Recommended care and cleaning wood floors can vary depending on the type of floor you have and/or the specific manufacturer’s guidelines. Sometimes the different construction materials and assembly of various hardwood floors can require different care and cleaning procedures that help to ensure their longevity and look. Whether you are considering which type of hardwood flooring to purchase and install or if you simply want to learn to maintain your existing hardwood flooring at the optimum level, using best practices for care and cleaning your hardwood flooring is essential.

How To Clean Hardwood Floors

If you have Hardwood floors, Bamboo flooring, Cork or Laminate flooring, keeping them clean is important for long-lasting luster and visual appeal. Though some wood floor products may have different and specific cleaning requirements, we have put together a best practices list for cleaning wood floors for you.

Follow these hardwood floor cleaning tips to get the most out of your floors.

1) Stay Away From Damaging Products and Chemicals – One of the most frequent questions we are asked is “What cleaning products should I use on my hardwood floors.” Not only is this an extremely common question but it is more easily answered in reverse. In other words, it makes more sense to explain which cleaning products and chemicals you should NOT use on your wood floors.

Natural hardwood floors are typically developed using real wood, which tends to be a bit more sensitive to many chemically-based cleaning products. Keeping your hardwood floors clean and in the best condition and in order to avoid spotting, discoloration and other damage, stay clear of cleaning products that contain bleach, oil, ammonia, vinegar, detergent, or other wax ingredients. These kinds of cleaning products tend to cause premature wear on wood floors, which will eventually tarnish their appearance over time.

2) Clean Your Hardwood Floors Weekly – Because of the natural materials used in constructing hardwood flooring and their incredible durability, your best cleaning plan to keep them looking their best is to simply remove dust and debris from their surface weekly. Nothing that requires buckets or solutions, but just vacuum, dust or sweep them once a week.

Keeping your floors free of dust and debris on a weekly basis will dramatically reduce the need for wet or cleaning solutions for your flooring. Weekly dusting and sweeping will maintain your wood floors appearance and increase its longevity.

3) Respond To Spills Quickly – Cleaning and maintaining beautiful wood floors is best done with a good defense, by immediately cleaning up spills and messes that will inevitably happen. The quicker you address liquid, food or other messes on your wood flooring, the easier it will be to keep them clean and vibrant.

4) Avoid Wet Solutions – Due to the construction and materials used to manufacture hardwood floors, it is generally not recommended to use wet mopping solutions on them. In fact, we recommend that you never use a wet-mop or even a wet Swiffer pad on your hardwood floors. Wet cleaning tools such as mops and Swiffer pads can introduce an excessive amount of moisture to your wood floors. Professionally finished wood products and water don’t tend to work well together, so wet mopping can inadvertently discolor, warp or otherwise damage wood floors. At the same time, a wet Swiffer pad tends to spread dirt and debris around rather than actually picking it up and that can cause damaging scratches.

Different from many other types of flooring you can select for your home or business, hardwood flooring remains a highly durable, yet low maintenance solution. If you are considering purchasing new hardwood floors, knowing that care and cleaning for hardwood floors require little time, you can rest easy with your flooring decision. There is no other type of flooring that provides the warmth and style of wood flooring combined with low maintenance care requirements.

If you already have hardwood floors in your home, you now know how to best care for and clean them easily, resulting in long-lasting enjoyment for the ages.