Everyone wants to live a luxurious lifestyle. A luxurious lifestyle starts within your home.
Luxurious homes have hardwood floors as they add a premium look to the house.
In fact, most people would like to install a hardwood floor instead of laminates or any other type of flooring.
If you have recently installed a hardwood floor, then this article is worth following for you.
Today, we will give you the best of information to maintain the hardwood flooring.
Most people don’t know about the cleaning procedure and hence they end up making their floor dirty or dull.
To keep the shiny surface of the hardwood for a long time, you must know about the different ways to clean hardwood floors.
Before we jump on to the ways or the procedures to clean hardwood floors, let’s understand the reasons behind keeping the hardwood floor clean.
We bring a variety of unwanted items to our home from outside. Just imagine the amount of dust, dirt, debris, grime, and all the other things that we bring from the outside to our home.
On top of that, if you have children in your home or pets, the level of dirt could reach its maximum level.
It is essential for you to keep things clean to prevent you and your loved ones from getting sick.
Dirt, debris, grime, and other bacteria are not good for your health, and for the very same reason, you must pay attention to keep the hardwood floor clean.
Make sure you spend at least 30 minutes of time cleaning up things properly. It is the first step to live a healthy life.
Why should you care about the hardwood floor?
Hardwood flooring is the most expensive type of flooring compared to other types.
People who have installed hardwood floors have already invested a lot of money in it.
They might not want to spend extra money to repair it or to reinstall it again.
On the other hand, dirty hardwood floor looks awful and nobody likes to have this type of flooring in their home.
With a simple solution, you can extend the life of your flooring and keep it shiny and new.
The very simple solution is quick cleaning.
Yes, according to experts, every hardwood floor needs a quick cleaning twice a week.
It takes only a few minutes of your busy schedule. It gives you additional benefits and also saves you a lot of bucks.
I’m sure, after knowing about the extra money on the repairs and its maintenance, you must want to know about the cleaning tasks of a hardwood floor.
Many of you might not know about the simplest ways to clean up the hardwood floor.
For that reason, we thought of compiling all the different ways of cleaning it along with the list of its ingredients, tools, and all the other things which are essential for thorough cleaning of the wooden floor.
Wooden flooring is of different types and for that, you must know about the type of it first.
Various kind of wood flooring such as laminate flooring, composite, solid wood, etc. requires different type of cleaning methods.
So ultimately, it depends upon your lifestyle and your basic needs.
We have tried to explain everything about hardwood floors and their cleaning methods of it.
Tools and Supplies Needed
As noted above, the first thing you need to figure out before buying the tools and supplies for the floor is the type of hardwood floor.
Hardwood floors are created differently and the cleaning materials that you can use to clean it up are also different.
Make sure you pay very good attention to it otherwise, you will end up making it look worst.
If you are not sure about the type of floor installed in your home or in a particular room, you might want to ask about the same to the supplier or the person who has installed it.
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The first thing we would like you to request here is to invest your money in the right cleaning tools.
Thankfully, there are so many types of cleaning tools and supplies available for you on the market.
Fortunately, you don’t need to buy them from the market, just explore the right products and tools on popular e-Commerce websites and get them delivered to your doorstep.
It’s way easier than you can think!
The super-simple way of cleaning a hardwood floor is with a microfiber dust mop.
A dust mop works effectively well on this type of floor as it removes dust, dirt, and even debris from the surface.
It glides gently on the floor surface and doesn’t leave any scratches on it.
Interestingly, you can buy a variety of microfiber mops that are specially designed for the hardwood floor.
The same mop can be used on different types of floors and not just on the hardwood floors which is one more reason to buy it.
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If you don’t have enough money to invest in advanced cleaning tools, then the microfiber cleaning mop is the best and most affordable tool you can buy.
On the other hand, if you have enough money to keep your home clean but couldn’t invest your time in it, then consider buying a robotic vacuum for your home.
Robotic Vacuums are getting more and more popular as they come with advanced cleaning features and work well on hardwood floors.
Robotic Vacuums are ideal for hardwood as they glide gently on the surface and use smooth brushes to remove and collect dirt, dust, and debris from the surface of the floor.
Additionally, it doesn’t leave scratches on it just like the normal mop.
Moreover, Robotic Vacuums come with built-in sensors and pre-programmed functions.
You can set up things as per your needs, can set a timer, and do a variety of things right from the mobile app.
Yes, the advanced robotic vacuums come with wireless connectivity features allowing you to connect them to your home’s Wi-Fi network.
You can control it using your mobile phone through its compatible app from remote locations.
Ways to Clean Hardwood Floors
Depending on your basic needs and the type of hardwood, there are different cleaning ways that you can use to keep the hardwood floor clean.
All the effective cleaning methods are enlisted below, check them out now:
Mopping
Mopping is the easiest way to clean up the hardwood floor and by far it is the highly used method by almost all hardwood floor owners.
You need to pay attention to the heavy traffic area of your home. This is the area where you have to focus more while cleaning.
You should clean up the heavy traffic area every alternate day.
You can clean up the hardwood using a simple microfiber mop and a hardwood floor cleaner.
You should discuss the hardwood floor cleaner with the manufacturer to avoid any further messes or issues on the floor.
Before you start cleaning the floor, make sure you rinse the mop properly.
All the water from the mop should be out. You should also keep the water drops away from the surface.
Water is a direct enemy to the hardwood floor and you should keep an eye on the water drops led on the floor.
While using the floor cleaner, you should not use hard detergent as it might affect the surface or can damage the surface of the floor.
Make sure you discuss it with the supplier before you use it.
For best results, you should get yourself a spray that can be easily sprinkled on the floor, and with the help of the mop, you can clean it up.
It will make the hardwood floor shiny and clean in no time. Alternatively, you can also use wet pads which can be bought from the market.
If we talk about the advanced tools, then you can go with the steam mop.
It is a unique type of mop that is designed especially for hardwood flooring.
It uses steam to clean up the surface.
You can add a suitable floor cleaner to the mixture before starting the cleaning process.
Whenever you apply this cleaning method on the hardwood floor, make sure you turn on the ceiling fans.
It helps the floor to get dry quickly as water or moisture can damage the wooden surface of the floor.
This is a life-saver tip that you should keep in mind while using the mopping method to clean hardwood flooring.
Sweeping
Sweeping is yet another simplest method that you can use to clean up the hardwood floor.
Sweeping is not considered the best method, but still, it offers a lot of benefits to the users.
Those of you who can invest a few minutes of your busy schedule for cleaning should use this method.
Sweeping of the floor requires a compatible broom.
With the help of a broom, you can simply remove dirt, dust, debris, and other things from the floor’s surface.
It doesn’t ask for any type of cleaner or special tools to use.
You can sweep things away using a broomstick and that’s how you can keep the floor clean.
Since we are manually sweeping away the dirt and other debris from the floor, it is considered as the safest method for the hardwood floor.
It doesn’t leave any scratches on the surface. On the other hand, it doesn’t ask you to use water or any type of liquid cleaner, which is one more reason to use this method.
You can use this method to clean up the hardwood floor daily. However, you should also use the mopping method twice a week to keep the floor shiny and look premium.
Vacuuming
The vacuum is considered the most advanced cleaning method for hardwood floors.
Thankfully, there are numerous types of vacuums present on the market which are designed for hardwood floors only.
Most manufacturers know about the needs of their consumers and for that reason, they have come up with specially designed vacuums for hardwood floors.
Multi-purpose vacuums are quite popular in the market and for that reason, most people have started using vacuums instead of following the traditional mopping and sweeping methods on their floors.
No matter whether you own a vacuum or going to buy one for hardwood floor cleaning, you should not use it more frequently on a wooden floor as it uses a brush roll which can affect the surface area of the floor.
Consider vacuuming on the wooden floor every once a week.
If the floor gets too dirty, you can use it twice a week but not more than that.
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Multi-purpose vacuums come with special cleaning modes that you can use as per the type of floor.
Since we are going to use it on the hard wooden floor, make sure to switch the cleaning mode to the hard floor before you can start using it.
When you turn on the hardwood option, the brush roll will be deactivated.
The only suction function works with the hard floor setting which is essential to pick dust, dirt, and debris from the floor area.
You have to keep in mind that the brush roll mode is turned off, if you keep it on while using it on the wooden floor, it might leave some scratches on the floor.
New generation vacuums come equipped with extra safety features that don’t affect the surfaces of the hard floors or wooden floors.
Some models come with rubber wheels that easily glide through the surface and collect up to 99.97% of dirt from the floor.
Consider choosing a vacuum that comes with rubber wheels and not plastic-made wheels.
Plastic wheels are hard on the floor and can damage the surface of the wooden floor.
Revitalizing
This method is used when you notice some scratches on the surface of the wooden floor.
This method is only applicable to those who really want to take care of their wooden floor and can invest enough time to regain its natural look back.
When you notice dullness or scratches on the floor, it is the right time to invest a few bucks in the specialized scratch concealers that are available in the market for wooden materials only.
A liquid scratch concealer acts as a coating skin on the surface.
It comes in a liquid form which you have to apply gently on the dull area or on the area with scratches.
When it gets dry, it leaves an extra layer on the surface or seals the scratch. This seal will not come out during the cleaning process.
The liquid concealer that you are going to use for the hardwood cleaning must be matching with the type of your floor.
Make sure you choose the right color concealer that matches well with your floor’s color.
Right after that, you can restore its natural look by applying wooden floor polish.
When you apply wooden polish on the floor, the floor will become shiny and look natural.
It will also protect the surface from developing new scratches with daily traffic. It applies a secondary layer on the surface.
Alternatively, you can also use floor wax to maintain the cleanliness of the floor and its shiny look. Make sure you apply the floor wax gently.
If you are not familiar with it, consider seeking help from those who are an expert in it.
Learn from them first and then apply them to avoid further damage on the floor.
If the hardwood floor in your home is years old, then consider applying full-floor polish.
It will regain the natural look of the wooden floor and also saves you a lot of money.
You might not want to invest extra money on the same and for that reason, you should try out the polishing method on the floor.
Conclusion:
Keeping a hardwood floor clean and well-maintained is not as hard as you might have imagined before reading out this article.
When you know about the basic cleaning methods, you can easily keep the floor clean.
We have enlisted every single thing and all the useful cleaning methods here in the above article.
Follow the methods and the cleaning tips, and keep the wooden floor well-maintained for years!
