During the life of your hardwood floor, it will have to go through some
pretty rough challenges and most of them will be caused by you.
Cleaning is one such example and hardwood
flooring care is another.
Usually, caring for hardwood floors and keeping them clean is a
difficult job, not necessarily because they’re hard to clean
(on the contrary) but because you will have to be very careful not to
ruin your floor by using the wrong cleaning
technique.
Here are a couple of Dos and Don’ts related to the
maintenance of hardwood floor:
Do’s in Hardwood Floor Maintenance
If you’re using anything that-s
water-based to clean your hardwood floor, make sure you use a piece of
dry cloth or something similar to brush up the remaining water from the
ground.
Water is your floor’s biggest enemy and
leaving open
pools of water on the floor will result in it going through some nasty
changes and swell up.
Do
sweep your floors regularly, using a broom that doesn’t risk
scratching the floors.
Vacuum
frequently as sweeping can not always clean up your floor thoroughly.
For example, in the gaps between planks, the dust and dirt that has
gathered up can only be picked up by a vacuum, not a brush.
Use rugs to protect
your floor from spills
(guessing where the spills occur is not really that hard to do
– around the bed, table, work desk and so forth).
Protect your hardwood floors from the sunlight by
using drapes.
Do be careful when moving furniture back in the
room you just floored: scratches are easily done during this stage and
they’ll ruin your work.
Don’ts in Hardwood Floor Care
Don’t leave water or any other
water-based solution to dry up on the floor. This will cause it to
expand and degrade over time.
Never
use a mop on a waxed floor.
Don’t use a vacuum cleaner with beater bars
that could potentially scratch the floor.
Don’t use hard brushes that could hurt your
floor’s integrity.
Don’t try to repair gaps forming between
planks by yourself. Use a professional for the job, otherwise you could
damage your site.
Don’t treat your floor with any solutions that might
be damaging to the finishing. It’s
really a good option to just ask the retailer for an alternative, or
whether or not that particular solution is compatible with the type of
finish you have.
If you manage to stay in between these short rules for hardwood floor
maintenance, you should be fine. Most of them are common sense, so they
shouldn’t be too hard to avoid, if you’re even the
least concerned with caring for hardwood floors.
Got a hardwood floor maintenance tip?
How often do you clean your hardwood floor and what do you use to clean it?
Click on the links below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
A Clean Sweep
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I inherited the hardwood floor with the house. It was one of the features I fell in love with. Whoever had lived in the house before me had obviously ...
Effortless Vacuuming!
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I love cleaning my floors. I clean my hardwood floors every day without lifting a finger. How is that possible, you ask? I use my two Roombas.
Cleaning is one such example and hardwood
flooring care is another. 
