You can also use a spray-and-mop product or disposable wet pads that are safe for hardwood floors. Unless you use a steam mop designed for cleaning wood floors, steam cleaning is not advised for hardwood floors. Steam can dull the finish and damage the wood.
Manufacturers and industry experts advise against cleaning hardwood floors with water because wood naturally expands when it's wet and can cause your floor to crack or splinter.
You can use a commercial wood-cleaning product, like Bona or Murphy Oil Soap. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions. You can also make your own cleaner by mixing one part vinegar to 10 parts warm water. Add a few drops of liquid Castile soap.
Once a week, wood floors should be cleaned in high traffic areas with a damp mop. Low traffic areas can be done less frequently, like once a month or once a quarter. Unsealed wood floors are more susceptible to water, so make sure that the mop is just slightly damp.
When debris builds up on the floor over time, they accumulate and can cause tiny scratches in your floor, which might become permanent and eventually become an ugly blemish.
Routine cleaning
In high-traffic areas, like the dining room and kitchen, sweep or vacuum daily if possible and mop hardwood floors once or twice a week. Mop less-trafficked areas once a month or once a season.
Water You Using to Clean Your Floors? You can safely use Swiffer products on hardwood floors. For a quick clean, try Swiffer WetJet Wood Starter Kit. With just the right amount of solution, it breaks up tough, sticky messes, brings out the natural beauty of your floors and won't damage them.
Pine-Sol is safe on hardwood floors and can be used to clean and disinfect them. What is essential is to use the right concentration and correctly follow the instructions: Sweep or vacuum the floor to remove loose dirt and debris. Take ¼ cup of Pine-Sol and mix with a gallon of water in a bucket.
How Much Water Does it Take to Damage Hardwood Flooring? An acceptable or normal moisture content in hardwood flooring usually ranges between 6 and 12 percent, but flooded wood flooring can often have up to a 40 percent moisture content, which means there is severe damage.
Use a damp-mop with a flat-head mop and microfiber pad or a microfiber string mop that has been thoroughly wrung out when it looks dingy. Move with the grain, and control the amount of cleaning solution by using a spray bottle, aiming for a heavy mist or gentle squirt of about a half teaspoon per 2 square feet.
Whether you're cleaning one area or all of your flooring, Murphy® Oil Soap is safe to use on hardwood floors.
It can be caused by the cleaning chemicals you are using, nature and bad ventilation in the air. Having a daily cleaning routine can be helpful to make your floors look cleaner, and it's important to use the right cleaning products that aren't going to leave residues or films on the floor.
Although it may be tempting to deep clean your hardwood floors with a steam mop, don't. “Drastic temperature changes and moisture may warp the wood,” says Steve Stocki, manager of marketing and merchandising at Lumber Liquidators. That's true whether you have solid or engineered wood floors, and for bamboo, too.
Bona's mop distributes cleaning solution more evenly than the Swiffer WetJet. Bona's mop head is significantly wider (15 inches) than Swiffer's (9 inches), which makes it easier to clean large rooms but more difficult to navigate in small spaces. Bona's spray mop comes with a reusable microfiber mop pad.
You can use shark Steam mop on Wood floors but only if they are sealed! If your floors are not, water from the steamer will be absorbed by the wood and damage your flooring from the inside out. Beside sealed hardwood, Shark steam mop can be used on Bamboo, Marble and Vinyl plank floors as well.
Ultimately, traditional mops are still the best option for deep cleaning. You can put more pressure on the head, and you can use any cleaning solution (rather than the Swiffer-only options) and as much of it as you need.
A common concern about mopping is its effectiveness. A dirty mop will just move the filth around the house and not clean the floors. However, a clean mop and good mopping technique will effectively remove grime and germs from the floor.
It is rarely appropriate to use plain water to clean floors because science has shown that the use of proper diluted chemicals are effective at breaking the sticky bonds that hold oily soils to floors.
For sealed hardwood: minimal hot water, no soap/cleaner. For unsealed wood: Don't mop at all! Just sweep, dust mop, or vacuum instead. For laminate floors: Use only hot water, nothing soap-based and have a very dry mop.
Laminate wood floors are made of manufactured wood, so they're unbelievably durable. You can use either a natural multi-surface cleaner or mop with a bucket full of dish soap-infused water.
The finish is the protective layer of your wood floors. Since vinegar is an acid, it will actually break down the finish on the surface of your floor, and over time it will reduce the shine, and leave a dull appearance.
Neutral pH
Vinegar is an acidic substance and over time, can eat away or deteriorate the finish on a hardwood floor. The process may be hastened if vinegar is used in conjunction with very hot water. The result will be cloudy, dull or white patches on your floor.
Mold grows on organic materials in environments with high humidity or trapped moisture. Unfortunately for your hardwood floors that means they are vulnerable to damage and mold growth underneath them when there has been water or flood damage.