Hardwood Floor Cleaners

Hardwood flooring and other hard-surface flooring such as ceramic, linoleum and laminate floors can easily be kept clean and in good condition if one knows how to properly
maintain them.

Regularly washing, sweeping, vacuuming, and scrubbing hardwood floors using the right equipment such as cleaning cloths, mops and floor cleaners will not only help in keeping the floor clean but can also make them shiny.

Hardwood flooring will last a long time if one keeps it clean by constantly wiping dirt, water and oils off it.

Hardwood floor cleaners are more ideal to use instead of regular soap and other cleaning fluids when one really needs to use fluid cleaners.

When choosing the right type of cleaner, one should look at each cleaner’s features as well as the finish of the hardwood flooring.

The type of cleaning liquid will depend on the flooring’s finish. Hardwood floors with varnish, lacquer, shellac and polyurethane finishes all require different methods of cleaning and different cleaners.

Polyurethane-finished flooring will require hardwood floor cleaners and polishes that are
solvent-based. This type of finish can be damp mopped, but if one can avoid soaking the
floor, then he should as wood and water are not a good combination. Water can damage the
finish as well as the flooring itself.

One can also choose between floor cleaners that can remove the floor’s old finish and
cleaners that do not strip the floor surface’s imperfections. The latter is normally used
when one wants to change the finish of the hardwood by removing the old finish, sealing
the material, and then applying a finisher. However, there are some types of hardwood
flooring that cannot be stripped.

When buying floor cleaners, one should consider whether to get acid-based floor cleaners
or not. This type of cleaner is ideal for ceramic floorings but not with other types of flooring
because of it can cause damage. Alkaline floor cleaners, on the other hand, might also
damage hardwood and other types of flooring as they have the ability to lighten the color of
the flooring.