Keeping your newly installed hardwood floor clean is not as easy as you
might have heard some “pros” say. First of all, if
you want to be professional about it, you’ll want to buy off
some chemical cleaning solutions, which are pretty expensive and can
cause quite a hole in your pocket.
Not only this, but
they’re also very tricky to use: use too
much solution and you risk damaging your floor, use too little and you
won’t get any work done.
Because professional hardwood
floor cleaning solutions are such a nuisance to work with,
many people turn to the old folklore tip that you can clean floors
instantly by just using vinegar.
Using vinegar to clean hardwood floors is indeed possible and it can be
quite effective too. In the short run, it’s probably the most
efficient of options, because it’s cheap and it works. But in
the long run, when you clean hardwood floors with vinegar, you slowly
damage the floor’s finish.
You see, acidic substances will slowly chew through the finish, giving
it an uneven look. Vinegar is a slightly acidic substance in itself, so
it won’t be THAT dangerous to your hardwood floor’s
finish if you only apply it once or twice, but if you use it repeatedly
for a couple of months or so, the quality of the floor will fade away
slowly.
Another disadvantage of using vinegar to clean hardwood floors
is that it will ruin the shine of the floor, making light bounce off
the wood very differently than before. This too decreases the overall
value of the floor and with most of us going through great efforts to
keep that shine up through strong finishes, it’s almost a
crime to ruin it with a few drops of vinegar.
So now you know that it’s not a good idea to clean hardwood
floors with vinegar, but is it right to take it completely out of the
drawer?
In some cases, vinegar could prove to be a fast, cheap solution to your
cleaning problems, so if you don’t have the time or the cash
to buy some professional cleaning substances, it could be a
once-or-twice replacement.
It’s just not a good idea to exaggerate in using it, or your
floor will get the worst of it. And all the money you saved on
replacing professional cleaning solutions with vinegar, will be wasted
on buying new shine for
your floor, so it’s really not that good of a
deal.
If you REALLY want to use vinegar to clean hardwood floors, at least
make sure that your floor’s finish is a very strong one (as
are most of the newer finishes today). This way, the damaging effect of
the vinegar will be thoroughly reduced, leaving you with (almost)
nothing to worry about.
Do you know of any inexpensive ways to clean hardwood floors?
Aside from vinegar, what inexpensive items have you used to clean hardwood floors?
Do you recommend any professional cleaning solution?
Click on the links below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Vinegar is an Ok solution if used properly.
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I have been cleaning for quite some time and have found that Vinegar is the most inexpensive way to clean and maintain. However, I find ...
Vinegar Works, But Be Careful
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What to do? Starring at the old floor in the kitchen that had been covered with asbestos tiles in the 1950's...well, we found a subcontractor that removed ...
Not only this, but
they’re also very tricky to use: use too
much solution and you risk damaging your floor, use too little and you
won’t get any work done. 
