Care For Wooden Flooring When Cleaning 15 May 2014

One of the nicest features that you can have in a house is a nice wooden floor; the material is one that always gives a room the warmth that you would want for your home, but also  keeps clean hard lines that will complement many interior styles. The material’s versatility and variety means that there are loads of different looks, compositions and finishes available, and this can make the cleaning of the floor a slightly less simple task that it may be if you were cleaning linoleum, or carpet. You will perhaps find that the cleaning of the wooden floors in your home is very much a process that should be done with care, to avoid any issues revolving around the two main problems that can come of the cleaning process - scratching and water damage. There can also be issues with the chemical content of the cleaning products that you use: too high an acid or alkali level will often result in stripping the surface of its varnish. Some finishes may cloud in certain cleaning products, so always check with the manufacturer as to what to avoid. For the most part however, you can rarely go wrong with washing up liquid as an excellent degreasing agent, that will get your floor looking really clean! Wood floors are usually coated with and oil, varnish or a polish of some sort, to keep them smooth and looking great. These products and finishes will also be an excellent layer of protection that will mean that your wood is impervious to the issues highlighted above, and you will find that a heavily treated wooden floor can be treated just as a linoleum or tile floor would, as there is no chance of the water getting through. Some wooden floors will look better untreated however, and these are the types of wood floor that you need to be really careful with. Sanded flooring can look amazing, giving a light, dusty quality to the room’s interior, but it gets scratched or water stained, then this quality will disappear pretty quickly.When mopping the floor, ensure that you vacuum carefully before hand. Sucking up all of the debris with your hoover will mean that there is less likelihood of pushing around any small but hard dirt or debris that may scratch the floor. If you are careful about this, then you can avoid the ‘spider scratches’ that such debris can cause, where the mop’s movements causes light circular scratching. You will find that people’s shoes will also pick up these smaller scratchers, and getting people to wipe their feet before coming in to the house will help a lot. One of the main issues with the scratching made by this dirt is that the varnish can be taken off, and allow water from the mopping process in to the bare wood beneath. You will find that the best way to reduce the likelihood of water staining is to simply use less water when you are mopping. There is a lot to be said for ensuring that the mop is as dry as possible, whilst still doing it;s job, as this will prevent any standing water being given a chance to soak in to the wood. As water is soaked up and dries out, it can leave ring stains, as well as warping the wood itself, which is an issue if you have nice floor boards or a parquet pattern flooring style.