Hardwood floors are beautiful to look at and a joy to walk on, too. When it comes time to clean them though, many people get nervous. They are afraid of perhaps damaging the expensive and difficult to repair hardwood floors with the cleaning process. What liquids or chemicals are safe to apply to them, after all? The truth is that hardwood floors are actually easy to clean, especially when compared to carpets. A variety of household cleaning products will prove to be both safe and effective. All that you have to understand is the best way of maintaining these attractive hardwood floors properly, then you will not have any difficulties in keeping them shiny and clean for a number of years to come. This article gives you those necessary step by step directions for cleaning your hardwood floors.
Contents
Materials and Items Which You Will Require for the Project:
– A Mop
– A Bucket for the Mop
– White Vinegar
– A Broom
Dusting the Hardwood Floors
This is a moderately easy project to accomplish, contrary to what you might be thinking as you start it. First you will need to get the dust off of the hardwood floors. A simple day to day broom will be effective in this task. You have to make certain that all of the dirt and dust is taken off of the floor before you move on to the next step. If you are not satisfied with the job which the broom is doing, then you could always resort to your vacuum cleaner.
Whichever tactic that you have to employ, be sure to get those floors completely picked up of the dust and dirt.
Mopping the Hardwood Floors
Now you are ready to prepare your special mopping solution for the hardwood floors. Begin by adding a half cup of the white vinegar to a bucket containing a full gallon of warmer water. The use of this white vinegar will aid your hardwood floors in getting cleaner than they would only by using water by itself. It is important to make certain that the water is not so hot. This could damage your beautiful wood floors.
Begin to mop the hardwood floor utilizing a day to day mop along with the bucket of water and vinegar mixture. Mop the whole hardwood floor, devoting extra efforts to any section which appears dirtier than the rest does. It is critical that you do not get carried away and soak any part of the wood floors with the water and vinegar mixture. Too much moisture will damage any type of hardwood floor. Employ only enough water which is minimally necessary to actually mop.
Drying the Hardwood Floors
Now it is time to effectively dry the hardwood floors. You can accomplish this in utilizing either a dry mop or a towel for the task. There are hardwood floors which will not really need drying up following the mopping. You will have to inspect your particular hardwood floors to determine if they are actually air drying by themselves, or if they will require you to dry them on your own.
In order to keep those hardwood floors shining to their maximum potential, you should repeat the process once a week. Be sure that you do not mop them every day, though. There is such a thing as overkill with these surfaces. Too much mopping will certainly damage your beautiful floors.
Helpful Hints and Suggestions
Vinegar is effective and safe on practically all types of hardwood floors. In order to determine for certain that yours is not an exception to the general rule, all that you have to do is to pick a small place on the floor. Utilize the vinegar mixture here to ensure that it will not harm the entire hardwood floor later.
<>
