Dog hair from your favorite furry friend, spilled milk that almost made you cry, muddy footprints – our floors go through a lot! Thankfully, hardwood floors are resilient and generally low maintenance. They can also last for years – if you take care of them. 

Although hardwood floors are virtually maintenance-free, they do require cleaning. And when it comes to housekeeping, everyone has their own methods and product choices. 

What people may not realize is that there are some things that should be avoided when cleaning the floors. Not sure what they are? Read on. This blog is all about how not to clean your hardwood floors.

Too much water

When it comes to any other type of flooring, water isn’t an issue. Water and hardwood floors, on the other hand, don’t mix. Wood acts like a sponge and soaks up any excess water. This causes the floorboards to:

• Swell or cup
• Discolor
• Squeak or creak when you walk over them

This leads to cracks in your floor’s finish.

Keep your hardwood floors stable by using a damp mop (not a dripping wet one!) or a microfiber mop head to sweep up any dirt.

Wax, oil soap, or silicone

The funny thing about wax? It attracts more dirt, making it harder to clean. And when you add more wax to clean off that dirt, you’re actually trapping it in layers of wax. Your floors will never look clean again!

It’s the same with oil soap – it attracts more dirt and makes the floors dangerously slippery. And silicone won’t clean your hardwood floors at all. Instead, it sits on the surface, giving your beautiful floors a splotchy, patchy look. 

Wrong vacuum attachment

Vacuums are great for quickly sucking up dirt, hair, pet fur, and other debris from your floors.  But be cautious – the wrong vacuum attachment can scratch your gorgeous hardwood floor in seconds.

Avoid vacuum heads with hard plastic wheels that will scuff your wood floors. Beater bars can also cause scratches or buff marks in your floor’s finish. 

Use a vacuum with smooth rubber wheels, and remember to turn off the beater bar when you vacuum your hardwood floors.

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Floor buffer

It might seem like a good idea, but running a floor buffer over the surface of your hardwood floor will do more damage than good. 

Floor buffers are designed to polish and remove wax at the same time. If you use a buffer over your natural hardwood floors, you will severely scratch it and eventually remove the finish together. 

So how DO you clean your hardwood floors?

Using natural substances is always the best solution to avoid damaging your hardwood floors. And the best part? You can find it in your kitchen cupboard!

We recommend a simple teaspoon of vinegar mixed with warm water. Vinegar cleans dirt away without scratching or harming the wood. It also doesn’t build up on the floor, unlike wax or other floor cleaning products. 

Flooring Specialist is a full-service professional flooring company and retail store that provides the highest quality carpet, hardwood, wood laminate, tile, vinyl throughout Middle Ga. Contact us here for a quote today.