Hardwood Floors: Caring For Your Investment
One of the biggest investments in your home are your floors; they can last a lifetime with proper care. Although beautiful and durable, hardwood planks can suffer from scratches, built-up cleaning product residue, and even too much water. Some experts recommend combining DIY care plus professional cleaning to keep your home looking vibrant for years.
Day to day cleaning
Instead of just moving dirt and dust around, using the proper tools will make a huge difference in your home. While there are many cleaning options and products on the market, in most cases a quality broom made for hardwood floors is the best option for daily use. Although they don’t deeply cleanse, they are gentle on the finish and will sweep away most of the mud and other solid materials left behind from normal foot traffic.
Sweep your floor every day with a soft-bristled broom made from nylon. Even though a stiff floor broom probably will not damage your floor finish, picking the right one is essential. A general rule of thumb is to always select a broom with the softest bristle possible to ensure that you don’t scratch.
Do your pets shed like crazy? Check out “The Evriholder”, a unique broom with 100% natural rubber bristles which do an amazing job at trapping fur, hair, and lint. And consider additional brooms for your kitchen and outside areas so that you can prevent spreading of cooking debris or food spills throughout your house.
An alternative is a dry mop– the same type of broom you see used on wooden basketball floors and gymnasiums but scaled down for residential use. Or products like the Swiffer Sweeper have static charged dry mop cloths that attract dust and debris. Both are a great way to get the particles that a broom just can’t sweep up.
With a few good tools, you can keep your hardwoods looking great. For daily cleaning there’s no need to apply expensive and harsh chemicals, just sweep away dust. However, at some point, you will notice that it just doesn’t feel sanitary; an indication of a build-up of dirt, germs, and bacteria. Now it is time to call in the professionals for a serious scrubbing.
Deep Cleaning
A professional cleaning will extract the debris from deep within the cracks and crevices of your floor. A typical process uses a high-speed rotary brush and detergent solution to reach tough dirt and contaminants. While the technicians clean, squeegees trap the grime and then a powerful vacuum extracts both the grime and the excess cleaning solution.
Experts even follow up with a detailed hand cleaning for those hard-to-reach areas. By restoring the pH balance with a professional grade wood cleaner, the process effectively captures any remaining dirt and residue and is a low-odor, non-toxic and dust-free process.
For added protection, you have the option to add a maintenance coat solution. After your wood floors are sanitized, a fast-drying coat is applied for a uniform sheen and helps extend the life of your finish.
Tips for Preserving the Finish
- Avoid using wax, oil soap, or other industrial household cleaners. Wax and silicone-based products compromise the integrity of your hardwood surfaces and make cleaning more difficult.
- Place indoor/outdoor mats at entryways and area rugs in high traffic areas.
- Avoid rubber-backed rugs or rugs with poor ventilation.
- Maintain consistent humidity levels in your home to prevent planks from swelling, shrinking, cracking, or exposing gaps.
- Avoid deep scratches. High heels and pets can damage the wood. Avoid dragging furniture across hardwood floors; use furniture pads.
White Knight Carpet Rescue offers a wide selection of cleaning services to help restore your hardwood floors to their original beauty including intense cleaning, refinishing and emergency response services (for flooding and water damage.) Based in Madison, Wisconsin, White Knight has served residential and commercial customers since 1990.
