Floor Cleaner: The Chem

The Chem-Dry professional wood floor cleaning process is the safest and most effective way to clean solid wood and engineered wood floors as well as LVT flooring. This is because of the many benefits of our superior process, including:

• A deep clean using industry-leading equipment, including rotating brushes that remove dirt, grime, and allergens from deep in the grain of the wood
• A green-certified hardwood floor cleaning that is safe for both people and pets
• Minimal use of water to protect the wood from damage
• A vacuum that extracts both water and contaminants
• An optional sanitizer to eliminate bacteria
• A durable polish that leaves a protective barrier and healthy shine

For more specifics, heres an overview of the steps in our thorough, industry-leading process:

Avoiding Scratches And Dents

Here is a checklist of the best ways to avoid these problems:

• Place carpet runners in all high-traffic areas.
• Use cushioning pads beneath all furniture legs.
• If moving furniture or appliances, put carpet scraps with the nap down under each leg and slide the furniture.
• Dont weather spike heels on hardwood floors.
• Consider cloth boots for dogs or keep dogs off the hardwood floors.
• Use handcarts with balloon tires rather than hard tires.

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Refinishing Your Solid Hardwood Flooring

One of the benefits of solid hardwood flooring is that it can be refinished multiple times before it needs to be replaced. Depending on the level of traffic your floor gets, it may last 7-20 years before refinishing becomes a necessity. The average age for refinishing is 12 years.

Refinishing can be a DIY project for handy homeowners. There are plenty of pros around too who can restore your floors to their original beauty or give them a different finish if youd prefer.

Natural Vinegar Alternatives For Cleaning Wood Floors

While cleaning wood floors with vinegar and water is ideal, it isn’t the only natural option. If you like the cleaning power of vinegar but want to cut the smell, just add an essential oil, such as lemon. Lemon oil also helps to cut grease, which may be very useful if you’re trying to clean wood floors in a kitchen. It’s also a great disinfectant, which is something you may want to consider if you have pets that make your floors dirty.

Another way to clean wood floors naturally is with castile soap. Dr. Bronner’s is a great alternative to vinegar and has many other uses beyond household surfaces. It can be used in the shower in place of shower gel or traditional bar soap. You can also use castile soap to wash your laundry, instead of traditional detergent.

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Tips On How To Clean Solid Hardwood Floors

Choose the right Strategy in Cleaning Floors

When you are worried about how to thoroughly clean your own solid hardwood floors, make sure you really feel at ease as this content will assist you to through the cleanup strategy of your floors in any right way.

Solid Hard wood, which can be solid and hardwood, are usually better to clean. When you take right care of its servicing, that enhances its life and also its overall appearance. Grit and Dust are the nemesis of a hardwood floor and make scratches and dents. And also they dull the clearing of the smooth surface. Always keeping this in mind, you must procedure which is able to keep the floor clean and long lasting. Waxing is usually the best idea for your this type of floors. In case you have water blot on your waxed finished flooring compared to take a metallic wool, drench it in water after that rub on these spots to remove them. For cigarette burns, you may use a mild soap.

You should keep floor mats on all the doorways best known inside the house it will protect the dirt going on the floors. It is essential to utilize only a simple cleansers on the solid hardwood flooring. Once vacuum-cleaning the floors, you have to use a brush attached to it. For dirt and dust you may use airborne dirt and dust mops and floors must be swept regularly. Discoloring will certainly occur if the floor is shown direct sunlight. Use window blinds, shutters and shades for preventing the sunlight.

How To Clean An Oiled Wooden Floor

An oiled finish on a wooden floor provides a more penetrating seal, which soaks into the grain of the wood and hardens. Unlike lacquer floors, oils can be more easily replenished by the use of soaps and further treatments of oil.

Consequently, oiled wooden floors can last longer than lacquered providing they are correctly maintained – many lasting decades in good condition.

Oiled floors are simple to clean. The cleaning product that you use will depend on what oil has been used to treat your floor. For example, if your flooring has been treated with Treatex Hardwax oil you would clean your floor using a product called Treatex Floor Care whereas if your floor was treated with a Woca Oil you would clean your floor with Woca Soap. These products are simply mixed with water and you can mop your floor, being careful not to get the floor too wet, in the normal way.

Heres a quick video from Treatex, with instructions on how to clean a Treatex finished floor:

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How To Clean Hardwood Floors

The last thing you want to do is cause your flooring to warp or scratch.

Whether you are cleaning your kitchen cabinets and counters or scrubbing your bathtub, you likely have a routine for sanitizing and refreshing your most-touched surfaces down pat. But what about underfoot? Cleaning your hardwood floors can be difficultwood can be finicky, and you don’t want it to scratch or warp. Here, our experts share how to clean hardwood floors and get them looking as good as new.

A Deep Clean For A Wooden Floor

1. Dirt, grease, oil and grime will naturally build up on your wooden floor, so its a good idea to give it a really good deep clean twice a year to keep it looking its best.

2. Buy a trademarked deep cleaning product that suits your floor type and use according to the instructions if in any doubt, ask the manufacturer of your floor what products they recommend.

3. Dip a mop into your bucket of cleaning product and wring out so that its damp, not soaking wet. Mop the floor being carefully to not leave huge puddles of water as this can ruin the wood. Some cleaning products need to be rinsed off with a clean, damp mop after wards so check the instructions on the bottle.

4. Open the window and air dry or if its too cold turn on the central heating to speed up the drying process.

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Types Of Hardwood Flooring Seals

Polyurethane, polycrylic: Strong finish that is water and stain resistant. The longest lasting and best type of finishing for your flooring available.

Varnish, shellac: While a finish, it isnt as strong of one. Will resist stains and liquid but must be treated with more care.

Penetrating seal, tung oil: Not meant to be used indoors, very rare to find on interior flooring. Be very careful in cleaning.

If you are wanting to know how to clean hand scraped hardwood floors, then youre in luck: they can be cleaned the same as sealed floors. Cleaning hand scraped floors can take a little more work since they have more texture and con-caved areas for dirt to hide in.

Treated floors are still susceptible to water damage. While they can handle some water or cleaners, you really want to make sure you dont leave excess water on the surface. Untreated floors are very susceptible to water, you can still use it to clean but you will need to take extra steps for drying.

We will dive further into what cleaners are best for your type of wood floor below so that you can learn how to deep clean hardwood floors without damaging them at all.

Whats The Best Wood Floor Cleaner

Keeping even exotic hardwood floors clean and maintained doesnt 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, but its essential to avoid cleaners that arent pH-neutral or arent specifically designed for your flooring. The Key is to know the type of hardwood and how its finished to choose the right commercial cleaner, and always, always, always read the label 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 arent safe for hardwood floors. The same goes for too much moisture. You should never steam clean your hardwood floors or use too much water 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?

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Start By Sweeping Your Floors

The best thing you can do for your floors to start with is to sweep them. This is the first step in how to clean dirty hardwood floors. Try to start a daily sweeping routine to maintain clean floors if possible

Dirt and debris can be the worst enemy your floor has. This is because over time, the particles can be rubbed into your floor, rubbing in and scratching away the finish.

If you cant find time to sweep your floors everyday, then try to aim for the high traffic areas. This will cut down on dirt buildup. Entryways and hallways are usually the worst areas that gather dirt and debris.

Instead of sweeping, you can opt to use a dust mop. A dust mop doesnt simple push dirt around, it captures it and hold on until you remove the pad to clean or shake it off. Dust mops come in a variety of widths so you can find the one that fits your home for easy and quick cleaning.

Daily sweeping is also the best way to clean dark hardwood floors. When your wood floors are very dark, dirt will show up very easy. Using a broom or dust mop on your floor daily with help knock out the debris that is tracked in.

Use area rugs to help trap dirt and keep your daily sweeping to a minimum. A small rug on the inside of a doorway is the first defense against dirt. It is also a great spot to encourage storing shoes. This will help keep dirt from being brought further into the home.

Using Chemicals To Remove Stains From Unfinished Hardwood

While we try to avoid using dangerous chemicals in the house, sometimes standard cleaning chemicals may be the best option when it comes to more difficult stains in unfinished hardwood. The two main chemicals that are effective in this scenario are Trisodium Phosphate and Mineral Spirits.

Trisodium Phosphate and Hardwood

Also known as TSP, trisodium phosphate is a powerful cleaning agent that can give you one of the best deep cleans for unfinished hardwood floors. Also used for prepping wood for staining, TSP can remove stubborn gunk and mildew from almost all types of wood. Pay attention to the safety measures described below it is still a caustic chemical.

The basic concept of cleaning with TSP is very simple. Dilute 1/4 cup trisodium phosphate with 1 gallon of warm water, soak a sponge in that to spot clean stains and troublesome wood areas, then rinse. Unfortunately, this chemical can be dangerous, so precautions must be taken.

Trisodium Phosphate Precautions

• Wear rubber gloves and goggles.
• Remove any nearby furniture or anything on the floor.
• Cover nearby flooring, including laminate, carpet, or tile.
• Cover areas like moulding or fireplaces that cannot be moved.
• Keep children, pets, and roomates away from the area until it is fully dried.
• Only mix the solution with a wooden stirring stick . Metal or plastic can melt or corrode.

For simple marks, carefully wipe the sponge on the affected area, just enough to remove the stain or buildup you are aiming for.

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