Inspirational Hardwood Cleaning Tips for You

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If you have hardwood floors you know that cleaning them can be a chore. Especially if you haven't cleaned them in quite a while. After a while the hardwood floor can begin to show paths through it just like your carpet can. Commonly known as the high traffic area of your room.

Then again you could be one of those who have a formal living room that hardly ever gets used and it has beautiful hardwood flooring in it. I call these kinds of rooms "museums". They're there for looks mostly. Hardly ever used except maybe at the holidays or some special occasion when the family gets together.

Then when you do use it you usually have everybody take off their shoes before entering in the room. So it doesn't get scuffed up with shoe marks and so on. So therefore you would need only to clean those hardwood floors every couple years or so. But what a shame to have beautiful flooring like that and never use it.

Simple and Easy

In this article I'm going to give you some simple inspirational hardwood cleaning tips to help relieve some of the hardship of keeping your hardwood floor clean. It can be hard work but it doesn't have to be. When it comes to how to clean hardwood floors there are many elixirs and potions if you will, to how to do it and what to use to accomplish that professional finish that your looking to achieve or keep.



Here are some simple tips you can do to keep your hardwood floor looking brand new. Especially if its a floor you use on a everyday basis...

• Soft Bristle Broom

Have a good quality soft bristle broom to sweep with. If the hardwood floor is used regularly, there can be small stones and dirt particles that can scratch the surface of the flooring. Everytime these get stepped on they will create more scratches to the surface of the floor. Sweep regularly.

• Terry Cloth Mop

When cleaning wood floors one of the things you want to do is mop it after you sweep. This will be sure to get up any dirt that the broom couldn't or didn't. As well as any light scuff marks and dried mud or dirt. You can get one that has a rotating head on it so you can get those hard to reach places up close to the baseboards, and under furniture etc.. Don't use a full wet mopping, rather use a damp mopping on your floors. To much water can damage your finish.

• Use Carpet Remnants

Hardwood floors usually have a very high gloss urethane finish on them. Using rubber backed mats and abrasive backed rugs can and will damage your your finish. A better alternative is to use carpet remnants. You can get these sometimes for free at your local carpet store.

When they get new ones in they will likely get rid of the old ones for free. Just make sure that the backs of them aren't abrasive or rough enough to scratch your hardwood floors finish. You can use these in your high traffic areas to help reduce the wear to the finish as well.

• Use High Quality Urethane Finish Products

About every 3 years for regularly used floors you should re-finish your hardwood floors with a high quality finish. This will help to maintain the floors lustre and keep it looking brand new. Follow the products recommended way to apply the urethane finish.

If screening is required because of severely damaged hardwood floors then seek professional help to do this process. Screening is a process to abrasively grind down the old finish so you can re-apply a new finish again. Restoring that brand new look again to it.

• Clean Spills Immediately

Always be sure to wipe up or mop up spills on the floor immediately when you see it. Especially if its soda pop or anything carbonated and acidic as this will eat through the finish rapidly. Also once the hardwood gets wet with spills this will cause the wood to expand. Thereby warping the wood. Destroying the hardwood floors.

• Don't Allow Long Periods of Direct Sunlight

Just like a car left in the sunlight over time will fade the paint and color of it, so will hardwood floors fade over time with direct sunlight on them. To protect them from this fading I recommend keeping sunlight at a minimum on your floors. Also move your carpet remnants and rugs around to different places every so often to keep the wear even on the flooring.

This will help to maintain a longer lasting lustre to the floor.

• Use Hard Rubber Furniture Coasters

Not sure if thats what they're called but the point is the same. Just like coasters you use to place your drink on to keep your hardwood tables from getting stained, use these same things under your furniture posts. Only use the hard rubber kind. This will minimize the sliding. Thereby protecting your finish even more from scratches.

• Don't Let Your Wife or Girlfriend Wear Stiletto Heels on Your Hardwood Floors!

Uh huh, I know those shoes make her look sexy and all, but if you want to make your hardwood floors last longer tell her "no no" before walking on that floor to take them off. Or stay on the carpet remnants you have down. Also make sure your dog's nails are trimmed short and don't play ball with him on the hardwood floors. Talk about some giant long scratches!...Wow.

The Sum Up

I hope I didn't make it seem like hardwood cleaning is hard work because it's not. Now if you have severely damaged floors and you're looking to get them back up to par, you have some work ahead of you. But these cleaning tips should help you to keep a close eye on your hardwood floors.

By doing some of these cleaning tips I've mentioned you'll be sure to have the best looking hardwood floor anybody could ever have for a long time to come. Now you know how to clean hardwood floors and you didn't have to go to school to learn it.

It's just a matter of watching it for these things so you can take care of it sooner....good common sense tips.

Thanks for coming by...

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