The Ways One Can Clean Hardwood Floors

Posted by adam jackson

When you have hardwood floors in your home you want them to remain looking as good as the day that they were installed. But rather than using specialist-cleaning products, which are extremely expensive to, purchase and can contain chemicals that are in fact harmful to your wooden floors. In this article we look at some ways of how to clean hardwood floors so that they remain in the nearly the same condition as the day they were installed.

Yet even before you actually start deciding what is the best way to clean your hardwood floors you need to find out what kind of finish it has. The finish that your floor has will in the end determine the way in fact you clean it. If yours is a new wooden floor then all you need to do is sweep it and then use a damp mop. But for those floors which have been sealed or treated with oils these need to be cleaned using a liquid or paste wax. Also, those that have not been treated or have a lacquered, varnished or shellacked finished should also be cared for in the same way as mentioned previously.

One of the best ways of actually cleaning hardwood floors today is through using vinegar. However, if you want to get the best results possible you should be using is white vinegar, which not only helps to remove the build up of grease on it, but also can help to remove any unwanted odours as well. Also people who have used vinegar to clean their wooden floors have found it helps to remove mildew, a large number of stains as well as wax which has been able to accumulate on the floors surface.

Even though vinegar is effective at cleaning various different kinds of hardwood floors if you have oak floors or bamboo floors there are other cleaning methods that you may want to consider using instead. Certainly, of all the different types of hardwood floors that can be installed in your home today, oak ones when finished properly are the easiest to maintain.

However, if you want your oak floor to retain the same look that it had when first installed you need to clean it regularly. Ideally, one should be vacuuming and then the surface wiped over with a damp mop to remove all other dust particles on a weekly basis. If however, your oak floors have been waxed then you should arrange to buff them occasionally as this will help to bring the shine back up, plus it will help to remove any scuff marks on the surface.

If you have had bamboo floors in your home these actually need to be cared for in a different way from other wooden floors. Although you can vacuum them and then wipe over the surface with a damp mop as you would with an oak floor. But it is important that the cleaning solution you use does not contain any kinds of ingredients which have acid or are caustic or which are made using oils. So although you can use vinegar on oak and other kinds of hardwood floors it should not be used on a bamboo one.

Another kind of cleaning product which many people use and which a lot of hardwood manufacturers will recommend is Murphy’s oil soap. Of all the products now available, which can help you to maintain and care for your hardwood floors this, is one of the most effective and will help your floor to retain its shine.

Above we looked at some of the ways in which one can clean hardwood floors, but what one you use will depend on the type of wood and the finish that has been applied to its surface. Therefore it is wise to spend a little time finding out more about the kind of wood and finish to your floors if you want to ensure that they maintain the look they had when first installed.

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