Hardwood floors have a reputation of being high maintenance, and this stops a lot of people from having them in their homes. It can be a challenge to maintain that beautiful glossy sheen on your hardwood floor, especially with kids or pets playing all over the house. For this reason, you need to know what to include or exclude in your routine to maintain their shiny appearance or they end up dull and dingy.
- Sweep or vacuum before mopping
Before mopping your hardwood floor, make sure you sweep or vacuum it first. If mopped before vacuuming or sweeping, dirt is shuffled around leaving streaks and scratches on the floor, which ends up dull in the long run. Vacuum cleaners are an excellent option, with some suited for hardwood floors and pet hairs. Optionally, if you have to sweep, make sure to use a dust mop because a broom will leave scratches on your beautiful floor.
- Buff after mopping
Buffing is probably the one thing you don’t do immediately after mopping your floor. Most people leave the floor to dry up on its own after mopping, not knowing that they need to manually dry it up. It is a good trick that will leave your hardwood floor shiny. If the floor is left wet after mopping, streaks are left behind and this is more of a hindrance to a sparkly floor. To buff, you can use a clean cloth diaper, a microfiber cloth or even a flat mop head, they all get the task to restore shine perfectly done.
- Refinish your floor
The reason as to why your hardwood floor has lost its shine may be because it needs some refinishing. Pet nails, shoes and furniture are major contributors to scratched and dull hardwood floors. This will require the floor to be refinished to prevent complete damage. For safety purposes, use furniture protectors, ensure pet nails are frequently clipped and no shoes in the house! However, it is important to note that even with these precautions, your hardwood floor will need to be refinished at some point. Water spillages that soak into the wood also leave it gray or white.
- Strip off wax buildup
Waxing your hardwood floor is a way of maintaining it, but doing too much of it dulls it. The recommended number of times is two a year, but a lot of people do it more often. And this is what leads to undesirable buildup. If you frequently wax it, make sure you strip of the buildup and this can be achieved by finding a good commercial product to help clean of the wax. After that, you can then switch to waxing twice every year.
- Find the appropriate product
It may take a lot of experimenting to find a good product that works perfectly on your type of flooring. With a lot of products in the market it may be hard to find one that will leave your floor how you want it. You can ask your floor manufacturer to recommend the best for you. This is a good place to start because they already know what works and what doesn’t.