Natural hardwood flooring and engineered hardwood flooring are like bringing nature indoors, elevating spaces with elegance while giving homes and businesses a classy foundation that is a dream to walk on. Whatever type of hardwood flooring you choose—Bare Floors offers everything from domestic maple, oak and hickory to exotic Brazilian cherry, mahogany and tigerwood—you’ll want to maintain the luxurious appearance of your hardwood floors with the proper cleaning techniques to keep them looking pristine. Follow these steps to make your hardwood flooring a stand-out for many years to come.

Invest in Prevention

Setting up your hardwood flooring for success with preventive maintenance makes cleaning more efficient and saves you time and repair costs. Use:

• Mats and boot removal areas near doors so people can wipe off their feet before walking on your floor

• Furniture pads under furniture to prevent scuffs

• Rugs that won’t stain hardwood floors or affect the finish to prevent damage on high-traffic areas

Encourage house guests to walk on the floor in socks or with bare feet to keep things even tidier.

Conventional Cleaning

To really get hardwood flooring gleaming, daily vaccuming with a floor-brush attachment or on the bare floor setting removes dust, fuzzies and dirt. A dust mop or soft-bristled broom can do the trick, too.

If your hardwood flooring is surface-sealed, every week, mop your hardwood flooring with a mop that is barely damp with soapy water made with dishwashing liquid. The mop should not be sopping wet—you can even mist the floor, then clean it with a dry mop instead. Keep the mop on the ground as you work it around the room, so debris gets trapped instead of scratching your floor.

If your floor is shellacked or lacquered, or is penetrating-seal-treated or oil-treated, don’t use water. Instead, every year, strip the old coat of wax, and apply a liquid or paste wax for protection. Use spot-waxing for problem areas.

Make floors extra-shiny every month by buffing and polishing the floor with a soft cloth or manufacturer-recommended wood floor cleaner. Every year, treat your hardwood flooring to a deep cleaning with a wood-cleaning product that is mixed according to the label.

Give Your Hardwood Flooring TLC

Remember these hardwood flooring guidelines to keep your floors in tip-top shape:

• Stay away from vinegar. This acidic agent can damage the coating of hardwood flooring that seals your floor. A lot of other cleaning agents can damage wood floors, too, so the gentler, the better—plain o’l water on surface-sealed floors is your best bet over something you’re not sure about.

• Be gentle. Hardwood floors were once living and breathing trees. Just like scuff marks can damage them, so can the chemicals and rough cleaning methods you use on them. A soft microfiber dusting pad or floor wax is an ideal tool to get rid of stains. Never use sandpaper or steel wool to remove marks.

• Get rid of spills immediately. Because wood is more fragile than it appears, dirty mishaps should be mitigated right away so they don’t cause long-term damage. Clean spills with a barely-damp cloth, then dry.

Always make sure any product you use is labeled that it’s appropriate for your type of wood floor. Taking chances can cause difficult-to-reverse damage.

Choose Bare Floors for Your Hardwood Flooring Needs

Bare Floors is the Phoenix flooring leader in hardwood flooring installation. With decades of experience serving residences and businesses with the best services in Arizona flooring, Bare Floors can recommend and install the natural or engineered hardwood flooring that is ideal for your space. Visit here for more information and a free estimate, or get in touch with us here any time.