How to Clean Hardwood Floors
Day in and day out, your hardwood floors get the works from falling food, tumbling balls of pet hair, foot traffic… your hardwood floors go through a lot.
As busy as our lives are, we know cleaning a hardwood floor takes time and it’s a skill in itself. Choosing the right cleaner and knowing what kind of tools to help you clean can be quite a puzzle. But, hardwood floor care and cleaning is easy when you understand the right steps and procedures.
When examining your floors, the first thing you should ask yourself is what kind of floors you have and what kind of cleaner has been used in the past. Cleaning hardwood floors is chemistry, you have to know what agents you’re cleaning with and what effects they will have on your floor.
If you know your floors are sealed with polyurethane or wax, use a mild or pH-neutral soap . Try to stay away from acidic cleaners because they can damage wood over time. If you don’t know what your floors have been cleaned with, the best product to clean hardwood floors is a neutral, pH-balanced hardwood floor cleaner because it’s safe on all hardwood and laminate floors.
Pro Tip: If you don’t have a neutral cleaner in your home, you can easily make one by adding one-fourth cup of liquid soap with one gallon of hot water.
Once you know what kind of cleaner you’re going to use, the rest is simple! You can effectively clean hardwood floors in four steps.
Steps to Clean Hardwood Floor
- Clear the floor of furniture and rugs
To efficiently clean a whole room, you have to make sure everything is out of the way and you’re free to maneuver however you need. High traffic areas collect a lot of dirt but over time, even the hidden crevices of your floor can attract dust and dirt. It’s important to have a completely clear floor.
- Remove debris: sweep, dry mop or vacuum
Cleaning dirt deep in your hardwood floors is impossible with loose particles on the floor. You need to make sure you have a clean floor with no debris to really deep clean. You can do this by sweeping, dry mopping or vacuuming.
- Mop your floor with the grain and follow manufacturer instructions
When you begin to mop with the floor cleaner you’ve chosen, we recommend using a neutral hardwood floor cleaner, make sure to use a microfiber mop for the best cleaning results. Mopping with the grain allows you to get in the cracks and crevices to loosen the dirt that’s hidden deep in your floor.
- To dry, buff your floor with a soft towel
Making sure your floor dries is important for hardwood—letting water sit can lead to permanent damage in the floorboards.
Regular, proper maintenance works wonders on cleaning and protecting your hardwood floors; however, over time, hardwood can trap allergies and contaminants in your floorboards. To deep clean your floors, it’s important to get them professionally cleaned.
Stanley Steemer’s hardwood floor cleaning process starts with a high-speed rotary brush and proprietary cleaning solution to extract the dirt and contaminants trapped in the wood. Then our experts follow up with a detailed hand cleaning for those hard-to-reach areas. We restore the pH balance to your floor with a professional-grade wood cleaner. Stanley Steemer can clean an average of 96% of common household allergens from hardwood.