How to Clean Your Hardwood Floors Effectively

Neat and clean hardwood floors make a room more attractive and comfortable. Hardwood floors make a beautiful touch about a room. Every owner wants that hardwood floors of his/her room must be neat and clean to make the room beautiful and attractive.

And hardwood floors also a great investment, so you must be careful about it. Most of the people think it is difficult to clean hardwood floors. As most of the hardwood floors are finished with polyurethane, it is easy to keep it clean. Here are some smart cleaning methods for you that will keep your hardwood floors neat and clean.

Maintenances/Prerequisites

You should protect your hardwood floors from dirt and dust. If you concern about the protection of your hardwood floors, that will reduce both your struggles and cost. You may follow some instructions or maintenances some rules for your room. Such as:

• Don’t allow shoes in the room. When you back to home from work, your shoes must get dirt. So you must avoid using shoes in the room.
• Using floor protectors under furniture to prevent stains. It is a better way to avoid dark spots.
• Maintain some regularity of cleaning/sweeping the floor.

Determining The Kind of Hardwood Finish

 It is also an important task to determine the hardwood finish. It is easy to spot in prefinished hardwood floors. If you find finished floors, it is easy to clean. Because new floors have polyurethane-based surface-seal and it easy to clean.

Since the prefinished surface-seal isn’t well surface-sealed, it is difficult to clean. Prefinished surface floors can be damaged easily with dirt and water. But, how do you find the finished floors?

There is an easy way to find it. You can place a few drops of water on the floors. If the water is soaked by the wood, your floors will be prefinished. 

Regular Sweeping

Regular sweeping is the best way to prevent the hardwood floors from being stained and damage. You may use a microfiber cleaning pad for regular sweeping. A microfiber cleaning pad is good enough to sweep the dirt and particles of your floor. Regular sweeping/dusting is the most important part that will prevent your hardwood floors from scratches and damages. Because regular sweeping removes all the dirt and particles that help to create the stain.

Vacuuming

One of the most important parts that you must do is vacuuming. Vacuuming is essential to remove dirt from trouble areas like the joint area of two pieces of hardwood and corners of the room. If you start to clean your hardwood floors without vacuuming, dirt will create scratches on the floors.

You must be careful about your vacuum cleaner. A good vacuum cleaner is the prerequisite of perfect vacuuming. You may use a canister vacuum cleaner. It is the best one with the attachment of long and oval floor brush. You must be careful about vacuuming because it is dangerous to clean your hardwood floors before proper vacuuming.

Burnish/Polish

Burnishing your floor in every few months is a great habit of cleaning hardwood floors. It helps to renew the finish and protect the hardwood floors. It is also helpful to fill the scratches. Although polishing is an easy task, it has some prerequisites.

Before polishing you have to ensure that there is no dirt on the floor. So you have to vacuum your hardwood floors very well for removing all the dirt. Because you already know that polishing your floor with dirt will create scratches on your hardwood floors. Since hardwood floors don’t have any storage to reserve dirt like carpet, Burnishing is an easy task for it.

Cleaning Process

You should know that hardwood floors are easy to clean. There is no way to trap dirt in hardwood floors like carpet. As you are sweeping and vacuuming your floors regularly, there is no need to clean it regularly. You should clean it when it really needs to clean. Because regular clean may harm your floors.

You know much water is very harmful to hardwood floors, so you must be careful about choosing hardwood floors cleaner. You should choose a pH neutral and water-based floor cleaner. You may use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner spray. First, you spray with the cleaner and then mop your floor. For mopping, you may use a microfiber mop, as it is good enough to pick up the dirt. If you find a heavy stain, you may use baking soda to the stain to remove the spot.

Sometimes you may use another stain removal when you find dark spots. You can use vinegar for the dark spots and odorless mineral spirits for white spots. For oil-based stains, you should cover the area with a soft cloth and dishwashing water.

After a few minutes, you should rinse it with clean water. If you notice that after all your efforts your hardwood floors remain word down, you should call a professional to refinish it.

Other Considerations

You know that cleaning a hardwood floor easy an easy task. But you must be careful because careless cleaning can damage your floors. Here some extra tips for you and you must be considered on it. It can help you to be conscious when cleaning.  Here are some considerations for you:

• Using proper tools: Using proper tools is essential for perfect cleaning. You should choose a proper hardwood floors cleaner. Bona Hard Wood Cleaner Spray can be useful. And you can use microfiber mop for dusting.
• Avoiding things: It is better to avoid steam cleaning. You know that much water is harmful for your floors. If your floors are not well-finished, steam will be dangerous for the wood. And it may damage the floors. Vinegar and soap-based cleaners are also harmful. You must avoid using those.
• Maintaining some rules: You may apply some rules and regulations that will help to keep the floors clean. You should make these rules on your own.
• Area: Which area do you live is an important matter. If you live in a high traffic area, you need to sweep and mop your hardwood floors more often.

At the time of hardwood floors cleaning, you must be careful about these considerations. That will help you to clean your hardwood floors effectively. If you notice that the situation is beyond your control, you must inform to a professional.