There are several types of flooring but out of all of them, hardwood flooring looks quite sophisticated and stylish. Adding value to your home, it simply looks exquisite but requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep. If you preserve it by following simple techniques, you will be able to make it look shiny and prolong its life for the generations to come. Dirt, grime and debris comes from the outside and goes deep inside the boards, requiring you to undertake deep cleaning.
If you have hardwood flooring too, then you may know how much cleaning it requires. Often, some housewives are cleanliness freaks and are so keen to clean their floors that they just do it without realizing that they are actually damaging the wooden flooring. To understand what you are doing wrong, you need to avoid the following mistakes when cleaning your beautiful hardwood flooring.
Vacuuming Using Wrong Accessories
If you have a vacuum, then you may know that it comes with a big kit, full of accessories that can be attached to the head such as a rotating brush, a multi angle brush, a claw utility nozzle, a crevice tool and much more. All of these accessories have separate functions and needs. There are attachments for every single household item for cleaning it effectively and smoothly. Similarly, when it comes to cleaning the hardwood flooring, you need to know which attachment to use.
Unfortunately, some cleaners do not know which attachment to use and end up using wrong accessories like a utility nozzle or a rotating brush. Often, many women use a rotating brush thinking that it will pull out the dirt and grime from deep within. What they don’t understand is that this attachment can be abrasive to the hardwood floor and can damage them entirely. There is a separate, flat and smooth hardwood attachment, which should be used for cleaning hardwood flooring. This attachment permits sweeping regularly and catches all the dirt on the hard wooden floor easily.
Using Water to Clean
If you have a wooden floor at home, then you need to understand that water is wood’s worst enemy. Even a small amount of water spilled over the wooden flooring can damage it by penetrating deep into it. Some household cleaners use water to clean the wooden flooring. This can damage your floor, shrinking and swelling it over the surface.
To clean your floor, you do not require using water at all unlike other types of flooring. For hardwood floor cleaning, you should use a damp cloth or mop to clear the dirt and then dry it immediately using a dry towel. Apart from this, a damp mop or cloth still has some amount of water in it. Therefore, you should opt for vacuuming instead wet cleaning.
Letting Stains Wait
You should keep in mind that wood is really hard and firm. Therefore, anything left on it such as grease, food, dirt, grime, liquid, water or anything else can really build over time on your flooring and really make it difficult to clean. Also, some people unwillingly let the droppings rest for quite a while, which can really damage the finish. For example, oil and grease are really tough in nature and if they are left on the hardwood floor, they can start degrading the finish, causing staining on the floor.
In addition to this example, dried food on the floor can also become very hard to remove and can scratch your floor if you do not take it out promptly. If you have wooden floors in your kitchen, dining room or high traffic areas, you need to be very careful about the spilling things over it. Always ensure to clean the spills and picking up everything promptly or else, you will have to bear serious consequences.
Putting the Wrong Type of Rug
People often think that the type of rug does not affect the flooring. This is not true at all. People like putting rubber mesh pads and rubber backed mats on the area rugs. They may not know but placing them on the wooden floors will discolor the floor and dull the shine, especially if you move the mat here and there. But, if you really do not want to damage your flooring, you should opt for using a combination of felt and rubber pads to keep them in place and securing them from getting ruined.
Never Rearranging Furniture
There are some homeowners who keep on changing and shifting their furniture from place to place while there are some other people who do not wish to make any change to their setting at all. People often do this to avoid scratching the floor but the opposite situation actually leaves marks.
You should change your setting timely and carefully by not sliding it but instead, moving it. However, if you are really keen to keep the same setting, you should put protector pads under the bottom of your furniture to secure the hardwood flooring.
Now that you know about the common mistakes done by several individuals, we suggest you avoid them if you really want to secure your hardwood floors.
Call Us Today!
At NYC Steam Cleaning, we aim to provide high quality services for restoring the beauty of your hardwood floors. No matter how dull or damaged your flooring has become, we will ensure to restore its exquisiteness. Having a variety of solutions for your hardwood floor, you can call us today at 1-888-245-1199 or visit our main website.
