How To Look After Wood Flooring

How To Look After Wood Flooring

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You popped down to your hardwood flooring supplier, bought gorgeous wide oak flooring for your home, it looked fabulous, but now you need to clean it. Whats the best way to clean your floor without ruining it?

Actually, cleaning oak flooring is easy and the good news is that it wont need much maintenance over the years. The ease of maintenance is often a big reason that people choose a wooden floor. It will however need to be looked after or you may do irrreparable damage.

You can get away with quick, ongoing cleaning and regular bigger cleaning once a month.

Ideally you should dust the floor boards once a week. This can be done with a duster, vacuum cleaner, soft broom or mop. Dont use anything abrasive or you will damage your floor, and this includes the beater bars of your vacuum cleaner. The soft brush attachment should be OK and will help you to get into the more awkward places.

When doing the dusting, make sure you get out all the dust, grit and sand from uderneath rugs because it can collect there.

For a bigger clean of the floor, once you have dusted (which removes abrasive grit), use a damp cloth (i.e. slightly moist) to wipe over the floor twice. Do not use a fully wet cloth as the water will damage the wood, especially if the wood is unprotected.

You dont need to use any special products as hot water with vinegar will do well. Expensive cleaners can be bought but they must be p-H neutral and suitable for wood. (strong detergents can dry and damage the floorboards). Once the floor has been wiped, you can give it a shine by buffing it with a soft, dry cloth.

Whether you floor is due a clean or not, any spills of liquids on the floor will need to be wiped up immediately. For this you will need a soft, dry cloth and you will need to absorb as much liquid as possible as soon as you can. Any heavy dirt should also be treated quickly to keep you floor looking its best.

Sometimes, there are things on the floor that cleaning will not sort out. If the wood has been damaged by stilettos or abrasive cleaners, it will never be the same again.

You can help protect your hardwood flooring from getting scratches in the first place by avoiding wearing high heels on it and by putting felt protectors underneath your furniture.

Additionally, if the humidity of your home is outside of 30-50% range, you will probably benefit from a humidifier or de-humidifier to stop the wood getting too dry or wet.

About the Author:
Wood flooring, including wide oak flooring is available from Vastern Timber in Wiltshire (quality hardwood flooring supplier and sawmill)



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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