Care and Maintenance
Wood floors are one of the easiest flooring options to care for. With regular cleaning and the right products, you can help your wood floors shine with beauty for years to come.
Regular Maintenance
When it comes to keeping hardwood floors clean, little more than regular sweeping or vacuuming is required. Use either a broom with soft bristles or a vacuum with a soft floor attachment to pick up dust and debris. Follow these additional tips to ensure your floors stay healthy and beautiful for life.
- Never use sheet vinyl or tile floor care products on wood floors, as they can cause the wood to become slippery and dull in appearance.
- Use throw rugs at doorways to help keep dirt and other abrasive debris from scratching your floors.
- Never clean wood floors with a wet mop. Standing water can dull their finish, damage the wood and discolor the surface. Be sure to wipe up any spills immediately.
- Be careful not to over-wax a wood floor; try buffing it instead to liven up dull spots.
- Place soft plastic or fabric-covered glides under furniture legs to prevent scuffing and scratching.
- Remove cleats, sports shoes and high heels before walking on wood floors to prevent damage.
The Right Products
We recommend and offer Bona brand cleaners for both prefinished and unfinished wood floors.
- Surface finishes – Floors with a surface finish should be cleaned periodically using a cleaner recommended by the manufacturer. When cleaning no longer restores the shine, don’t use wax. Instead, recoat the floor with a surface finish. How often you’ll need to do this will depend on the amount of traffic the floor sees.
- Wax finishes – Floors with wax finishes should be buffed periodically to restore their shine. When buffing no longer works, waxing may be necessary. Use a cleaner and liquid wax designed especially for wood flooring, and make sure it is solvent-based, not water-based. Depending on traffic, a properly maintained wood floor with a wax finish should only need waxing once or twice a year.
- Shellac and varnish finishes – Only floors that haven’t been professionally serviced since the mid-1960s will still bear a shellac or varnish finish. If you’ve got one, there’s very little cleaning that can be done besides sweeping and dust mopping. To restore their beauty and warmth, the floors will require a full sanding and refinishing.
