Hardwood flooring is an extremely popular choice among homeowners, especially in Montana. It can last a lifetime if it is properly cleaned and maintained. Hardwood floors add a wonderful rustic look to the interior of the home. It is versatile in the fact that it can be sanded down to remove blemishes, stained to change the color, and refinished.
Routine Maintenance and Cleaning of Hardwood Floors
Unlike carpet, hardwood floors very easily display any accumulated dirt and grime. Gritty soils not only make a mess but if they are ground into the surface of your hardwood floor they can scratch the finish. This can make your floors appear dull and dirty over time, even when they are clean. Floor mats are a good way to help control the amount of soil that finds its way into your home, but inevitably some of it gets through. Because of this, it is essential to establish a good schedule for routine cleaning like the one below:
- Daily: Sweeping with a soft-bristled broom or using a microfiber mop is a good way to remove unsightly and abrasive soils and dust.
- Weekly: Vacuuming at least weekly is highly recommended. Although sweeping daily removes most of the dirt and debris, vacuuming will remove all of the fine particles that work their way into the tiny crevices of wood floors. After vacuuming, it is important to wash your wood floors. Be sure to use a product that is designed specifically for wood floors, such as an oil-based cleanser, and be careful not to overwet the floor since excess moisture can damage wood floors.
Deep Cleaning
It is a good idea to have your hardwood floors deep cleaned by professionals once a year. Purity Cleaning and Restoration Services provides hardwood floor cleaning using state of the art equipment and cleaning agents to deliver that deep clean your floor needs. This style of cleaning is ideal for rough-sawn or circular-sawn flooring since it is able to get dirt and grime out of crevices and indentations in a way that standard cleaning cannot.
An overview of a typical hardwood floor cleaning:
- All furniture should be moved off the floor.
- Cleaning technicians vacuum the floor to remove any dry soil that is present.
- A portable cleaning unit is taken over the floor. This unit distributes a high alkaline cleaning agent that helps remove sticky residue, food spills, and other soils. Almost as quickly as it goes down, the cleaning agent is extracted to keep excess moisture from accumulating on your floor.
- A low ph treatment is applied to neutralize the high alkaline cleaner.
- A fresh coat of floor finish is applied to leave your hardwood floor looking revitalized.
- After the work is complete, the coat of floor finish needs time to set. The floor is able to be walked on in clean socks after 2 hours. Furniture can be reset after 24 hours.