Regardless of if you have just recently installed a hardwood floor in your home or already have it in your home for some years, learning how to clean your hardwood floor properly is a good way of preserving your pricey investment.
The process of cleaning a hardwood floor goes beyond the traditional way of sweeping and mopping. For a fact, the present means you are going about it could be detrimental to the condition of your floor.
The right way to go about cleaning your hardwood floor is what this article would enlighten you on. The first thing you need to do is get your tools ready. Below are some of the tools you will require.
Tools You Will Need
- Floor Protection
- Vacuums
- Brooms
- Mops
- Hardwood Cleaning Products
Steps for Cleaning Your Hardwood Flooring
Having assembled the necessary cleaning tools, you can begin cleaning your hardwood floor by adhering to the following simple steps:
Clear the Area of Furniture and Other Items
Start by clearing the area you want to begin your cleaning for any piece of furniture or any of your belongings that can create obstacles. You could make use of blankets, felt pads, and furniture coasters to move bulky items and furniture out of the way.
Seeking the assistance of a pal to help you with the movement of furniture during this phase is a good safety measure. For future purposes, you could leave the coasters in place so moving your furniture would be easy for you the next time.
If your house is small, with a lot of furniture, moving them to one part of the room is an ideal option. Then, you clean the area where you moved the furniture from and vice-versa. This cleaning method is best done when you want to perform thorough house cleaning.
Vacuuming
The next step would be to use a vacuum cleaning machine or a dust mop to get rid of all accumulated dirt and dust from the room.
Before using a vacuum cleaner on your hardwood floor, you can reduce injury risks by always inspecting the condition of the vacuum head and wheels each time.
Vacuum wheels are made of hard plastic and could have substances embedded inside them, such as salt and gravel. These embedded substances could damage your floor as you move the vacuum about by defacing the finish with dents and scratch marks.
The best way to go about getting rid of most accumulated dirt is by following the grain of wood. You can use the attached stair wand function on the vacuum cleaner to clean wall edges, where dust gathers mostly. You can clean under your furniture without moving them around by using this function or buying a mop with an extensible handle.
Make Your Floor Shine
Having freed your floor from dirt and dust, the next step is to make it shine. After getting a good floor cleaner, mix it with the right amount of water, and pour the mixture into a spraying bottle. Make sure you adhere to the specific dilution instructions given by the manufacturing company. Over diluting the floor cleaner could get your floor finish messed up says these experts.
Though the use of a cleaning agent allows for cleaning flexibility and cuts cost, getting a premixed cleaner is best. A premixed cleaner saves time as it is already diluted to the exact measurement required.
Test the Floor-Cleaner First
Testing the floor cleaning solution, you want to use on small surfaces before using on your hardwood floor is highly recommended. This would allow you to take note of any reactions that occur after leaving the spray on the surface for a few minutes, then wipe off with a soft cloth. The reactions could be in the form of surface discoloration, clouded, or bubbling residues that form patches all over the testing surface. If you don’t notice any reaction, then you can move to the next step.
Start Moping
After determining there is no damaging reaction from the cleaning reagent, you now begin to go about cleaning your floor with a mop. You start from the room corners and work your way little by little towards the room door.
Spray your solution on small sections of the area to be cleaned and use your mop to make long side-to-side figure-eight motions, whilst sticking to the grain of wood as much as you can. You would capture more dirt using this simple technique.
The aim of spraying the solution in small sections is to keep the hardwood floor from becoming over-saturated, so your floor gets dry in the shortest possible time.
If your floor still has little water puddles, you could use a dry moping head or a soft cloth to soak them up. Opening the room windows or turning on some fans could help get the floor dry up faster.
If the surface area of hardwood flooring you have to clean is quite large, cleaning at regular intervals is simply the best way to preserve its luxurious look.
It might sound strenuous, but performing spot cleaning regularly does save you a lot of time. It is a process you can go about quite easily: get a couple of pans and dusting brooms as well as spray bottles, at a cheap rate from a local store.
Pour your diluted cleaning reagent into these bottles and place them at different spots in your house where you can gain easy access to them.
These kits would help you quickly spot clean areas that are subjected to frequent foot traffic, such as your kitchen.
Conclusion
With the right maintenance culture, your hardwood flooring would last for a very long time, making your decision to invest in the long-term on a hardwood floor a very good one. Cleaning it more often would preserve the luxurious state a lot longer without you having to sacrifice your weekends.
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