Do You Have Hardwood Floors? 3 Easy Ways to Keep Them Up!

Keeping your hardwood floors looking great is worth the time and effort after you have made such a huge investment. In fact many people do not consider how much of an investment that hardwood floors really are. These floors often times are susceptible to scratches and scrapes and sometimes even can be stripped or damaged if the wrong household cleaners are used. If you are investing your hard earned money in new hardwood flooring then you should know how to care for them.

Natural Cleaning Choices
Keeping hardwood floors clean is really easy. One thing to remember is that you want a hardwood floor cleaner that is really going to make those floors shine. However you might not want something that is going to make them too slick as that could end up being dangerous, especially if you have little ones.

Check out the hardwood floor cleaner recipe here that you can make for yourself. The best thing about this cleaner is that it is completely toxin free and safe to use with pets and small children who might be crawling around on the floors. Some of the hardwood floor cleaners that are sold in the stores are not quite as safe and contain chemicals that could have damaging effects on children and/or pets.

Dealing With Scratches
New flooring can either be composite, think LumberLiquidators. Hardwood Bargains, is probably a better choice for composite flooring, because they are partnered with the American Forest Foundation, a noble cause for re-foresting America. There’s also natural wood flooring choices of course, which is quite a bit more expensive, but either way, the last thing that you will want to see is scratches in the finish. This can be devastating as you might feel as though you just threw away the investment that you made. Do not worry, there are many things that you can do to help you handle scratches in hardwood floors.

There are some steps that you have to take. First you will have to look at the scratch and see if it goes with the grain or against the grain. Then you can determine if wood putty will work to fill it in. Next you can use a small brush or cotton swab to apply a finish that matches what is already on the floor. After the finish dries you will need to rub the floor with steel wool and then determine if it is too deep and if the process needs to be repeated one or more times.

Want to Make Your Hardwood Floor Shine?
Many people love that look of shiny hardwood floors. If this is the look that you are going for there are a few things that you should consider. One is that your floors might need to be refinished. Finish will not last forever on the floors so if your floor needs to be refinished it will not have the desired shine that you are looking for. Next you will want to check to see if wax has built up on the floors. If you have floors that have been around for a long time then it is likely that the hardwood has a layer of wax on them that needs to be removed.

Mopping dirty floors will also keep them from having that shine that you are looking for. There are many ways that you can solve this. One is to make sure that you are always sweeping prior to mopping your floors. Another is to work in small sections of floor and to hand scrub them. Using a dust mop will help to pick up loose dust particles that you could not pick up with the broom and dust pan.

You might also want to talk the manufacturer of your hardwood floors. Some companies recommend different products or procedures based on the specific type of wood and finish that you have. Doing this can guarantee that your hardwood floors are being taken care of properly.

This post is a guest post and is in line with my Disclosure Policy.