How Ofyen Should You Clean Wood Floor

There's nothing like the look and experience of a quality wood floor. You might call up figuring out how to make clean wooden floors is going to exist tricky, or require lots of dissimilar specialist products. We've got good news for you: the vast bulk of wooden floors require some bones maintenance and a little TLC.

Follow our tips and learn the best way to make clean a wooden floor – and keep information technology clean.

Cleaning wooden floors: 3 tips for regularly maintenance

Although robust by nature, wooden floors are besides sensitive and tin easily exist damaged if exposed to intense cleaning routines. It's important to keep your wooden floors free from dust and debris as, over fourth dimension, grime tin build upwardly and pb to ho-hum, scruffy surfaces.

1. Once a day: sweep or vacuum high traffic areas

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A unproblematic erstwhile-schoolhouse broom and dustpan will do the chore nicely. If you lot're using a vacuum, make certain to utilize a setting specifically designed for hard flooring (the rotating bristles that do such a corking job at cleaning carpets tin scratch or damage wooden flooring).

2. Once a week: run a damp mop over heavily trafficked areas

The mop should exist damp and not soaking wet to make sure whatsoever h2o residuum dries quickly and so as non to impairment the wood. If the room doesn't go a lot of air, you might want to apply a soft microfibre fabric later to brand certain your floor is dry.

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iii. Clean stains immediately

Try to clean upwards any spills correct away – they'll merely concenter more dirt and become even harder to clean as time goes by. For more, jump into our handy guide on how to remove stains from wood.

Sealed or unsealed? Figuring out the best way to make clean a wooden floor

What'due south best for your floors depends how quondam they are and what type of stop is on them.

Merely determining what kind of wooden floor you have tin exist tricky if you didn't oversee its installation. In general, most modern wooden floors are 'surface sealed'; this means a resin or coating – ordinarily polyurethane or polyacrylic – has been applied that helps them to last longer and makes them more resistant to spills and scratches.

Older wooden floors accept sometimes simply been lacquered or varnished, which means the surface isn't completely sealed and can wear over fourth dimension, so you should apply water sparingly.

Top tip: How exercise you effigy out if your floor is sealed or unsealed? Only spill a tiny bit of water into an inconspicuous expanse. If the water forms chaplet and sits on the surface then chances are your floor is surface sealed.

How to clean sealed wooden floors

Also equally following our general maintenance tips above, here's what else y'all should do to clean your sealed wooden flooring:

Create a water solution using an appropriate floor cleaner like Cif Floor Expert Living Room Cleaner (always read the label to ensure that you lot are using your called product safely and correctly).
Never apply a bleach-based product, or a furniture wax or spray, every bit these could stain the wood.
Mop the floor using the solution, going with the grain. For particularly stubborn areas, dip a cloth in a neat floor cleaning solution and work the area at close quarters.
And then go over the entire surface once more with clean water in order to rinse, ensuring that no excess h2o or solution is left.
Finally, leave the floor to dry naturally or apply a microfibre cloth.

How to make clean hardwood floors

It may be a bit counterintuitive, simply 'unfinished' hardwood floors are rarely that: all hardwood floors need to be protected in some mode. The term is applied to raw wood that has been turned into planks for flooring.

Ownership the planks 'unfinished' allows you lot to lay them downward and apply your own stains, oils, waxes or any other coatings you want just, crucially, they are almost always finished in some way once installed (even if you don't get for the ultra-protective 'surface seal' selection).

If you've had unfinished hardwood floors installed, your supplier or the manufacturer should exist able to tell you how they were finished and what you should – and shouldn't – utilise to make clean them.

If you lot don't know much virtually when your floors were installed and by whom, follow these tips:

Mop the surface, but using every bit piffling h2o as possible – equally a dominion of pollex, the mop should be damp only entirely wrung out before being practical to the flooring.
Especially dirty areas can notwithstanding be treated, but utilize a neutral spray before working on it with a material. A little bit of washing up liquid mixed with some warm h2o would work well.
In that location should exist no need to dry the surface if yous utilise the right amount of water (very little), only if yous are unsure, utilize a dry textile to do then, following the grain.

If you lot're lucky enough to have a beautiful original parquet floor, information technology may need some actress care and attending. Find out all about cleaning parquet flooring.

How to clean laminate wooden floors

Laminate floors have become increasingly pop in many homes. Fabricated from compressed wood composite (e.chiliad. sawdust), they are often finished to such a loftier standard as to make them indistinguishable from solid hardwood.

They usually too come with a articulate protective layer, making them quite easy to clean and maintain – regularly vacuuming and bi-weekly damp clean should proceed them in tip summit shape.

Even so, information technology'south important to think that they aren't real woods the whole way through, so you should never apply abrasive products like steel wool on them and too avert things similar hot steam mops, which can dissolve the adhesives used or cause your floor to warp.

What not to use on wooden floors

Harsh detergents or 'quick fix' products

You shouldn't need whatsoever harsh cleaning products when cleaning wooden floors. In fact, if your floors are new you may even risk voiding your warranty if you use an unsuitable product.

Oils, waxes or furniture sprays

As most wooden floors are actually coated in some fashion, the oil and wax won't properly seep in and you'll be left with a grimy (and lethally slippy) finish. The only time y'all might apply these is if yous've sanded down a hardwood floor to fill in gaps between wooden floorboards or to change the colour of them.

Shoes

Okay, this isn't e'er achievable only, where you can, effort to remove your shoes as soon as yous become domicile. Not merely will information technology cut down on how often you need to clean your floor, tiny droppings like stones or tracked-in dirt can actually scratch the surface of the woods. Non to mention it's more hygienic. Accidentally scuffed upward your flooring? Read our tips for how to get scratches out of wood.