Easy Hardwood Floor Cleaning Tips
Maintaining a hardwood floor in prime condition doesn’t take much skill or effort, but it requires consistency and good care on a daily basis. Especially for rooms that experience heavy traffic or are exposed to additional “treatment” from kids and pets, it’s essential that you keep an eye for suspicious stains, marks and spilled or sticky substances.
Since floor are generally separated into wax finished and surface finished, the exact hardwood floor cleaning tips often differ depending on what finish you’re dealing with. Apart from the regular dust-mopping, sweeping and vacuuming with an appropriate extension, you need to know how to take care of “accidents” and minor damage that the floor would inevitably experience sooner or later.
Starting with the regular cleaning routine itself, never use water to clean the surface. Unless the floor manufacturer (if you have a prefinished floor) or the floor finish manufacturer (for floors finished on site) allows the use of damp mops, you’re only going to cause a lot of grief to the protective coating and in no time, to the wood underneath it. Once done, the floor would experience many negative side effects such as buckling and crowning, as well as the surface losing its color and shine. On a side note, don’t use domestic dust and surface cleaners, but rather what is recommended by the manufacturer of your floor. If the latter is unknown, use a generic hardwood floor cleaner that’s designed for the type of floor finish you have.
When it comes to dealing with stains, like from a pet or ink, the sooner you react the better. You would almost always have to use a very fine or fine steel wool to take off the finish away (wax or polyurethane) before you can reach the contamination. Use a recommended wood floor cleaner and a bit of mineral spirits to remove the stain, wait until the area dries up, then rewax and buff, or refinish. Remember to never use wax on a surface finish. Sometimes if you spot the problem too late and it goes too deep, replacing the boards might be your best option.
To deal with minor scratches, just rewax if it’s a wax finish floor and buff. For surface finishes, use a touch-up kit made for surface finished floors. You can find the latter in most specialized shops. Food stains and chunks need to be blotted lightly with a damp but well wrung out cloth, then scrapped off carefully without damaging the surface. Plastic tools do a better job in this case.
Certain oils and grease can be very dangerous to a floor, so make sure you take care of them immediately. For wax finished floors, soak up the substance thoroughly, then blot the spot with a clean cloth and follow up with a dry cloth to remove the residue. Repeat one or more times if necessary. Use mineral spirits and trisodium phosphate (if you have) on a soft cloth to rub the area gently until the problem disappears.
Lastly, mildew and mold are constant enemy of houses with higher humidity levels or leakages. To take care of these on a hardwood floor with both wax and surface finishes just use an approved wood floor cleaner. Additionally for wax finishes, you may have to rub the spot with a finer steel wool, then rewax and rebuff. Burns and marks are the least you’d want to see on your floor, so if that happens consider replacing the strips or planks if it goes too deep. Otherwise you can try to resand and refinish.
With a steam mop, floor cleaning is quick, efficient and hygienic
Brooms and mops are eternal symbols of floor cleaning, or for that matter every form of cleaning. However, symbolism has not exactly been kind to brooms, because brooms have been perpetually associated with witches. Witches are believed to ride brooms to their destination. Whether witches rode brooms or not, people were not exactly fond of the job of floor cleaning, especially that of mopping the floors, till a steam mop came into the picture. Doing the floor cleaning job by sweeping was not something too difficult to perform, though a broom always had a stamp of something demeaning, even when it was not associated with witches. But mopping the floor was a different ball game altogether. To clean the floor well, you had to go down on all the fours, and perform like an animal. Doing floor cleaning that way round the year gave a lasting stoop to some hapless performers.
By introducing the steam mop, modern technology has given its blessings to the job of floor cleaning also. A steam mop does not resemble the good old ragged mop even a wee bit in appearance or functionality. The basic parts of a steam mop are a water tank in which water is heated, a cleaning pad attached to the tip of a long handle, and the tube connecting the two through which steam flows out to the steam mop. To start with the floor cleaning process, the tank has to be filled with clean water for heating. Normal tap water would be sufficient for this purpose in most cases, even though in places where the water is hard, it is recommended that distilled water be used. Then the steam mop mechanism can be plugged in and switched on to heat the water. The average time for the water to get heated enough to generate steam, is thirty seconds.
While the water is being heated, the cleaning pad that does the mopping job has to be attached to the tip of the mechanism, to the long handle. Most of the manufacturers of steam mops offer both disposable and reusable cleaning pads and it is the user’s choice whether he wants to discard the pad after every floor cleaning ritual or whether he wants to machine wash and reuse it. Once the steam is generated, the cleaning pad of the steam mop should be slid over the floor, synchronizing it with a pumping mechanism on the handle to release the steam. Some models of the steam mop have a trigger mechanism to release the steam. No one, whether a witch or not, has ever rode a broom. But everyone can try driving a steam mop, for it is easy and is the best available floor cleaning set-up.
How To Keep Your Hardwood Floors Clean
There are some simple practices that you can instill into your household cleaning routine to help keep your hardwood floors clean. Hardwood floors are becoming more popular to homeowners because they give the house a very clean and modern look.
As a quick way to keep your hardwood floors clean, you can simply sweep the area with a soft bristled broom. Sand, lint, and other debris often find themselves scattered about hardwood floors, so a simple sweeping of the area should remove such elements and give your rooms a clean look.
Aside from sweeping your hardwood floors, you can also use a vacuum to help keep your floors clear of debris. This is an effective cleaning tool if you are often short on time. If you do plan on using a vacuum cleaner, then make sure that you use a soft brush attachment before vacuuming your hardwood floors; this will help to reduce any scratches that a regular vacuum may leave behind.
If you have area rugs or hallway runners covering your hardwood floors, then you should consider vacuuming them often as well. Debris will often become intertwined with the fibers of the rugs that run the risk of scratching your hardwood floors if the debris filters down far enough, especially if your rugs are in a high traffic area. In addition, when you are sweeping your hardwood floors, take a few moments to sweep underneath your rugs, the less debris on your floors then the less chance of accidental scratching.
It is also important that you clean up any liquid spills as soon as they happen. Hardwood flooring is essentially wood and liquid has a tendency to warp and otherwise deteriorate this type of material. While small droplets of liquid may not be too harmful to your hardwood floors, you should get into the habit of cleaning up any liquid spills immediately. If you have a large family, make sure that they are aware of the damage water can cause to hardwood floors and it really only takes a few minutes to wipe up a liquid mess. Make sure when you are cleaning up liquid spills that you are using a soft cloth, any kitchen towel should work just fine. Extremely dry and scratchy towels may damage your floors if you use them to wipe up your spills.
Not protecting your hardwood floors from your furniture could be result in unintended scratches or blemishes. At most hardware stores you can find furniture pads that can be placed underneath the legs of your couches, coffee table, end tables, and any other type of furniture that might damage your floors. This simple investment could save you and your floors a lot of grief. If you are in the habit of re-arranging your furniture often, then you should certainly consider getting furniture pads. They protect your floors and they make rearranging much easier because your furniture will be able to slide across your floor with greater ease.
Buffing and waxing your floor on occasion will also keep them clean and looking nice. Please contact the manufacturer of your hardwood flooring to learn about the correct procedure for properly buffing and waxing your floors.
Floor Cleaning Supplies ? Hints and Tips
There are numerous floor cleaning products available on the market today from steam cleaners to polishers for hard floors and wet and dry vacuums as well as a range of chemical cleaning supplies for carpets. While each of these products is suitable for particular types of flooring, other factors can influence your buying decision so knowing the correct product for the job can avoid damage to the flooring and speed up the cleaning process.
Hard floors can benefit from a layer of acrylic or oil based polish that seals the surface and makes dirt easier to remove. Once a floor has been given this kind of pre treatment maintaining the surface is much simpler. It should be regularly vacuumed to remove debris especially before polishing. A seal is essential if you intend to regularly use alkaline cleaners to prevent damage.
If you wish to apply a seal to Thermoplastic or PVC flooring, you should use a water based acrylic seal to avoid damage. Solvent based sealants will damage this kind of flooring. By the same token, water based polishes are recommended to keep this kind of flooring clean and avoid any damage over time. If you have tiles made from Thermoplastic or PVC they should not be cleaned with water during the first 28 days.
Cleaning supplies for larger hard floor areas also include upright sweepers. These devices are extremely useful if you have a high traffic area that regularly gets littered as they collect dirt and litter into an integrated container.
In the most extreme cases (often outdoors) the best solution is a pressure washer. These effectively use water as an abrasive but results are quick and predictable. These cleaning supplies make light work of cleaning concrete or asphalt floors.
If you need a carpet cleaning machine for industrial or commercial use on a large area it may be the case that a vacuum cleaner that includes a soak and recover mechanism is simply too impractical. In these cases it is best to use a dedicated carpet cleaner. These are large upright machines that have no hoses or nozzles. They are simply mounted on wheels and equipped with a water dispensing and recovery tank. This makes cleaning the larger carpeted areas much easier and normally include an optional hose and nozzle to reach the corners and other hard to reach places.
One common problem with carpeted areas are heavily soiled or stained patches. To deal with these effectively you should use a pre spotter. This is a chemical designed to deal with these situations before any further cleaning takes place.
Make your home looks beautiful with blinds
Ever questioned how somebody could make their home look so everlasting? There’s a lot of intelligent firmly work that goes into creating the perfect home. Blinds can build a room appear cozy and warm or they can dull the very visual aspect of the beautiful period pieces that lie around the room. You must select the right type of window blinds if you want to create the right sort of atmosphere for your home.
Consider about the colours. Your blinds must be in concord with the rest of the room. So you must acquire the right colours up. If you’re searching to create a green cool woody effect, you need to choose blinds that are in synchronization with the theme. If you’re searching to create a fiery, warm effect, select reds and oranges to create the right atmosphere.
The shape and size of the window and the seasons also have a carrying on the sort of theme you’re applying and the impression you would like to create. The blinds you choose also will have to mix in and produce the impressions you seek. Conservatory windows would likely involve that you have thin pleated blinds that filter in the light exquisitely and create myriads of patterns on the floor and walls of your room, fulfilling you with a sense of peace and beauty. Nevertheless, other windows such as faux wood blinds also could be dressed with these pleated blinds to an advantage. Your vision and creativeness are the only limit to the beauty you can produce employing the range and variety of custom designs that are extended in the pleated blinds range.
The materials that are applied to create these pleated pieces of art are very exceptional. They’re treated to hold out the damaging effects of the sun. The materials can be transparent, semi-opaque, or opaque in accordance with the play of light and shade that you’re striving to create in the room.