Hi Moms. I was just wondering what other moms use to clean their wooden floors and how often?
Water, white vinegar, and olive oil. It's cheap, environmentally friendly and works wonderully. I have had hard wood floors my whole life and they have never had to be refinished. Plus the vinegar is a great disinfectant.
Use Bruce (Home Depot/Lowe's). Just spray it and use a swifer... It will clean them so nice. They wont feel sticky or slippy and will smell clean!
We use vinegar and warm/hot water. We do the floor by hand only because it was refinished. But it is really clean when we are done compared to mopping/schmopping. Every 2 weeks unless the floor gets really dirty.
We use BONA wood floor cleaner in the hallway as it is the original finish. There are spots that I need to touch up as it does not seem as clean the stuck on dirt as well as the vinegar. Once a week, sometime less.
Vinegar and water. If its real wood!
Murphys Oil Soap, once every couple of weeks or so.
If they are REAL wood, I always heard NOT to use Vinegar & water OR Murphy's Oil because eventually they will strip the finish. We built our home 10 years ago and we were told to use Bruce floor cleaner (sold at Home Depot and Lowe's). We have used that ever since and our floors still look really nice. Last month we had Hardwood put in all the bedrooms, hall and stairs and we were told again to use Bruce floor cleaner. Our main floor floors are made by Bruce and upstairs, the flooring is Armstrong. Supposedly Armstrong bought Bruce flooring…not sure on that one.
I clean the main floor once a week and upstairs once every other week.
I used to work for a well established flooring contractor in Campbell and the ONLY cleaning system they recommended was Bona. Start by vacuuming your floor (if you're cleaning once a week or less), followed by dry mopping, (there's a special mop head for that). Vacuuming gets most of the loose dirt and the duster takes up any dirt particles that can scratch your floor that may have been missed by vacuuming. Follow this up with Bona cleaner and the "wet" mop head. Your floors will look nice and shiny and be conditioned as well. NEVER use Murphy's Oil Soap or anything with oil in it. The oil leaves a film on the surface which affects future refinish work. Generally, floors can be resurfaced 3-5 times (sometimes more) depending on the thickness of the flooring. In most cases this is done by a "screen and coat" method, which is a light sanding following by finish. The oil in oil based cleaners requires a thorough sanding before finish can be applied, meaning you loose more flooring material and a shorter life for your floors. It's also a much more expensive, and messy process.
You can purchase Bona cleaner and mop systems at Orchard Supply and Ace Hardware stores. Many flooring contractors sell it as well.
Vacuum/dust once a week, condition 2-4 times per month depending on how your floors look. I actually dry mop my hardwood floors every day (we have a long haired dog and lots of loose fur), which only takes a few minutes. I vacuum if I see dirt particles tracked in on paws and shoes.
Take good care of your floors and they'll last a lifetime and more.
We use Bona hardwood cleaner and our floor looks great
