Care & Maintenance
Wood floors are one of the easiest flooring options to care for. With regular cleaning & the right products, you can help your wood floors shine with beauty for years to come.
Regular Maintenance
When it comes to keeping hardwood floors clean, little more than regular sweeping or vacuuming is required. Use either a broom with a soft bristle or a vacuum with a soft floor attachment to pick up dust & debris. Follow these additional preventative maintenance tips to ensure that your floors stay healthy & beautiful for life.
- Never use sheet vinyl or tile floor care products on wood floors, they can cause the wood to become slippery & appear dull.
- Use throw rugs at doorways to help keep dirt & other abrasive debris from scratching your floors.
- Never wet mop a wood floor since standing water can dull the finish, damage the wood & discolor the surface. Be sure to also wipe up any spills immediately.
- For wax floors, be careful not to over wax a wood floor; try buffing instead to liven up dull spots.
- Place soft plastic or fabric-covered glides under furniture legs to prevent scuffing & scratching.
- Remove cleats, sports shoes & high heels before walking on your wood floors to prevent damage.
The Right Products
We recommend & offer Bona brand cleaners for both pre-finished & unfinished wood floors.
- Surface Finishes – Floors with a surface finish should be cleaned periodically using a cleaner recommended by the manufacturer. When cleaning no longer restores the shine, don’t use wax. Instead, recoat the floor with a surface finish. How often you’ll need to do this will depend on the amount of traffic the floor sees.
- Wax finishes – Floors with wax finishes should be buffed periodically to restore the shine. But when buffing no longer works, waxing may be necessary. Use a cleaner and liquid wax designed especially for wood flooring, and make sure it is solvent rather than water based. Depending on traffic, a properly maintained wood floor with a wax finish should only need waxing once or twice a year.
- Shellac & Varnish Finishes – Only floors that haven’t been professionally serviced since the mid-1960s will still bear a shellac or varnish finish, & if you’ve got one there’s very little cleaning that can be done besides sweeping & dustmopping. To restore the beauty & warmth you crave, the floors will require a full sanding & refinishing.
