House Grooming

How to Clean Hardwood Floors?

One of the most easy flooring types to clean are the hardwood floors. Compared to carpeting, hardwood floors require lowest amount of maintenance and can last for many years. But the maintenance methods to clean hardwood floors should not differ among types. Although some finishes may require extra care when removing stains. A house can look both spacious and beautiful if it has clean hardwood floors.

One of the most effective and quickest ways to clean hardwood floors is with a damp mop so just make sure that before mopping you have removed all surface dust from the floor. This can be easily done with the help of a soft broom or lightweight vacuum cleaner. After that, simply mop, rinse and repeat. Removal of grit and dirt from hardwood floors is also very important as dirt and grit are the biggest enemies when it comes to scouring or scratching the floor finish.

Although, there are a lot of hardwood floor cleaners available, but a very low pH cleanser and water will do the work just as efficiently. It is also very necessary to properly seal the hardwood floor before any mopping. In case there are worn patches, do not use water, as the liquid can penetrate the wood and there are chances that it might cause warping.

Following checklist can be considered as a starting point for childproofing your home.

• These days most of the hardwood floors are finished using a surface finish called polyurethane. Such hardwood floors look shiny and glossy and the polyurethane looks like a plastic coating over the wood and is extremely hard wearing. There is another very famous finish, called as penetrating seals. Penetrating seals generally consists of wax or oil finishes that penetrate the wood and protect from within.
• There might be times when you may wish to go that extra mile and finish off the mopping with a polish or wax and if you observer that your clean hardwood floors still look dull, then buffing them with wax may help and it is quite likely that it may take some extra elbow grease in order to clean hardwood floors in this way, but the end result will come up to the expectations. Today many people also use a floor polish to add a shine to the floors. At times there may be a problem with adhesion when it comes to recoating the hardwood floors.
• Whether the floors are hardwood or carpeted, all floors are susceptible to stains. In such situations, a very fine steel wool can be used to remove a majority of the stains and a little alcohol can also be used to remove stains from clean hardwood floors. After applying all this, if the stain still remains, then sanding down the area may be the only option in order to remove it.
• You may only have to clean hardwood floors once a week depending on the amount of traffic in your house and an extra safety measure used in order to maintain clean hardwood floors may be to have people remove footwear when they enter the house. Applying these methods may limit the amount of heel marks imprinted into the floors and the maintenance required in the future.