With the great advances in wood floor finishes, cleaning & maintaining your floors is easier than ever. Maintenance only requires sweeping with a soft bristle broom, or vacuuming with a soft floor attachment. You should also clean your floors periodically with a professional wood floor cleaning product. We recommend Bona wood floor cleaner for floors finished with oil polyurethane or waterbased finish and we recommend Rubio Soap for floors finished with a hardwax oil. We also recommend the Rubbermaid refillable spray mop. Simply fill it will some of your cleaner (note: Rubio gets diluted with water) and then lightly mist and mop. The heads on these are even washable.
PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE FOR YOUR WOOD FLOORS
There are several steps you can take to help maintain the beauty of your hardwood floors:
- Don’t use vinyl or tile floor cleaning products on your wood floors. Polishing acrylic waxes cause wood to become slippery and appear dull quickly. Oily or wax based cleaning products are also not recommended.
- Floor Restore type products found at your local box store, home improvement store etc are also not recommended.
- Use rugs inside & outside doorways to help prevent grit, dirt and other debris from being tracked onto your hardwood floors and use felt on the legs of each piece of furniture. This will help to prevent scratches.
- Do not wet-mop a hardwood floor. Standing water can also dull the finish on wood floors and damage the wood and leave a discoloring residue.
- Wipe up spills immediately with a soft towel.
- Do not, I repeat DO NOT use Steam Mops.
- Put soft plastic or fabric faced protectors under the legs of furniture to further prevent scuffing and scratching.
- Avoid walking on your hardwood floors with cleats, other sports shoes and high heels. A 125lb woman walking in high heels has an impact of 2,000 pounds per square inch. An exposed heel nail can exert up to 8,000 pounds per square inch. This kind of impact can dent any flooring surface.
- When moving heavy furniture, do not slide it on the floors. It is best to pick up the furniture completely to protect the flooring.
- For wood flooring in the kitchens, it’s best to place an area rug in front of the kitchen sink.
- Use a humidifier throughout the winter months to keep wood shrinkage to a minimum. We recommend Aprilaire Home Humidifiers that connect to your furnace. The ideal humidity to keep your home year round is 30-50%. If your humidity goes below this range you will get cracks between your floor boards.
- Do not use a normal vacuum on your wood floors.
- As your floors start to wear, give us a call to see if they are ready to be buffed and recoated. Buffing and recoating is relatively cheap and it will help prolong the time before you need to sand the floors. Since a wood floor can only be sanded so many times, this is very crucial.