There are few nicer touches one can bring to a home than the grace of hardwood floors. Real hardwood floors bring an earthy touch to a home, adding warmth and homeliness to any room. They can elevate any property into something really special.
How Do You Clean Real Hardwood Floors?
Of course, hardwood flooring does not come cheaply. If you’re looking to install real hardwood floors into your home, it’s going to cost a pretty penny. That means you’ll need to make sure to take extra special care of them in the years to come.
What does the cleaning procedure look like for hardwood floors? How much work is involved and how should one go about it? Read on and we’ll walk you through everything that you need to know.
How Often Do Hardwood Floors Need Cleaning?
You’ve got your hardwood floors installed and you’re ready to kick back and enjoy the additional warmth they provide to your home. However, within a few days, you already notice a little bit of dust building up along the floorboards.
How often do you need to clean wood floors to ensure they are being taken care of properly? The short answer: about once a week.
This is a general rule of thumb, however. A big determining factor will be how often you clean your home in general. If you tend to do a big clean of your home every other day, you’ll want to group your floors into this effort.
It will also depend on how much foot traffic you get in your home. Do you have young children or rowdy pets constantly bringing dirt and water inside? You’ll likely need to clean more than if it was just yourself walking across carefully in a pair of socks.
If there is not too much dirt and grime coming into contact with your floors, you might be able to hold off and clean them once a month as opposed to once a week. Of course, if there’s any serious problem or spill, you’ll want to get that cleaned up as soon as humanly possible.
Proper Cleaning for Hardwood Flooring
Ready to hop into the cleaning process for your hardwood floors? You’ll have some work and needed elbow grease ahead of you. Before you get to the real cleaning, the best thing you can do is sweep and mop.
Sweeping and mopping will help to get all existing dust and dirt on the surface of the wood up and away.
With the floors somewhat cleaned and ready for full attention with a proper cleaner. There’s some disagreement out there between wood floor owners about what kind of cleaner is best suited for this kind of work.
Should you use polyurethane or should you use varnish? While both have their advantages and disadvantages, you’ll need to decide which you prefer. You can learn more about both cleaners to decide which might be best for you.
Mix your cleaner with water to help dilute it and then mop the floor with this new cleaning solution. As you do so, make sure to use only a little of your solution at a time so as not to soak the floor.
Too much fluid at once can warp your floors, something you’ll certainly want to avoid doing. Let your cleaner stand for no more than two minutes and then make sure you get it all mopped up and back to normal.
Avoid using a vinegar solution even though this is a common DIY household practice. Vinegar is highly acidic and has the potential to do damage to your doors if you aren’t careful.
Once you’ve developed a cleaning routine, you’ll be better equipped to care for your floors without causing any additional damage.
Dealing with Stains or Scratches
It’s the worst nightmare of any wood floor owner. You look down one day and discover that somewhere along the line a serious scratch or spill has occurred without you realizing it.
Has the damage been done? It depends. You’ll need to do a little inspection. If the damage is only in the finish and not the wood itself, you should be able to get some new finish and fix the problem.
However, if the wood itself is damaged, scratched, or otherwise disturbed, you’ll have a tougher fix on your hands. You can purchase stain sticks and attempt to blend the issue, rendering the problem not perfect but harder to notice.
When cleaning up stains, you don’t want to burn the finish off. This is far too easy to do. Before doing anything, make a judgment call about what condition your finish currently is in.
If the finish is in good condition, you might be able to use a few chemical cleaners without doing too much damage to the wood finish. You can get some Pine-Sol, apply it with a cloth, and gently scrub the stain out.
You might need to get an old toothbrush of some sort to really work against the stain and resolve things.
Polishing and waxing, once you’re done with a full clean, can also help to move past these types of cosmetic issues.
Caring for Real Hardwood Floors
Having real hardwood floors in your home can be an amazing gift. However, this kind of gift can also come with a great deal of responsibility. As this kind of flooring is not cheap, you’ll need to learn how to care for it properly.
The above information can help you determine how best to clean and care for your new hardwood flooring. With a little luck, your floors will remain in pristine condition for years to come. Need more advice for the home? Keep scrolling our blog for more.