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How To Keep Your Hardwood Flooring Clean In 3 Steps!
24 October 2024
Hardwood flooring gives home elegance, luxury, and beauty of nature, making them unique. However, the problem with maintaining hardwood floors is less known than one might think. Furniture scrappings, foot traffic, stains, and the natural wear and tear of day-to-day usage take their toll and can give your floors a dull look.
Here are three primary guidelines for maintaining your original look floors for a long time:
Step 1: Daily Removal of Dust and Trash: Dusting and Dry sweeping
The first crucial activity in floor care is dusting and dry mopping. Dust is composed of tiny particles and minute grit, which, when allowed to settle on your floor, causes scratches and abrasion to the floor. The microfiber mop head picks Dust and dirt off the floor by sweeping against it rather than scrubbing on it.
Here are some tips for effective dry dusting and mopping:
- For best results, it is desirable to dust with a microfiber duster every day to remove surface dust and dirt.
- Dust 2-3 times weekly with a dry microfiber mop pad.
- Also, using overlapping strokes can cover the entire floor surface.
- Hold the mop vertically when turning around for scrubbing way to avoid redistributing the Dust.
- Change/launder pads frequently to make good use of the Dust’s lifting capabilities
Daily dusting becomes a routine so that no dust gathers up, and 2-3 dry mops per week are adequate for the more profound cleaning job.
Step 2: Damp Mopping
Dry dusting and mopping help to control surface grit, but once a week, damp mopping removes embedded dirt, opalescent deposits, and patterns made by dirty shoes. On the other hand, flooring finished with hardwood surfaces requires special care, especially when mopping with water. This means that excessive humidity can cause problems such as expansion and warping.
Here is how to safely yet effectively damp mop hardwood floors:
- Prepare a solution of a unique wood floor cleaning solution with water according to the directions on the product package
- Pick a microfiber mop pad of superior absorbency for wooden floors.
- Simply immerse the pad into the solution and squeeze this constantly until no more liquid is dripping out
- Employ circular motions to gently mop going parts of the floor
- Do not pour lots of layers of water or leave droplets of moisture on the outside surface of the building.
- However, to avoid the damaging effects of moisture, each section ought to dry off first before the other is commenced.
Ideally, floors can only be damp mopped once in 2-4 weeks, depending on the number of foot traffic in the area. Be very cautious when cleaning around wood-version seams, which are more susceptible to moisture.
Step 3: Rejuvenation
After some period of time, on months and years of usage, due to the occurrence of some processes such as oxidation, the hardness of the floors is bound to face some extent of deterioration. One type of attack that affects the finish is oxidation, which happens after the finish has been exposed to light and oxygen. As oxidation takes place, the surfaces appear opaque, marred with scratches, and dull in color.
Rejuvenating a hardwood floor entails cleaning deposits that have accumulated on the floor and also the enhancement of the finishing material used on the floor.
Here are two simple rejuvenation methods:
Oil-Soap Concentrate Cleaning
- Mop the floors effectively, sweep, and dry.
- Prepare an oil soap concentrate solution as per the pack
- For major applications, it recommended to use a sponge mop dip it and liberally spread the solution over manageable area.
- After that make the solution allow solution to soak for 10-15 minutes more.
- Wipe sections with a soft-bristle scrub brush/ buffing pad
- Mop up residue
- Rinse many times in clear, running water
- Make sure to let this section dry before proceeding to the next one.
Refinishing Products
- Only sweep and dry mop the flooring properly.
- Now, this is done using a chemical paint and varnish remover in order to remove the layers of old finish that have accumulated.
- However, after complete removal of the previous finish, wash and scuff-sand ready abraded surfaces in the direction of the grain using P150-180.
- After the process of sanding, ensure you have vacuumed all dust particles.
- Use 2-3 coats of high-quality polyurethane in a skinny application and make sure you allow them to dry for a long time.
- Do not walk on floor for 12 hours after the last coat.
Oil-soap cleaning is necessary and should be done from three to six to 12- months depending on the traffic. More often, only spot refinishing is required and, in some cases, the entire plane might only need a once in 5 to 10 years refinishing.
The 3 Step System Summarized
Follow this simplified 3 step routine to keep your prized hardwood floors looking like new long-term:
- wipe and mop with a dry cloth daily and Dust and mop at least two to three times a week to avoid the grinding or abrasive of the grit.
- Wipe the surface damp once in 2-4 weeks with the wood-safe cleaning solution
- Ongoing/In depth clean/rejuvenation needed once in every 6 to 12 months minimum using oil-soap or refinishing products
When you learn these 3 significant steps it becomes straightforward to maintain clean, beautiful hardwood floors. Do not stop dreaming about aesthetics, comfortable and polished wooden flooring – use this effective system right now.