The holidays are over, maybe you just celebrated your child’s birthday and you look down at your hardwood floors… yep- they need cleaned. Where do you you start? Do you grab that old straw broom? Maybe you grab the vacuum? Or maybe you pull out the nice new steam mop that is supposed to make cleaning easy? Before you begin the cleaning process, let me help by giving you some tips on how to bring those floors back to their original shine.

Here is what we recommend-

The first step in keeping your floors looking new is daily cleaning. Don’t panic! Daily cleaning is very easy. Daily cleaning is as simple as making sure that when there is a spill or someone walks on your floors with muddy boots, that you clean up the mess right away. For spills, you want to clean up the liquid as soon as possible so it doesn’t soak into the floors. For dry messes, a great tool to have in your cleaning corner is a Bona hardwood floor kit. (This kit can be ordered by contacting us or anywhere cleaning supplies are sold.) I use this kit on my own floors. It comes with a micro fiber cloth that is great at picking up dirt. A vacuum with a hard surface setting can also be used. A vacuum can be a good help in getting dirt out of the hard to reach areas like the little cracks between the floor boards and corners.

After the micro fiber cloth is used to clean the floors comes the natural floor cleaner spray. The Bona kit comes with a cleaning pad and spray. Spray a little section of your floors with the spray and wipe the cleaning pad over the spray to make the floors shine. Try to use the pad by going with the boards (with the grain) as much as possible. The cleaning spray does not need done everyday-maybe once a month depending on the use of your floors.

Those are really the only things you need to do to clean your floors. If you are still not happy with the way they look then you may need to call a professional. Did you know that, just like carpets, your hardwood floors need to be professionally cleaned? It is recommend that your floors be professionally cleaned once a year. We at Center State Hardwoods offer a cleaning service that uses a machine with soft brushes and very little water that is vacuumed back into the machine to help in cleaning your floors. We can also help you determine if another coat of finish would be helpful.

Here is two cleaning process to stay way from-

Steam mops- Steam mops say they are for hardwood floors, but they are NOT! Steam mops may start out giving your floors a nice shine, but that won’t last. A steam mop will actually break down your finish over time and make your floors look cloudy and dull.
Water and Murphy soap- Water and wood are not a good combination. Water can make your floors wavy (or cupped) if it get down in cracks to the wood. Murphy’s oil will weaken and deteriorate your finish.

A few other tips-

Use mats in front of doors to catch dirt brought in from outside.

Take your shoes off. Your mom was right when she yelled at you for wearing your shoes in the house.

Clean liquid spills as soon as you see them.

For any other cleaning questions, contact us!