Hardwood Floor Cleaning Tips to Keep It Looking Great

Hardwood floor cleaning tips are great for people that want to maintain their hardwood flooring and have it look great for many years to come.

One advantage to having hardwood floors, instead of carpet, is that you can wipe up a spill from hardwood floors. On carpet, it is far more difficult to clean up an accident and often a stain remains.

Hardwood floors still require some preventative maintenance to keep them in great shape and looking new. Here are a couple of important hardwood floor cleaning tips.

Clean up any spills as quickly as possible, using paper towels or a dry cloth. Spills do not stain as quickly on hardwood as carpet but if left for a long length of time, can create marks that are difficult or impossible to remove.

Use the recommended cleaner to finish cleaning the spot. Each day, vacuum, dust mop or sweep your hardwood floors before any grit or dirt scratches the surface.

Here is more hardwood floor cleaning tips to keep your wood floors looking terrific.

• When you have hardwood floors in your kitchen, they require cleaning more often than the other rooms.


• Never clean your wood floors with soaps, oil soaps, water or detergents. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations for cleaning them or use a general cleaner made especially for hardwood floors.


• Do not use an all-purpose cleaner on polyurethane finished or factory pre-finished hardwood floors, as it will dull your floor and leave an oily residue. To maintain warranty and for the best results, use the floor cleaner recommended by the manufacturer if possible.


• Clean your floors once weekly but dust, sweep or vacuum in between. If it is a high traffic area or the kitchen, clean your floors more often.


• Never use ammonia and never wax a urethane floor finish.


• If your wood floor cleaner requires you to mix water with it, be very sure you follow the directions precisely.


• To remove scuff or heel marks and difficult stains, lightly rub the mark with wood floor cleaner on a cloth.

On a wax finished wood floor, never use any water based cleaners. Follow the manufacturers suggested cleaning system. Once cleaned, buff the floor to restore its luster. Never over-wax the floor but do apply additional wax in very heavy traffic areas when needed.

To remove dirt, use a solvent based cleaning product and then buff. Fine steel wool and a little mineral spirits remove white, water spots. Gently rub in a circular motion, apply wax and buff.

Urethane coated wood floors should only be cleaned using cleaning solutions suggested by the manufacturer. By following some hardwood floor cleaning tips and manufacturer's suggestions, your wood floor will look wonderful for many years.

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