How Often Should I Clean My Hardwood Floor

How to Make clean Hardwood Floors for Scuff-Free Shine

Learn how to clean hardwood floors with smart methods that make caring for your flooring even easier. Maintain a clean, polished await with these tips for choosing the best woods flooring cleaner, removing stains, and more.

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Floors take a lot of wear, including daily traffic and inevitable spills, scuffs, or mishaps. The best style to clean hardwood floors starts with smart preventive measures, which non only aid protect floors but likewise cutting down on the time you spend cleaning. To lessen tracked-in dirt, place floor mats both outside and inside exterior doors. In snowy or rainy weather, ready a boot removal area to avoid damaging floors with tracked-in water and de-icing agents. Forth with a spot to sit down and a identify to store shoes, keep a cleaning cloth or small towel tucked abroad next to the door to chop-chop make clean upwardly errant puddles on wood floors.

Even when the forecast doesn't call for precipitation, it'due south smart to remove shoes when coming indoors to avoid tracking dirt, grime, and germs all over the house. Peculiarly with hardwood floors, scratch-causing heels and cleats should be left at the door. Prevent marks on hardwood floors by using floor protectors nether furniture and calculation area rugs in play areas to ensure children's toys don't scratch the flooring. In improver to these daily best practices, follow our tips for cleaning woods floors to keep your home'southward flooring in top shape.

Kitchen with green cabinets and white isle seating

Credit: Anthony Masterson

How to Clean Hardwood Floors During Your Regular Cleaning Routine

A regular once-over with a broom or dust mop volition practise wonders for cleaning hardwood floors. How ofttimes you have to do this chore depends on the traffic your hardwood floors receive. For a quick clean, grit wood floors with a mop that has been treated with a dusting agent to selection up dust, dirt, and pet hair that might scratch the floor surface. Options for the best mop for hardwood floors include those with a microfiber caput. This material is designed to trap grit and grime. Follow the mop manufacturer'south recommendations for using forest flooring polish or dusting sprays; some mops won't require an extra cleaning amanuensis.

When considering how to clean hardwood floors, don't overlook vacuuming. For weekly or biweekly cleaning, vacuum with a floor-brush attachment. Do not utilise a vacuum with a beater bar attachment, which can scratch a wood floor's finish. For quick dusting, apply disposable electrostatic cloths ($8, Target).

Mopping with a string mop and bucket of lather and water

Credit: Kritsada Panichgul

How to Deep-Clean Hardwood Floors

The best way to clean hardwood floors starts with preventive measures and routine cleaning, simply sometimes a deeper clean is in order. Clay, oil, and grime build up over fourth dimension and aren't completely removed by a weekly dusting.

For how to deep make clean hardwood floors (consider doing this cleaning in the spring or just earlier the wintertime holidays), use a wood floor mop and forest floor cleaning production diluted according to the label instructions. Saturate a sponge or rag mop in the water, so wring information technology almost dry out so it feels only slightly clammy to the affect. Damp-mop the floor, being careful to prevent standing h2o on the floor. If the cleaning product requires it, rinse the surface with a clean mop dampened in clean water. Wipe upwards excess liquid immediately because continuing water tin harm wood surfaces. If the weather condition is humid, operate a ceiling fan or the air-conditioner to speed up drying. If cleaning isn't cutting information technology, you might need to refinish the wood floors to aid them look new.

Best Cleaners for Hardwood Floors

If you're unsure about the best hardwood floor cleaner for your home, talk to your flooring manufacturer. They tin often recommend a specific cleaner to use for their product. Only if your flooring isn't new, or yous tin can't consult the manufacturer, option a production that is specifically made for cleaning wood floors. Don't employ vinyl or tile floor cleaners as these products might damage, rather than clean, forest floors. If you're concerned about using harsh chemicals, await for hardwood flooring cleaners that are Greenguard Aureate certified, which means they're condom to use in homes with kids and pets. Otherwise, endeavor the natural route with a homemade cleaning solution for your floors.

Person mopping flooring with cord mop

How to Clean Hardwood Floors with Vinegar

To clean wood floors naturally, apply a mutual kitchen staple: vinegar. Learning how to make clean hardwood floors with vinegar will salve yous money on elevation of providing a safe cleaning method for your floors. Make clean wood floors with vinegar by calculation one/2 cup white vinegar to a gallon of lukewarm water. Follow the tips for how to make clean hardwood floors with a mop, above, to prevent h2o damage. And then utilize vinegar to naturally clean the rest of your home!

Editor'south Note:Vinegar can wearisome certain hardwood flooring finishes, so ever test your solution in an inconspicuous spot before using the ingredient to clean your floors.

mudroom hardwood floors

Credit: Stacy Zarin Goldberg

How to Remove Stains on Hardwood Floors

Consider your floor's finish before trying to remove a stain from woods floors. If the stain is on the surface, your flooring probably has a difficult terminate, such as urethane. If the stop stain has penetrated through to the wood, the floor probably has a soft oiled finish, common in older homes whose floors take not been refinished and resealed. For floors with a hard finish, wipe surface stains with a soft, make clean cloth. Never use sandpaper, steel wool, or harsh chemicals considering they can permanently damage the terminate.

The following remedies are for hardwood floors with soft oiled finishes. If needed, end each treatment past staining the forest, and so waxing and buffing the spot to match the residual of the floor.

Remove night spots and pet stains: Rub the spot with No. 000 steel wool ($four, The Habitation Depot) and floor wax. If the expanse is nonetheless dark, apply bleach or vinegar and allow it to soak into the forest for nigh an 60 minutes. Rinse with a damp cloth.
Remove heel marks: Use fine steel wool to rub in floor wax.
Remove oil-based stains: Rub the expanse with a soft cloth and dish detergent to interruption down the grease. Rinse with articulate water. If i awarding doesn't piece of work, repeat the procedure. Keep children and pets out of the room until you're done. Let the spot dry, then smooth the raised grain with fine sandpaper.
Remove watermarks or white stains: Rub the spot with No. 000 steel wool and floor wax. If the stain goes deeper, lightly sand the floor and clean with fine steel wool and odorless mineral spirits.