Cleaning and Maintaining Your Hardwood Floors: Part 1
At Speedy Floor Removal, we have already stated our opinions on solid hardwood floors, but we will say them again: hardwood floors bring timeless, traditional, and natural beauty to your home. Hardwood floors add to the aesthetic appeal as well as the monetary value of a house, and though it is a very long-established flooring option, hardwood flooring is still as fashionable as ever.
With all of hardwood’s great qualities, it is easy to fall in love with this flooring option, but in order to make your adoring relationship with your hardwood floors last, some upkeep is required. As a natural product chemically altered to fit into your home, solid hardwood has very specific cleaning and maintenance needs that will retain all of the original luster and luxury of your flooring if followed properly, but which will cause all of that wonder to slowly slip away if not followed.
Therefore, understanding each particular cleaning and maintenance step for solid hardwood is critical for homeowners with any amount of this classic flooring in their house. Speedy Floor Removal wants to prepare hardwood flooring homeowners to be able to protect their investment and promote their style for as long as possible, so we have supplied every essential cleaning and maintaining tip for hardwood flooring that homeowners could ever need. We will reveal these tips in this two part blog series, and this first part will discuss how to clean your hardwood floors. So, whether you and your hardwood flooring are at home in North Central Florida or anywhere else in America, stick with us to find out how to give your distinctive real wood floors all of the TLC they deserve!
Cleaning Your Hardwood Floors:
When it comes to cleaning your hardwood floors, it is important to recall how your hardwood floors are sealed because it is the finish, not the wood type, that determines how you should clean your floors.
There are three different types of finishes that your hardwood floor may have. These finish types are:
- Surface-sealed floors: new wood floors are usually sealed with urethane, polyurethane, or polyacrylic, and these types of seals render the floor mostly stain and water damage resistant. Surface sealed floors are fairly easy to care for and clean.
- Penetrating-seal-treated and oil-treated floors: a penetrating soil or an oil finish soaks into the grain of the wood and hardens. Penetrating seal-treated or oil-treated are a bit more delicate and must be pampered with liquid or paste wax.
- Lacquered, shellacked, varnished, or untreated floors: These types of finishes are technically considered surface finishes, but floors covered with lacquers, shellacs, or varnishes are not as resistant to moisture, spills, wear, and tear as other surface-sealed floors are. Therefore, floors with these finishes should be treated as carefully as penetrating-seal-treated or oil-treated floors.
Tip from Today: to quickly determine which type of finish is on your floor, rub your finger across the hardwood. Floors treated with a penetrating seal, oil finish, lacquer, shellac, or varnish will leave a smudge. Surface-sealed floors will not.
Cleaning Surface-Sealed Hardwood Floors:
To clean surface-sealed floors, heed the following advice:
- Do not use the following products on your surface-sealed floors, as they will leave behind residue, scratches, or a dull finish:
- Furniture sprays
- Oils
- Waxes
- Straight ammonia
- Alkaline products
- Abrasive cleaners
- Use soap and water to get a great clean without jeopardizing your floor’s warranty. Floor cleaning products recommended by the floor finisher should work as well, but those may be more expensive. Water alone or water and vinegar will leave your floors looking dingy and will not be as effective at removing buildup.
- Sweep daily if possible. Mop at least once a week.
- When mopping, make sure the mop is damp and not dripping, as any amount of standing water is bad for hardwood floors. After dipping the mop in a bucket of cleaning solution, wring it out completely, and follow the wood grain with your strokes. Replace the cleaning solution when the water gets dirty, and rinse the entire surface with clean water after applying the cleaning solution.
Specific problems with your surface-sealed wood floors only require simple solutions. The following recommendations should help you overcome them:
- Erase scuffmarks with some baking soda on a damp sponge.
- Use a commercial cleaner to address food, water, and grease stains.
- Wait for the seasons to change to see your hairline cracks disappear. These cracks should close up during the summer months when the air is not so dry, or a humidifier can help as well.
- Recoat your floor with one or two additional layers of sealer after a light sanding to restore shine. Complete this process every five to seven years.
Cleaning Hardwood Floors with All Other Finishes or Untreated Hardwood Floors:
These directions apply to cleaning and caring for untreated floors or floors treated with penetrating seals, oils, lacquer, shellac, or varnish:
- Do not use the following waxes on your hardwood floors:
- Furniture wax: leaves the floors too slick
- One-step wax: traps dirt
- Acrylic or water-based waxes: turn the floors white
- Use a stripper recommended by the floor manufacturer, a commercial product from the hardware store, or mineral spirits to remove old wax buildup.
- Protect your hardwood floors with liquid wax or paste wax.
- Do NOT use a damp mop on your waxed floors.
- Vacuum and sweep these wood floors often.
- Once or twice a year, apply a fresh coat of wax after stripping away the old coat. Spot-wax in between in dull areas if necessary.
- To wax your floor:
- Remove the old wax by following the instructions of a commercial stripper or by rubbing mineral spirits into the wood and wiping off with a soft, clean cloth.
- Apply a thin coat of wax when the floor has dried. Use an applicator for liquid wax or a cloth for paste wax. Add another thin coat after the first coat dries for more protection.
- Buff the floor in the direction of the wood grain with a cloth or a rented buffing machine.
Minor issues with your untreated, penetrating-seal-treated, oil-treated, lacquered, shellacked, or varnished floors can be resolved with these easy answers:
- Remove white water spots by rubbing the area in a circular motion with a small amount of mineral spirits added to an extra fine steel wool pad.
- Buff away heel marks with a small amount of wax applied to an extra fine steel wood pad and rubbed in a circular motion over the area.
- Take away food stains by wiping the surface with a damp cloth, then rubbing the area dry and waxing. Work from the outside edge toward the center to eliminate the stain.
Maintaining Your Hardwood Floors:
To learn how to maintain your solid wood floors treated with any type of sealer or finish, revisit Speedy Floor Removal’s blog next month for more essential information on taking care of your wonderful hardwood! For more information how Speedy Floor Removal can help you secure an amazing new hardwood floor for your home, contact us today!
