I Need Wood Floor Care 101

[MamaPam]

The place we are moving to has wood floors and I need someone to give me the basics for caring for them and keeping them clean.

[queenjulie]

When we had a house with wood floors, I knew nothing about them, except that I probably didn't want to get them really wet with mopping (which I hate anyway), so I just vacuumed them with our vacuum on the "tile floor" setting. It worked great and never scratched them! About once a year I polished them with orange oil, which made them shiny and really beautiful.

[awallrising]

We have hardwood floors finished with Bona Kemi, a low-VOC, water based finish. I vacuum on the bare floor setting & wash with the cleaner that is recommended for our floors from Bona Kemi (also comes with a special microfiber mop pad). I think you'll need to mop your floors more than once a year though, maybe once a month depending on the dirt level. You can just wash with a very lightly damp mop with plain warm water or a vinegar & water solution. Make sure that the mop is just lightly damp & a soft microfiber type mop would be best.

[timneh_mom]

We always washed ours with Murphy's Oil Soap and then my mom liked to use Johnson's Paste Wax (I still LOVE the smell of that stuff... MMMMM!) on them. We had hardwood in every room except the kitchen and bathrooms. Anyway the Johnson's made it pretty slippery so if you use it, be careful! Otherwise if they are sealed you just need to sweep or vacuum and you can damp mop them with stuff made for wood. I'm sure there is a safe homemade cleaning solution for them but we always used Murphy's as far as I can remember.

[box_of_rain]

We have hardwood floors in every room (including the kitchen and bathroom!). We use a diluted vinegar/water mixture when we mop (about once a month). We vacuum otherwise.

I found when we were using Murphy's Oil Soap, it left a major residue and took away a lot of the shine.

Never use castille soaps or anything that will leave a residue. It takes forever to get them back to the way they were before!!