If you are the proud and lucky owner of wood flooring in your home, then it can be a bit of a nightmare knowing how best to retain their natural look. You will find that whilst it is amazing having such beautiful flooring, the fact is that it can become a burden as you strive to retain their finish and quality. Natural wear and tear will affect the appearance of the flooring, but ensuring that you clean it regularly should ensure that you are not likely to allow it to look too bad for too long. However, the fact is that cleaning the wooden flooring in the wrong way could well lead to damage that makes it all look even worse, and that would be a nightmare! If you want to be sure that you are cleaning your floors properly, and without any risks, then have a look over the following points for advice. Firstly, you need to ensure that you are avoiding water damage. Water can be a serious issue when it comes to wooden floors, as the wood can be highly absorbent, if not coated in waterproof varnish. However, the fact is that the varnish can wear thin even if you have it down, so you need to be pretty careful about how you are going to clean the floor if using water. Be aware that leaving standing water on the surface of the floor is a sure fire way of allowing the wood to absorb it, and this can lead to cracking, splintering, warping and marking. All of these things needs to be avoided at all costs, as otherwise they can seriously affect the way in which your flooring looks and fits together! Be aware that simply wringing the mop out well before applying it will ensure that you do not have an excess of water on the wood, and will mean that the water dries of pretty quickly as well.You will find that scratching will be something that both looks bad and opens up your wood flooring to water damage. If a scratch lifts the varnish off, then the wood below will be exposed and any staining that happens to the exposed wood will be pretty much permanent, unless you want to go to the effort of sanding it all down. You will find that many scratches come from sharp debris getting caught in the mop, and getting pushed around the floor, which creates small circular scratches, often referred to as ‘spider scratches.’ These can be avoided very easily, simply by vacuuming well beforehand, to get rid of all the debris that can be found on a hard floor. It is worth doing this fairly often anyway, as the dirt in people’s shoes can do similar damage.Chemical issues are rare amongst cleaning products and wooden floors, but if you do get strange marks or discoloration, then it is likely because of there being too much acid or alkali in the cleaner. A good solution to this is to use PH neutral washing up liquid in your mop bucket, rather than worrying about using a special wood cleaner or anything like that. A small squeeze of washing up liquid in the frothy mop bucket will leave you with a perfect lather for washing the floor, so be sure that you are aware of this before you start spending loads on specialist wooden floor cleaning products! Be sure to wring the mop out well, and if there is any water standing on the surface when you are finished, then perhaps open a window or towel it all down.
