Keeping Hardwood Floors Clean

I just go with a damp mop and use GLO once in a while
If they need to be refinished- only one to go to:
Buff and Coat
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Todd Harris-
Tell him D. from Party Angels sent you

We use the swiffer vacuum for those quick clean ups. The best cleaner we have found is the Method Hardwood Floor cleaner from Target. Its almond scent is wonderful too.

I have only had my hardwood floors for a few months, but was told by the installer to ONLY use Bruce Hardwood and Laminate Floor Care (green bottle) along with a special handle duster. You just spray and wipe off with the duster. I clean them every other week and they always look beautiful.

We have hardwood floors throughout our house. I vacuum or dust mop first about every other day. Once a week, I use the swiffer mop for hardwood floors. Once a quarter or about every four months I use a professional wood cleaner I bought at Home Depot. Do not use water, vinegar products, or steam to clean as this will warp the wood over time. Good luck.

Here are my suggestions: I have lived in my house that has hardwoods throughout (only place that does not have hardwoods is the bathrooms which have tile)...I have felt the same way as you many times about how 5 minutes later they get dirty. The best thing I ever did was to purchase a roomba. The new ones can be programmed to vacum everyday. Just be careful b/c my 13 mo. old is terribly afraid of it even though she will crawl over to it and press the buttons until it does something...it still scares her.
The scooba is great also. I do not feel it is as much of a lifesaver as the roomba...partly b/c it takes much longer to mop the floors than you would yourself.

Hope these help!

We have a roomba vac and I run it about everyday. There is no real work involved. I also use a sh-mop http://www.florstor.com/floor-specials/sh-mop-featured.ht... .

I use bona cleaner on the floors

http://www.bona.com/en/US/Consumers/Floor_Care/

I used to work for Fuller Brush and they have a couple of products for hardwood floors that are FANTASTIC!!!!!! The owner of Fuller Brush Home Cleaning Service, Vicky Gillispie, is my best friends Mom! The number to her office is ###-###-#### and her website is www.fullerbrush.net. She will be able to stear you in the right direction! Good luck and God Bless!

A dustmop instead of a broom seems to work much better, and who would want to have to clean twice a day. I know with a baby crawling around you may notice more, but really lighten up, it probably isn't as bad as you think, a person can't keep everything completely sparking 24 hours a day or you don't have a life , enjoy your family or anything.

I used a swiffer one to 2 times a week on mine or I would gain pet dust bunnies. Also, I had cloth slippers and I would scoot around :-) then throw in my laundry. Oh and I second the person that says DON"T use Pledge- wow it is super slippery and impossible to get off once you realize what a dumb idea it was to try... I know from experience, it did look lovely though!

I purchased a Bissell steam mop for our floors, which are both wood and tile. It uses distilled water and no chemicals (if you are concerned about that around your son). You do have to vacuum first to get the dirt and dust up, but this picks up all the things you can't see using a microfiber pad and steam, and even kills germs. It works on wood, tile, marble, etc. and dries quickly. My floors have never been so clean! If you buy one I recommend purchasing about 4 extra microfiber pads so you always have some handy. The pads can be cleaned in the washer and air dry quickly.

Hi,

I also have the laminated hardwood floors and I know what you mean. You can use a swivel mop but what I do is mop with a little dawn detergent and a little vinegar. Then I dried the floor my self. For your dirty spots, just spray water on it and then use a rag and dry it off. Murphy Oil is good to use, but it might be slickly for your son.

Hi C., try getting a large push broom with a cloth head on it (like they use in offices or schools). You can lightly spray the cloth with pledge then push sweep the whole house in less time than you can sweep with a regular broom. Also, the pledge will attract more dust to the broom and will leave a slight shine. Some days I vacuum my hard wood floors when I already have the vacuum out for the carpeted areas, this seems to help cut down on some of the dust bunnies too).

I have a very low-tech suggestion. Leave your shoes at the door and ask your guests to do so. So much of what we clean up is brought in on our shoes from outside. And make sure you designate the eating areas in your house, especially6 with kids.

Yes, you do have to sweep a lot. However, in my opinion it is a whole lot better than having to deal with stains on the carpet!

For the mopping part, we have found the steamer mop helpful. All you use is water and that way you don't have any smell from the chemicals of other products and it cleans great. We have used the hardwood floor cleaners and they work pretty good, however they do have a smell, so you might want to open up the windows and have fans on. We use the H20 Mop that is advertised on TV. There are other steam mops you can get also.

I have hardwoods throughout my house. I use Method wood floor cleaner it also has a microfiber mop. It polishes fabulously I use it once a week. My hardwood floor guy recommended polycare, but I have had trouble finding it. I also regularly sweep the kitchen with a broom and the rest of the house gets a dust mop. Hardwoods to collect dust, but the method really helps a lot.

I so miss hardwood floors - my last house had all the original hardwood from the turn of the century (no it wasn't here in TX) - now I have all carpet and tile and HATE it all!! I hate the slippery tile in my kitchen - though my bathroom tile is really nice, but I hate having carpet everywhere - even though it is nice carpet.

I used to dust mop the floor - and I used this hardwood cleaner/restorer product in the green bottle (I acually just threw it out since I don't have hardwood). I never had problems with it looking dirty - I could nothing for weeks and it would still look good!

Is it real wood or Laminate?? The sheeny finish on laminate can make it look dirty.

C.,
Someone wrote to use pledge on your dust mop...do NOT use pledge, it will make the hardwoods extremely slick. You can, however, use endust on a dry mop to help pick up dust.

Use mats or rugs inside and outside doors. have everyone take off shoes when they come inside. keep your ac filter clean. these made the biggest difference at our house. we do sweep once a day.

I second the Bona cleaners.

Go to Bed, Bath and Beyond. There is a kit with a large swiffer thingie with two heads and the cleaner. It all comes in a box. I remember it being about $35.

I love it. I have two. One for upstairs and one for down. HTH

L.

Hello...first you need to determine if they are the real deal hardwood floors, engineered hardwood or laminate. I have engineered...it is real wood but not like the old hardwood floors.

I use ZEP Hardwood floor & Laminate floor cleaner (blue spray bottle), bought at either Lowe's or Home Depot..I forget. You need to buy a floor cleaner mop thingie..don't know to call it exactly!!! But you buy the terry cloth covers for it (the "mop head" is a flat rectangle surface), then just follow the directions on the bottle. For that everyday sweep clean-up buy just a regular dust mop (rectangle shape),,cotton ones will work better for picking up dust, over nylon or synthetic or if you have a vacuum that has a hose with a long attachment and floor attachment (not the vacuum part) just vacuum over floor!

Good luck!

I grew up with hardwood floors and wanted carpeting. Now that I am grown, I wish I had hardwood under our carpeting so I could rip it all up and go back to hardwood floors. We had real hardwood floors. So that is all I have experience with. We did not vacuum the floors. We swept the floors every other day, but used a dustmop with Endust or Pledge sprayed directly onto the dustmop every day. The key with either of them is to NOT spray a lot on the dustmop. Our floors were never slick when we used Pledge, but we did not use a lot. You are not trying to even moisten the dustmop. You are merely applying a bit of something to attract the dust. When the Swiffer Sweepers came out, I thought those would be great on the floors. Not so much. I just don't think it really cleaned as well. We mopped the floor once or twice a week. Every two-three months we scrubbed and then polished the floors with a floor scrubber/polisher (then they were slick - and as kids, so much fun).

I would dearly love to have hardwood floors again. With a son with allergy problems, it make the carpeting that much harder to like. Plus, once you have had hardwood floors, you know how quickly the floors get dirty. The carpet gets just as dirty. We just don't feel or see it as easily. When my kids were babies, I vacuumed 2-3 times a day because they spent so much time on the floor. So just keep in mind that although the hardwood floors seem to get dirtier quicker and easier, the carpet does too.

Welcome to the world of those dreaded wood floors! I love wood floors, don't get me wrong. I think they are better for your health than carpet (carpets hides dust), but goodness...the cleaning!!!!! Carpets are good at hiding all the dust and dirt that shows up in your house, good for not having to clean as much...not so much for your health. So if you opted for those hardwoods, sorry..the dust is just going to show and yes....you'll have to clean more than once a day if you are REALLY that concerned.

I use a dust mop and endust, seemed to work the best. Now there comes a point you need to realize that you can't do it three times a day like you would want to, so do it once a day and just accept that that will have to be good enough. Trust me, I have six kids and two dogs, and unfortunately I'm a neat freak and I was dust mopping like four to six times a day. I got over it and realized once a day is good enough.

My recommendation would be to use the Swiffer Sweep&Vac. One of our dogs sheds constantly and I can easily sweep everyting into the little dust cup and keep it recharged for every day cleaning on the kitchen and bathroom tile, as well as our large wood floor. You don't have to buy the cloths, just use bath tissue on the bottom or soft paper towels. I got mine at WalMart. Use Bona floor cleaner to keep it looking new.

Murphys oil seems to work for us. We have a dog and a cat. We can go about two weeks before cleaning again! I just usually have to wipe this one area about once a weeks that collects hair and dust. It takes seconds. We also have rugs on our wood floor that seem to help. If the dust or hair rolls in it collects on the rug not on the wood floor. It is easier maintenance than our carpeting.

Good luck with that... I have 4 dogs and 3 of them are great danes and although they dont shed a lot they still shed when they shake and the floors are always hairy... i reccommend a small rechargeable sweeper that you can just sweep up the mess and then maybe once a say you can use a swiffer mop to touch up. that is what I do.

HTH
A. J

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Dust Mop or Swiffer works great. There is little need to wet mop. I was brought up with hard wood floors and much prefer them over the constant vacuuming of carpet.