Hardwood Floor Care - Tips To Keep It Bright, Shiny And As New

Do you own a lovely hardwood floor that you desire to pass on to your grandchildren? Are you confused what to do, so that your beloved hardwood floor remains bright and shiny throughout? Well, we are here to give you a complete guide that would come in handy when Hardwood floor care would be the topic of discussion in your home. With the lovely spring bestowed upon us, cleaning the house becomes the top agenda. Here are some tips for both occasional and daily cleaners to keep your hardwood floors in good shape all year round. Firstly the people for whom life is too hectic to take care of their lovely floors on a daily basis. Now you have got the time, utilize it well with these tips :

Select the Best Hardwood Floor Care Products

This is very important and has to be chosen based on the type of flooring you have. There are two types of floor - one sealed with urethane or poly-acrylic sealant and the other that are not sealed (it includes unfinished floors or floors finished with varnish, oil seals or shellac).

If your floor is newly installed then you definitely would fall in the first category, all you need to do is sweep and then damp-mop it with a recommended hardwood floor care product and you are good to go. But if you are the second category, then you are in for a rough ride. These floors are much more sensitive to water penetration so you need to avoid mopping at any cost possible. Instead try to remove the dust by vacuuming or simple sweeping on a daily basis and then once a year you can remove the old wax and recoat it with a brand new one.

What not to use for cleaning your Hardwood floor?

If it is a newly installed one, your best instinct should be to use a recommended product only (Yes, it can be expensive). But if you are convinced that this is too much to afford then you can go with simple soap and water solution with PH neutral solutions for example dishwashing solutions. Do not at any cost use acidic solutions like vinegar, abrasive soaps, and ammonia solutions, bleaches, furniture waxes or water based waxes. These products will leave your floor dull, stained and slippery.

Use the Right Vacuum Cleaner

Vacuuming or sweeping daily is at the top of the list when it comes to hardwood floor care.  If you are going with the vacuuming then avoid scratches and dents by using vacuum cleaner with either a flat head or a brush. Any other kind would be prone to mark or dent your floor which obviously you would not want Right? Now vacuum cleaners has wheels, we all know that. If it’s scratching your floor, a quick solution is to wrap a tape around these and keep one handy so as to change it from time to time.

Beware of Water

It is the cause of many problems when it comes to cleaning your hardwood floors irrespective of the category we mentioned above. Even if it’s the sealed one, you do not need to flood your floor with buckets of water. Simply clean it with a soft mop which is dipped in the cleaning solution and properly wrung out. Please keep this in mind, it should not be soaking wet rather damp enough that it doesn’t leave any stain of water when you mop it. You can also spray the cleaning solution all over the floor with a spraying bottle and then mopping it with a dry mop. Yey!!! no water would be used in this process.

Ice is your friend not enemy

These are the quickies to solve the immediate problems. By preserving your calm, you can deal with such disasters with ease. Suppose a chewing gum got stuck to the floor, now shouting at the poor kid would not solve the problem Right? So let’s see what can be done? Fill a plastic bag with ice and rest it over the gum for some time. Wait for it to become brittle, remove it and clean the floor just as always. Simple Right? Are you fed up with Scuff marks? No worries. Baking soda on a damp sponge would do the trick for you. Water spots? Use mineral spirits on a steel wood pad. Gently peel the old layer and reapply a fresh layer of wax on it.

Some quick daily tips

1. Vacuum at least once a week
2. Keep out the rain
3. Beware of furniture polish, don’t let it stay.
4. Remove the residues on daily basis
5. Know the rules about using the hardwood floor care products
6. Extra long walk off doormat
7. Protect the high traffic zones with Area Rugs

So that’s all with floor cleaning tips for today. Your one stop shop for cleaning your house is always there to help you with any query. Remember we are just a call/click away. Till then, Happy Cleaning.

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