Your floors are one of the most beautiful parts of your home, and it takes some cleaning tips for hardwood floors to keep them looking their best. When you find the right hardwood floor cleaning tips in Clifton, VA it makes your life a lot easier and more pleasant.
Having a sturdy foundation of hardwood cleaning tips and tricks in Clifton, VA ensures that your floors will last as long as possible and look almost like new. One mistake from not learning the right hardwood cleaning tips can damage your home and end up costing you a lot to have the floors redone. Of course, there are house cleaning tips you can surely follow, but the approach is different when you’re working with hardwood.
For this post, our experts will explain their most effective tips for hardwood cleaning that will keep your floors in perfect condition. These hardwood cleaning tips and tricks will be game changers that will pay off for years to come.
Don’t Use Too Much Water
It may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how many calls cleaning services in Clifton, VA get about trying to clean a hardwood floor that someone mopped with too much water. The hope is to get it clean, but many people find that they may need to refinish the floors after using too much water.
The best way to clean hardwood floors is actually with dry cleaning methods, only using moisture to help loosen up stains from food or other spills. If you see a stain, follow these steps to get it up without using too much water:
- First, soak a soft clean cloth in warm water, and ring it out so it’s only damp
- Next, place the damp, warm cloth over the stained area
- Let the cloth sit for five minutes
- Then, rub at the stain gently and it should loosen from the wood and come off onto the cloth.
- Finally, dry the area with a clean cloth.
If you use too much water in your hardwood floors, the wood can actually swell up and could pop out nails or worse. That is why it is so important to look for dry cleaning methods first if you want to maintain your hardwood floors in a perfect state.
Raise The Carpet Beater On Your Vacuum
If you are someone who loves to vacuum your floors you probably have wondered if the carpet beater can be bad for hardwood floors. The answer is that the carpet beater brush can make scratches on a hardwood floor finish, and over time makes them look like you need old hardwood floor cleaning tips
Luckily, most vacuums have an option to turn off or raise the carpet beater brush so that it won’t spin and scratch your hardwood floors. Vacuums are wonderful time-saving devices, but you do need to be more conscious when using them on your hardwood floors.
Some people believe that you can only use a soft bristle broom on hardwood floors, but it can be fine to use a vacuum if you take precautions. Fortunately, this hardwood floor cleaning tip can save you from scratching up your floors by raising or stopping the beater brush on your vacuum.
A Daily Dusting Does The Trick
The air seems clear, but there is actually a constant flow of dust moving around and a lot of it ends up on your hardwood floors. That’s why it is important to have a routine of dusting each day to keep them looking their best.
You can use a broom or an actual floor duster for the job that will help you get up as many flecks of dust as possible. The problem is that dust can seem harmless, but when it sits on your hardwood floors it can scratch the finish when you step on it.
Make it a habit to pull out your duster and do a quick floor cleaning every day to ensure your floors last as long as possible. You will hardly notice that you are doing this chore because you can make it part of your daily routine.
Try Buffing Your Hardwood Floor
If you have patches that look dull on your hardwood floors, it could be from too much wax or just neglect. Therefore, the key is to not add any products but buff away at the area with a microfiber cloth.
Use firm pressure and a circular motion when you are buffing your hardwood floor. You might need to work at it for an extended time period but just keep at it until you see the floor looking clearer and shiny.
There are products out there to aid with dull spots on a hardwood floor, but a high-quality hardwood finish shouldn’t need much help. Our approach is to go as light as possible with added products and let the hardwood and the finished work together last a long time.
If you think your hardwood floor is growing some mold, there are safe mold cleaning tips that you can follow. Just make sure that you know what you’re doing, otherwise, you’ll do more harm than good.
Add Protection In High Traffic Areas
While hardwood floors can stand up to a lot of traffic, in certain spots you want to take extra precautions and avoid wearing the floors down. Years of people walking over hardwood floors do make the wood look a different color and can take off all of the finish.
For these reasons, you need to add some extra protection in areas like walking paths and hallways where you know everyone walks frequently. Some of the things you can do to add extra protection to your hardwood floors include:
- Use rugs – place beautiful rugs over high-traffic areas that complement your interior design and do a service to your hardwood floors.
- Change furniture layout – every few months, you can change the position of your furniture so that you can spread out the foot traffic and give areas a rest.
- Implement a no-shoe policy – shoes are more damaging on hardwood floors than bare feet, so just take your shoes off when you come into the house.
An ounce of prevention in this case can help your hardwood floors look amazing without worries. There are tons of other ways you can protect your hardwood floors, and you can choose one that fits your home and your personality. If you could afford cleaning service prices, then it would be best to hire one, as they know how to take care of hardwood cleaning.
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