Hardwood floors add a sense of style and elegance to your home. While they are one of the most popular flooring choices today, homeowners aren’t always sure of the best way to clean their wood floors. People often think hardwood floors demand a lot of upkeep and maintaining them can be tricky. While that’s not always the case, solid hardwood floors are an investment. When you have them, you want to make sure they last and look great for years to come.
Wood is a low-maintenance flooring option that many homeowners enjoy, but you have to take care of them if you want them to last. Rock Doctor’s in-home floor cleaner Flooraid makes it easier than ever to care for your home’s wood and other hard flooring surfaces. Our professional in-home cleaning team will go over how to properly clean and care for your wood floors in this handy guide.
Know the Type of Hardwood Flooring You Have
Different types of wood flooring can give a different style to your home. Each wood species has a distinct color and feel, but some require different cleaning or care to make them last longer. Oak is a hard and durable wood and comes in a wide array of colors, making it a popular choice. Softer woods, like cherry and walnut, offer darker wood floor options but may show wear faster than harder woods like hickory, maple, and oak.
How you should be cleaning your wood floors often depends on the type of finish applied to your wood. There are two distinct types of finishes to hardwood. Surface finishes cause any spilled liquids to pool while penetrating finishes allow spills to seep into the flooring.
Surface finishes use polyurethane to form a protective barrier on your hardwood flooring. To clean, you want to use an all-natural, non-abrasive wood floor cleaning solution like our Flooraid Multi-Surface Floor Cleaner.
Penetrating finishes use a wax coating to add a layer of protection to your floors. To clean any wood floor with this finish, you’ll need to strip the old wax and reapply a new coat.
Protect Your Wood Floors as Much as Possible
While hardwood is a beautiful and durable flooring option, it’s not indestructible. There are many easy ways to protect your hardwood floors from damage and regular wear and tear to keep them looking clean and new for as long as possible.
Add Furniture Pads
Scratches on wood floors are inevitable, but some can be prevented. Adding furniture pads to the bottom of your furniture can help stop or reduce the damage caused by moving furniture. Even if you don’t plan to move or rearrange your furniture anytime soon, sitting down in your chair or bumping into a coffee table can create subtle scratches to your wood floors.
Use Rugs and Doormats
Hardwood floors add natural beauty to your home, and you can add to that beauty with rugs and doormats. Not only can they add some more of your style to a room, but they also reduce the regular wear and tear your wood floors can experience, especially in high-traffic areas. As an added benefit, placing a doormat just outside exterior doors helps stop the spread of dirt from the bottom of your shoes from interior flooring.
Take Off Your Shoes in the House
Speaking of shoes in the house, taking them off before you enter or at the entrance can also prolong the life of your floors. Not only are you stopping yourself and others from tracking in dirt, but your floors experience less wear and damage from shoes, boots, and high heels. Wearing socks can also help gather dust while you walk, making sweeping easier.
Groom Your Pets Regularly
Pet hair can collect on your hardwood, and long nails can cause small scratches to your floors. Brushing your pets outside keeps the fur from gathering on your floors. By routinely clipping or grinding your pet’s claws, your wood floors are protected from minor scratches. Protect your floors by grooming your pet regularly.
Start a Cleaning Routine with a Trusted Hardwood Floor Cleaner
When it comes time to clean your hardwood floors, establishing a routine will make the process easier and keep your floors looking great longer. You don’t need to use a deep floor cleaner every day, but there are some chores that you can do frequently to keep your floors looking their best.
Giving your hardwood floors a daily sweeping or dusting treatment will help keep your home dust-free. Crumbs, oils, and dirt might make their way into your home, and they can lead to tiny scratches on your floors. Sweeping or dusting with a microfiber or soft cloth is great for daily, low-maintenance use. It would help if you also vacuumed your wood floors weekly to pick up anything that was left behind from dusting.
When it comes time to give your wood floors a deep clean, you want to use a trusted hardwood and floor cleaner. Flooraid is a multi-surface hard floor cleaner, perfect for any hard flooring options. If your home has wood, tile, and vinyl floors throughout, you can trust Flooraid to provide a hassle-free clean. Simply vacuum your floors, spray Flooraid to the area, and use a sponge or dust mop to gently scrub your floors. Let it air dry for a natural, streak-free clean. Our expert team recommends using a floor cleaner every two to four weeks for the best results.
Things to Avoid While Caring for Your Wood Floors
There are many DIY tips for cleaning your wood floors, but some can be more harmful than others. While soap and water might seem like an obvious choice, be aware that soap often leaves a residue that can create a layer of trapped dust, dirt, and grime. Vinegar or lemon juice are also popular DIY cleaner floors, but they can damage your floor’s seal. We also recommend avoiding abrasive cleaners, as they can scratch your floors.
Flooraid Multi-Surface Floor Cleaner is made with only safe and eco-friendly ingredients. Our non-abrasive formula makes us the best choice for cleaning your hardwood floors. Flooraid works on hardwood, tile, grout, vinyl, and even natural stone flooring, meaning you can clean all of your hard floor surfaces with one product.
You can find Flooraid on Amazon or other cleaning products at a retailer near you.
