If you can continue to take care of your hardwood floor on a regular day to day basis, it will continue to retain its looks for a long time and that calls for no special skills. The rooms which bear heavy traffic or those often frequented by children and pets need extra care as these are prone to getting stained more often.

Broadly speaking floors can have two types of finish, wax finish or surface finish and each type of finish needs to be handled in a different manner.Apart from the regular dust-mopping, sweeping and vacuuming with an appropriate extension, you need to know how to take care of “accidents” and minor damage that the floor would inevitably experience sooner or later. So you have to take hardwood floor care seriously.

You are not expected to use water for routine cleaning of such floors. It’s important to get instructions and recommendations of the floor manufacturer or the floor finish manufacturer, as the case be, to check the use of damp mops for cleaning, otherwise water can cause immediate irreparable damage to the protective coating and subsequently to the main floor. On reacting with water a treated floor may lose its color and shine and get buckled or crowned. Recommended cleaners by the manufacturer should only be used, in stead of using dust and surface cleaners that are often found in most of the homes. In the absence of any specific instructions from the manufacturer, it will be safer to use generic hardwood cleaner specifically made for the type of floor finish that you have.

When it comes to dealing with stains, like from a pet or ink, the sooner you react the better. Once the surface gets stained, you will be required to use fine or very fine steel wool to scrap the upper crest for approaching the contaminant and its subsequent removal.

It’s good idea to use floor polisher besides regular equipment. Take care to apply only the specified wood floor cleaner with a little of mineral spirits for removing the stain and allow the affected area to become dry, then apply wax and buff it off finally.

This article written by the Editor of LevelAdvice.com and Showroom411.com

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