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Hardwood floors are beautiful once installed, but after a while, you can develop a love them – hate them relationship. They add to your homely atmosphere but without proficient care and attention, they can also cause you embarrassment.
Imagine having a spectacular parquet floor in your reception hall. It gets the all-important seal of approval from every house guest honoured to set foot on it. They take great care when walking on it, and even ask you politely if you’d like them to leave their shoes at the door in respect of your hardwood floor.
It gets adoring attention from each of your guests.
For the floors to continually achieve that approval it received from its install date to your home, it demands your utmost attention to keep it looking attractive.
That is not the easiest of feats for anyone, whether you’re a working family or a retired couple.
Maintenance usually needs to be completed daily and when the inevitable accident happens, you need to spring into action fast.
Dealing with spills on hardwood floors
This is bound to happen, and to make sure you are ready for it; you should have a mop and bucket at the ready. Microfibre cloths work great for soaking up spills, but sponges can be just as effective.
The only thing you have to remember is that speed is of the essence. The longer liquid is on a hardwood floor, the higher the risk becomes of the wood warping, cracking or any other form of damage occurring.
Be quick to clean up spills!
Prevention is the best cure
Place rugs at the doorways to the rooms with hardwood floors. Those are your dust trappers that need vacuumed regularly, preventing the dirt from being moved onto the floor.
- Your floors worst two enemies
There are two enemies to a hardwood floors mortality rate:
1) Moisture
2) Dirt
Both are equally as dangerous. Moisture can cause warping in the wood, with dirt causing scratching to the surface.
Both need preventing and that can be achieved with rugs, carpet runners, or by leaving shoes off when walking on the floor.
Daily maintenance – it’s all in the technique
Despite any preventative measures you take, you still need to clean the floors. It is advisable to vacuum daily and that should include using the nozzle to get deep into the skirting boards and corners of the room.
Dusting the floor with a microfibre mop
Never take a wet mop to a hardwood floor. Remember the two enemies the floor has; moisture and dirt. Use a dry microfiber pad to mop the floor in the direction of the grain of the wood.
When you move the mop over the floor, think of it as the same way you would mow the lawn with a lawnmower. You would not lift the mower, but instead move it back and forward.
The same technique applies to running a dry mop over a hardwood floor. The microfiber pad will trap the dust particles at the bottom, and larger debris will attach to the edges of the pad.
When you lift the mop up, the larger debris will drop. You cannot allow large debris to get onto the bottom of the mop, because when you push that over the floor, you run the risk of scratching the surface.
Whenever you lift the mop off the floor surface, use a vacuum, or hand brush and shovel to remove larger debris.
Only once the dusting and vacuuming is completed, should the floor be shined. When you do shine, try not to be tempted by the next leading floor shining product to hit the market. There are plenty of them, but you should only use a cleaning agent approved and recommended by the wood manufacturer.
Otherwise, stay on the safe side and use tepid water through a spray bottle with a mist spray setting. You only need a mist spray of water, and then a dry microfiber mop.
Spray as you go
As you lightly mist spray the water, and run the mop over the floor in the direction of the grain of the wood, you should be drying and shining as you go. The floor in front will be lightly coated with a mist spray of water, and completely dry behind you.
Use that mopping technique and your hardwood floor will be shining for longer.
Take advantage of free samples
Every type of floor supplied by us has the option of securing a free sample. Keep that sample for testing any cleaning agent before you put it onto your floor. If you don’t have your sample anymore, find your exact floor in our product range and order your free sample for testing cleaning products with.
