What's the best way to clean wood floors?
Question:Looking for the best way to clean wood floors without smearing and/or ruining the finish. Also, is there a anti bacterial way to clean wood floors. Thank you
Answers:
Hardwood floors are one of the easiest flooring types to keep clean. Unlike carpeting, hardwood floors require minimum maintenance and can last for many years. Clean hardwood floors that run throughout a house can make the house look both beautiful and spacious. Maintenance methods to clean hardwood floors should not differ among types, but some finishes may require extra care when removing stains.
The quickest and most effective way to clean hardwood floors is with a damp mop. Before mopping, make sure that you have removed all surface dust from the floor. This can be done with a soft broom or lightweight vacuum cleaner. Then, simply mop, rinse and repeat. It is important to remove grit and dirt from hardwood floors. Dirt and grit are the biggest enemies when it comes to scratching or scouring the floor finish.
There are many hardwood floor cleaners available, but a very low pH cleanser and water will do the job just as effectively. The hardwood floor must be properly sealed before any mopping. If there are worn patches, do not use water, as the liquid can penetrate the wood and cause warping.
Most hardwood floors are now finished using a surface finish called polyurethane. These floors look glossy and shiny. Polyurethane looks like a plastic coating over the wood and is extremely hard wearing. Another finish, called penetrating seals, consists of wax or oil finishes that penetrate the wood and protect from within.
You may wish to go that extra mile and finish off the mopping with a wax or polish. If you find that your clean hardwood floors still look dull, then buffing them with wax may help. It may take some extra elbow grease in order to clean hardwood floors in this way, but the end result will be worth it. Some people also use a floor polish to add a shine to the floors. If wax or polish is used regularly, there may be a problem with adhesion when it comes to recoating the hardwood floors.
All floors are susceptible to stains, whether they are hardwood or carpeted. A very fine steel wool can be used to remove a majority of the stains. A little alcohol can also be used to remove stains from clean hardwood floors. Finish off by polishing and buffing. If the stain remains, then sanding down the area may be the only option in order to remove it.
Depending on the amount of traffic in your house, you may only have to clean hardwood floors once a week. An extra precaution used in order to maintain clean hardwood floors may be to have people remove footwear when they enter the house. By doing this, you may limit the amount of heelmarks imprinted into the floors and the maintenance required in the future.
Water stains:
Use No 2 steel wool to sand spot and re-wax area. For darker stains, you may have to strip further down, clean with mineral spirits and refinish. Worst case, you may have to replace the board.
Cigarette burns:
Use steel wool to sand spot. Clean with mild soapy water (use something like Dove ™ dish washing liquid).
Heel marks/ Scuff marks:
Use fine steel wood but don’t sand too deep. Clean with a basic floor cleaner recommended by the manufacturer of you wood floors. Wipe area dry and polish.
Ink and other dark spots:
This one will just have to be sanded away and refinished. If the stain remains after that, now is the time to drag out the replacement boards.
Chewing gum and wax stains:
First get off as much as you can by scraping without spreading the stain any further. One way to ensure this is to work from the outside in. After, fill a zipper bag with ice and place on the gum or wax and leave on sufficient time to freeze. The gum or wax should pop right off. If it doesn’t, try putting a cleaner over the gum for about 20 minutes. The cleaner will seep under the sides of the gum and allow it to pop off. If all else fails, this is another case where the board may have to be replaced.
Alcohol:
Apply a liquid or paste wax to the alcohol and shine away. Alcohol will only make a dull spot on the wood so a good polish should take care of that.
Hardwood Floor Stains
When working on stains on your hardwood floor, be sure to work from the outside in so that you don’t spread the stain any further out.
When you are assessing your stains, remember that you are looking at the difference between fixing the wood and fixing the finish. This decision will make a big difference in how you go about attacking the stain.
For repairs or stains on the actual wood, replacement is usually the only option. There are some instances where smaller gouges, holes, burns etc in the actual wood can be repaired temporarily by using a wood putty in the same color as your wood floor. These putties can be found at your local hardware store.
Several years of shrinking and swelling of the wood cause squeaks. Every winter the wood will dry a bit and the wood will shrink. Obviously the opposite happens in the summer when the weather is humid. After a couple of years you will notice that squeaks come up in the most inconvenient places. To fix those squeaks, try putting powdered graphite, talc powder or powdered soap in between the wood planks. If that method doesn’t work, you can nail down the offending plank and cover the nail hole with wood putty.
One thing worth noting. Many consumers believe that oil soaps like Murphy’s Oil Soap ™ are made for cleaning hard wood floors. Oil soaps are in fact made for cleaning woods, especially hard woods, but most hardwood floors are now treated. You want to keep in mind that you are now cleaning the finish and not the actual wood (unless you have a very old fashioned unfinished wood floor).
I hope this was helpful,Take Care! :)
there are lots of cleaning products that are made for use with wood. i wouldn't use anything antibacterial that doesnt specifically say its made for use with wood because it will strip it. there is a brand named holloway house or something like that that has really strong cleaners that are all formulated for use with wood. whatever you clean it with, using a wood polish or something just for shine afterwards will make it look great.
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