House Cleaning Information

Wooden floors are a major home investment therefore, learning how to clean your wood floors without damaging them is extremely important. First determine the finish of your wood floor.  The finish, not the wood type, determines how you should clean and care for your floor.  Next you’ll want to find out how your floor is sealed.

This next little section gets a bit technical but I promise you’ll only have to go through al this technical mumbo-jumbo once

Surface and sealed floors:  Most new wood floors are sealed with urethane, polyurethene or polyacrylic.  Surface and sealed floors are stain and water resistant and the good news is they are the easiest to care for.  Simply sweep and mop.

Lacquered, varnished, shellacked and untreated floors:  Technically surface finishes, lacquers, varnishes and shellacs are not as resistant to moisture, spills and normal wear and tear as the other sealants mentioned above, therefore more a bit of extra care above and beyond sweeping and mopping is involved to maintain these types of floors, which we will go over in just a second.

Penetrating-seal treated and oil-treated floors:  Also common a penetrating seal or oil finish soaks into the wood grain and hardens.  Floors of this type require liquid or paste wax to protect them.

Now that you have read all the different types of seals if you are still not sure what type of seal/finish you have try this easy method to figure it out. Rub your finger across your floor.  If no smudge appears the floor is surface sealed, life just got a bit easier. If you do create a smudge, the floor has been treated with a penetrating  seal, oil finish, shellac, varnish or lacquer, and then waxed.

When cleaning a surface sealed floor don’t use oils, waxes or furniture sprays.  Oil will leave a residue, furniture spray a very slippery surface and wax is time consuming to apply and makes recoating difficult.  Straight ammonia, alkaline products or abrasive cleaners are also not recommended as they will dull or scratch the finish on your floor.  Most manufactures have good  floor-cleaning products they recommended. If those cleaners are too expensive or violate your warranty then try using one quarter cup of mild soap like dishwasing soap or Murphy’s Oil Soap (it acutally contains no oil) to a bucket of water.  A solution of vinegar and water can also be used but it is not as effective as soap and water and may

dull your floors sooner.

To clean penetrating-seal treated oil-treated, shellacked, varnished, lacquered or untreated floors choose a product the floor manufacturer recommends, a commercial product from the hardware store or mineral spirits. Use liquid wax made for wood floors or paste wax. Liquid wax is easier to apply but leaves a thinner coat therefore providing less protection then paste wax.  Don’t use acrylic or water-based waxes, furniture waxes or one step wax. Acrylic and water based waxes can turn floors white, furniture wax makes the surface slick and one-step waxes can trap dirt despite compelling advertising about their ability to clean, remove old wax and lay down new wax all in one step.  Do not damp-mop a waxed floor, just vacuum and sweep the surface on a regular basis.  A couple of times a year strip the old wax and apply a new coat.

To extend the life of your wood floor sweep and vacuum regularly.  Ground-in dirt will destroy any kind of wood floor.