There is none denying the fact that hard wood floors look stunning. But, you need to put in extra efforts towards their maintenance. Unlike other kinds of materials used for flooring, hardwood lacks the characteristics of offering a tough resistance to normal wear and tear. Water and humidity cause worst effects on such floors and [...]

There is none denying the fact that hard wood floors look stunning. But, you need to put in extra efforts towards their maintenance. Unlike other kinds of materials used for flooring, hardwood lacks the characteristics of offering a tough resistance to normal wear and tear. Water and humidity cause worst effects on such floors and may cause them to get warped up. Even the toenails of your pet may spoil its looks by causing scratches or chipping its surface. Periodic proper cleaning keeps such floors in good shape. To further enhance the affects of cleaning, a mixture of hardwood floor cleaner with one of the essential oils brings in a changed atmosphere as everything starts smelling good all around.

Hard wood floors are not only gorgeous, they need regular special care. Unlike many other kinds of flooring, hard wood floors are not so forgiving to normal wear and tear. They can warp in humidity, become chipped by dog toenails and rot because of water damage. But regular cleaning can keep it strong and protected. A mix of your hard wood floor cleaner and essential oils can help your floors look and smell great.

Not Just the Oil, Please

It’s not that any and every essential oil can be used in association with hardwood cleaners. Some of the oils are far too expensive for the purpose whereas others may not be healthy for the wood. An example would be cinnamon oil. This oil, if used for the purpose would cause permanent stains on wood.

You never want to use only essential oil as a floor cleaner. Not only is this fabulously expensive, many oils can also be far too powerful for hard wood floors. Essential oils like cinnamon can also stain your floors permanently, or strip any finish off. You shouldn’t use cinnamon oil as furniture cleaner, anyway, but that’s just an example.

There is a category of essential oils that jells very well with hard wood floor cleaners. It will be interesting and worthwhile to experiment with a few and find one that suits your taste, and also goes well with the cleaner used for cleaning hard wood floors and furniture. Some of the oils may not be healthy for hard wood and may even damage the floor.

It will be good to educate yourself on the subject by visiting a website on aromatherapy or reading a book. That way you can check the characteristics of the essential oil you may like to experiment with.

Only some kinds of essential oils will work well mixed with hard wood floor cleaners. You really need to do your research before you just randomly mix and match hard wood floor cleaners and essential oils. That’s a great way to obliterate your floors. Go to an aromatherapy web site or book to check up on all of the properties of the essential oils you have in your home. When in doubt, leave it out.

That Smells Fresh

You may start with not so expensive essential oils for mixing with hard wood floor or hardwood furniture cleaners. Oils of citrus fruits like lime, lemon and orange fall in this category. These very common essential oils while being inexpensive, offer the additional benefits of being naturally antiseptic and antibacterial.

Some relatively inexpensive essential oils that you can mix with hard wood floor cleaners – or just about any kind of hard furniture cleaner, for that matter – are the citrus fruit group. This includes lemon, lime and orange. These are not only some of the most common essential oils on store shelves, but they also have natural antiseptic and antibacterial properties.

Hardwood floor cleaners may also have essential oils of lavender or tea tree. Rosemary is also a favorite of some, though it’s very expensive and smells a bit too strong when used on floors and pieces of furniture. Anyway the choice is yours.
Some people claim rosemary makes a great cleaner, but this writer finds the smell far too overpowering. Rosemary is also a much more expensive oil to put on your floors or other pieces of hard furniture.

It’s very simple to have your own flavor of hardwood floor cleaner. Just add 15-20 drops of your favorite oil in a gallon of hot water and hard wood cleaners. It is advisable to make a small quantity, test the same on a small patch to confirm compatibility and then go ahead.

All you need to do to make hard wood floor cleaner and essential oil mix is to add about fifteen to twenty drops of your chosen oil to a gallon bucket of hot water and hard wood cleaner. You might want to take a very small amount and do a test patch on your hard wood floor first to see that they are compatible.

Of course, people used to wash floors in the past. Though not essentially required in present times, it helps to dispense with the residuals and gives a feeling of freshness. Mop up the floor with warm water to which a few drops of oil with your kind of scent have been added.

A long time ago, people did floor washes. This isn’t needed in modern flooring, but can really help get rid of any extra residue and help give your room the desired scent. Put fifteen to twenty drops into a gallon of warm water and mop.

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As an increasing number of house owners continue to replace their ordinary concrete flooring with alternate flooring materials that are more durable and better looking, the need and choice of cleaning agents has also increased. Different kind of flooring needs different cleaning agents.
The most popular material use for flooring is vinyl as it is easy [...]

As an increasing number of house owners continue to replace their ordinary concrete flooring with alternate flooring materials that are more durable and better looking, the need and choice of cleaning agents has also increased. Different kind of flooring needs different cleaning agents.

The most popular material use for flooring is vinyl as it is easy to clean and maintain. Floor cleaners recommend the use of washed floor mops dipped in a solution of soap and water to get a polished floor. Ready made cleaning solutions especially formulated for vinyl are available.

Cleaning of wood flooring calls for a different technique and another kind of chemicals. The class of cleaning agent depends on the kind of wood used for making the floor, but most of the time a diluted alkaline solution suffices to do the needful. It’s important to rinse your wooden floor with water after the application of cleaning agents. It prevents water absorption by wood, thus adding to the life of your floor.

Thorough cleaning with water is essentially required for ceramic type of flooring too. As most of cleaning agents have some content of one acid or the other that is known to react with grout and that leads to weakened flooring.

While acid based solutions are excellent for cleaning ceramic floors they should not be used for cleaning of natural marble flooring. Acids weaken the marble-surface and thus the flooring gets spoiled. Likewise, too frequent a cleaning with alkaline solution is also harmful for marbles. Prolonged or too frequent a use of an alkali based cleaning agent causes marble to lose its natural color.

Flooring varies from place to place. Two places within the same enclosures, with the same kind of flooring material and with similar material often give a different feel. That’s partly due to the materials used for maintaining the same.

Cleaning of floors may appear to be much simpler but the challenge is to continue to have clean floors without really harming the material used for flooring.

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Having clean and beautifully looking hard wood floors is not only a welcome feature of your house, but it also reflects the personality of the house owner. The natural warmth and character associated with wood is very distinctive but it calls for some efforts on your part to continue to enjoy the good [...]

Having clean and beautifully looking hard wood floors is not only a welcome feature of your house, but it also reflects the personality of the house owner. The natural warmth and character associated with wood is very distinctive but it calls for some efforts on your part to continue to enjoy the good looks of such floors. It’s fairly easy to keep them neat and shining by the application of appropriate hard wood cleaners but you should know a few things about the cleaners and their applications, lest the wood should loose its natural sheen.

1. It’s important to choose the right floor material as each is formulated to take care of a specific type of flooring. It’s not desirable to use the same material for any and every kind of flooring.

2. Do go thru the instructions provided by the manufacture. It’s always helpful. Should you decide to ignore that, your expensive floor may get spoiled beyond economical repairs.

3. It may sound silly, but choosing the right mop is as important as the cleansing agent. Right selection helps to complete the job efficiently in a shorter time.

4. Explore the possibility of using one of the “green” cleaners. Quite a few of the eco-friendly products are prepared from natural components that are not likely to harm wood.

It may be worthwhile to prepare your own cleaner. All that you are required to do would be to mix vinegar with warm water. Pour this mixture into a spray bottle. Spray the contents on the mop head and not on the floor. Now proceed with cleaning in the usual manner. It will surely make the floor cleaner.

These are but a few tips for efficient cleaning of hardwood floors using the recommended cleaners without causing any damage to the floor and with minimum of efforts. There are many more tips to help you to continue having beautifully shining floors.

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The most distinctive feature of hard wood floor that enables them to impart that unique and rich look is that no two floors can be made to look alike as the grain structure of natural wood varies along its length and breadth. Another unique feature is that a well maintained floor, over the years, [...]

The most distinctive feature of hard wood floor that enables them to impart that unique and rich look is that no two floors can be made to look alike as the grain structure of natural wood varies along its length and breadth. Another unique feature is that a well maintained floor, over the years, develops its own distinctive shine that is hard to beat. Since ages hard wood floor have been in use because of these features. It’s not difficult to maintain such floors but it needs time and attention to make them to continue to look that impressive. Here are a few hints for the lovers of this natural material to help them maintain its uniqueness.

Daily Care

It’s not difficult tom guess that dirt, sand and grit are the three elements that spoil the health and thus the looks of hardwood floors. These externals get embedded into the cracks and gaps between the slats and boards. To prevent such elements from spoiling the finish of floors it’s important to regularly employ a vacuum cleaner with a non-reciprocating brush attachment. A non-reciprocating brush is specifically mentioned because a reciprocating brush itself can scratch the top most layer of natural wood. At least once a month, if not twice, clean the grime with a slightly damp mop. It’s not advisable to be using products like dry mop Swifter because such mops tend to push the dirt and sand under the cloth and across the surface, creating the effect of a sandpaper application.

It’s a smart idea to incorporate small rugs and doormats in frequently used parts of the floor. These aids successfully absorb a good part of damaging elements before they go to damage your floor.

Not so long ago, such kinds of floors were treated with wax or varnish to get the required shine and to prevent the damaging elements from affecting the top most surface of wood. These days they use polyurethane that adds to the durability. Generally this treatment is given before installation, thus the joints do not get any sealing to protect entry of water or any fluid for that matter. Irrespective of any finishing material used, it is of utmost importance to wipe of the floor with an absorbent material if you happen to spill over any liquid or food on the floor. Otherwise, the fluid would seep down the slats or boards and cause the wood to warp.

At times even if you act swiftly to wipe off the liquid, you may have stains left over the surface. Such stains can be removed by using a wood floor cleaner and one should never use liquid soaps for the purpose. Mix the wood floor cleaner with a mixture of vinegar and water. Use this mixture to wipe off the stain with a clean towel or paper tissue. If this mixture fails to remove the stain, you might be required to use an extra-fine sand paper of 600 grit or some steel wool of size 0000. Take care to rub the sandpaper or steel wool in the direction of the grains of wood. Having thus removed the stain, buff the affected area with a clean cloth and if so needed, apply wax or varnish or polyurethane as per the original finishing material.

Quarterly Care

Make it a practice to clean hardwood floors once in each quarter to prevent accumulation of grime and grease. Use only a floor cleaner with neutral pH.

You should never use any abrasive material for cleaning of hardwood floor. Nor should you use liquid soap detergents, or cleaners with ammonia content. Use of any of these materials may deprive the wood floor of its sheen.

Floors with a wax finish should be buffed at least once a year if not twice. Scuffmarks that appear on waxed floor may be removed by spot buffing as and when needed. Mind you, a hardwood floor with a protective coating of polyurethane should never be buffed or waxed.

Preventative Care

It’s always helpful to take a few preventive measures to retain the looks of your hardwood floor. Avoid direct contact of furniture legs with the floor by using felt pads. This simple measure prevents the floor from getting dented or gouged. Take measures to prevent heavier or sharp items from falling on the floor to prevent formation of dents in the wood. Waxed or varnished wooden floors should be prevented from direct exposure to the sun as it fades away the natural color of hardwood floors and turns them yellowish. If the floor has been treated with varnish or wax it will be helpful to keep the curtains drawn while the sun is around. However, sunlight does not affect floors with a coating of polyurethane. Sunlight certainly affects most of the floors that have been treated with non-synthetic materials.

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