How To Clean Your Hardwood Floors?

Even if you vacuum or sweep your floors regularly you will still need to be cleaning hardwood floors every once in a while, to preserve the shine and appearance. If your floors have become dull or have developed spots, here’s how to clean hardwood floors that have lost their lustre and info if you think a hardwood floor buffer would perk up your floors.

The best advice here is to use a soft terrycloth mop with a rotating head, and to wring it out almost completely before you start to mop. When it comes to cleaning wood floors, damp is the name of the game! A wet mop will do far, far more harm than good, so don’t ever use a wet, dripping mop on your floor – or a steam cleaner! Always use a dry dust mop, here’s more info. Now what products will give that deep clean and shine?

Which Products to Use: Commercial and Home Remedies

Commercial Products

There are plenty of commercial products for cleaning hardwood floors out there and what you choose to use will and info if you think a depend on the type of finish you have. There are endless cleaning tools and gimmicks.

If you need to clean floors that have a polyurethane finish, then you want to remember that you should never use wax. Professional hardwood floor cleaning products are often the best choice because they are non-abrasive and they do not contain harsh chemicals.

The best cleaners also dry to a shine that does not leave a residue on your floor, which is what you want when you clean hardwood floors. Without noticing it many people use cleaners that are either slowly wearing away their finish or are adding another layer of residue each time they clean.

A spray bottle with a little professional floor cleaner in it, along with a soft cloth, should be enough to clean up individual scuffs and marks on your floor and a damp sponge should take care of sticky marks. Since the product is diluted, you aren’t using much of it so the bottle will last for cleaning hardwood floors for months.

Home Remedy Products

If you would rather not use commercial products when cleaning hardwood floors you probably have the alternatives in your kitchen already! Some people only want to use simple home remedies and find that mild liquid dishwashing detergent or white vinegar, mixed into luke warm water and used on a damp mop is a good cleaner for your floors.

Another use for a common product: a little sprinkle of baking soda and a damp sponge should remove any scuffmarks from your floors. Lemon juice and rubbing alcohol also work as cleaners for stubborn marks on your hardwood floors but are to be used very sparingly…or you might take more layers than you expected off your floor.

Each of these home remedy suggestions is not ideal for different reasons. A bottle of professional floor cleaner really doesn’t cost much for the length of time it lasts when diluted. I still like to mention these suggestions though because they do work in a pinch.

Whatever you do, remember to clean up any excess liquid or water as it can cause your floors to crack or buckle if it is left to lie on the surface.

What to Do When Cleaning Doesn’t Work

In most cases, if you catch messes early enough and use one of the methods described above, you should be able to clean hardwood floors yourself.

There may be times when there are deep stains, when the surface is scratched or patches are worn and the dirt just will not come out anymore. Refinishing could be an option in this case. With proper care though these drastic measures would only be after a long time or a lot of traffic.

When they’re past the point of cleaning and the floor just doesn’t look its best and might be time to sand and refinish your floor or part of the floor, or even have a professional take over. There’s no shame in getting a helping hand to protect your investment!