Wood Floor Cleaning & Care: Protect Your Floors

If you have beautiful wood floors in your home, you know how good they look when they are nice and clean. Don’t you want to keep them looking that good all the time? Elegant Floor Service can help! We offer professional wood floor cleaning and maintenance services in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia to keep your floors looking brand new year round.

Wood Floor Cleaning & Maintenance Tips

We understand that you can’t have professionals come out and clean your floors every time they are dirty. Fortunately, there are easy ways you can take care of your wood floors between professional cleaning jobs!

Some tips for wood floor care in general include (but aren’t necessarily limited to!):

•    Cleaning up spills as soon as possible (wood floors and moisture don’t mix well!)
•    Keeping the dog’s nails trimmed to reduce scratching
•    Taking off your high heels at the door
•    Putting protective covers on the legs of your furniture
•    Keeping a doormat in front of the door and leaving windows closed overnight (this prevents water from seeping into your wood floors)
•    Using rugs or runners in high traffic areas to prevent the wood from wearing down as quickly
•    Sweeping every day (or at least a few times a week!) to get the dirt and dust off your floors since debris like that can scratch the wood and make your floors look dull
•    Avoiding wet mops (remember – moisture is not good when it comes to wood floor cleaning)
•    Avoiding ammonia and chemical cleaners when it comes time for your wood floor cleaning (if you’re not sure what to use, call the professional flooring company that installed your floors!)

How to Clean Wood Floors

So, how do you go about your hardwood flooring cleaning? For the best results, leave the big cleaning job for the professionals, but if you want to clean your floor yourself, there are certain things to do and certain things to avoid.

You should:

•    Sweep first to get rid of any sand, dust and dirt
•    Use a vacuum cleaner without a beater bar
•    Use cleaners (and confirm with an expert from Elegant Floor Service before you start cleaning that it’s ok to use) that won’t leave residue
•    Do use a slightly damp towel or sponge for sticky spills
•    Call your professional flooring company when you want to go deeper with your wood floor cleaning – procedures vary depending on the finish of your floor (for example, never use wax on a urethane finished wood floor!)

You shouldn’t:

•    Use a wet mop or a soaking wet paper towel or rag to clean your wood floors (excess amounts of water can actually cause your floor to expand and maybe even crack!)
•    Use chemical cleaners or oil soaps on your wood flooring (this might prevent you from being able to recoat later on down the road)
•    Wax a floor or put chemicals on it until you know how it was installed and what kind of finish it has

If you want to know more about wood floor cleaning and care in general or you’re interested in professional hardwood floor cleaning services in the Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia area, call Elegant Floor Service today!

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