How To Clean Hardwood Floors

Dry Cleaning

Vacuuming, sweeping, or dry mopping your floors once a week should be the first and most frequent step in maintaining your hardwood floors. Not as inconvenient (or expensive), dry cleaning your flooring isn’t as bad as it is for your clothing. You might want to do this more frequently if you have pets who shed all over your floor or youngsters who leave crumbs in Hansel-and-Gretel-inspired tracks. It is annoying to feel these clumsy fragments under your bare feet. They may leave minute dings in your flooring, eroding the sheen and making it appear dull over time.

Liquid Cleaning

While vacuuming and dust mopping is fantastic for cleaning up dust, hair, and crumbs from your floors, they won’t eliminate all the debris accumulated over time. You’ll want a liquid cleaner for the occasional deep clean. Use of a store-bought wood-cleaning product that has received warranty approval is possible. Making your cleaner with one part vinegar to ten parts warm water is a good alternative. Additionally, you might incorporate a few drops of a liquid castile soap made from plants. Your floor will shine if you only use water and vinegar, but adding soap is useful if your floor is dirty. If you want to give your floor a polished sheen and spa-like fragrance, you may add a few drops of essential oils.

When using liquid wood floor cleaners, soak a cloth or sponge mop in the cleaning solution, wring it dry to make sure it’s moist but not wet, and then use it to clean the floor. Moisture can leak through the floor if it’s too damp, warping it. After mopping the floor, rinse the mop, squeeze off the excess water, and then wet mop the surface once more to get all of the cleaners off. Wipe up any extra wetness on your floor with a dry towel to ensure there isn’t any remaining.

Steam Cleaning

Never steam clean wood floors in general. While properly sealed floors won’t absorb any moisture, steam cleaning can be effective. Hardwood floors are typically not entirely sealed and shouldn’t be subjected to steam. Wood floors may distort due to the heat and moisture from steam mops and never fully recover. Keep in mind that dampness is the devil of hardwood flooring.

Whatever cleaning technique you use, always remember to verify the warranty on your floor before committing. Your neighborhood New Elite Floors professionals are here to respond to your inquiries, whether you recently installed new floors and want to maintain their condition or believe you have been improperly maintaining them for years. Visit your local Flooring America location today to begin one; our flooring consultants are eager to assist with all of your projects.