Wood Floor Cleaning and Polishing
Hardwood floors are a very common choice of flooring because it can provide an air of beauty as well as elegance to any environment, be it a home or commercial office. Moreover, it presents a pleasing feature and is extremely long lasting if well maintained.
It is, however, not the most convenient kind of flooring to clean and also maintain – to ensure that it stays in beautiful condition is something of a tough effort. Otherwise maintained, wood flooring can easily become polished and also marked and produce an unsatisfactory appearance. At the very least, regular sweeping and vacuum-cleaning is essential always to keep grit and dirt substances off the floor, encouraging your hard cleaning work.
Most of all is handling any spillages instantly, as any liquids may penetrate into spaces, seams, and subfloor which can cause damage to the wood floor as time passes. Spills ought to be cleaned up with a wet but virtually dry mop. Even though spillages are cleaned quickly, they can lead to discoloration which at a certain point will need to be cleaned by a professional wood floor cleaning company.
There are numerous elements which could mark or even destroy a wooden floor and certainly affect your upkeep efforts. Heavy furniture getting moved, or furniture with metallic legs or points, high pumps and also general motion or traffic for instance walk in dirt can undoubtedly scuff or even mark wooden flooring, additionally affecting its look.
For a marked floor, it is important to correctly identify the problem of the floor before determining tips on how to go ahead. It is also vital that you detect or determine what kind of finish had already been applied to the floor. While trying to figuring out the method of cleaning you may want to consider talking to an organization which specializes in wood floor cleaning and polishing, they would be able to suggest the perfect strategy for you.
In case the flooring has had an excellent sealer applied, then any unattractive appearance most likely results from a build-up of surface area soiling after a while. Therefore surface cleaning and even buffing or wood floor polishing would possibly be the suggested result. If the floor has a sealer which has been destroyed by many of the previously listed factors – parts of the floor will likely be unprotected, and the sole solution to attain a good finish is always to strip the polish, thoroughly clean and re-polish the wood floor.
Based on the hardness of the condition of the ground, in some cases, surface sanding, re-polishing and also sealing could be the only solution to restore the wood floor to its unique state.
Wood Floor Cleaning – Avoid Surface Marking
One of the significant problems of hardwood is maintaining and cleaning it, as it is a floor that can very quickly become marked and dulled and lose its visual appeal. The dulling or uneven appearance is usually the result of a build-up of grime or bacteria over time which is caused by marking on the surface such as scratches and tiny surface abrasions. Protecting the surface and avoiding surface markings are, therefore, key factors in maintaining an aesthetically pleasing surface.
The first step when trying to protect a wooden floor is the application of a good sealer – there are many available to get a recommendation. A sealer adds an extra layer of protection and is the basis on your ongoing maintenance efforts.
Surface marking is a problem because it can damage the wood, but it can also damage or remove a sealer thereby exposing the surface of the wood below – and this is when staining can occur as wood surfaces are susceptible to staining. Surface marking and scratching is usually caused by a combination of sand, dirt and grit walked in on the soles of shoes, and heavy objects being moved around the floor – so the appropriate steps should be taken to prevent this from occurring.
Dirt and grit can be reduced in a wood floor area simply by following the simple steps of;
- Placing doormats at entrances
- Sweeping and vacuuming regularly
This should remove almost all of the dirt on the surface, and reduce the risk of surface scratching. After vacuuming the floor, the floor can be cleaned with a damp mop and, combined with the sealer, which should be sufficient. If there is a dulling of the floor or a mark which cannot be removed, then it is possible that various layers of grime or bacteria have built up on the surface – in which case you may be advised to contact a wood floor cleaning company.
Other scratching risks come from heavy objects such as furniture, or points such as chair legs. If padded tips can be applied to all corners, that is the best way to proceed, but care should be taken to lift instead of drag in all cases. If a significant scratch occurs, then the surface will be exposed, and the floor may need to be re-sealed.
If you are in any doubt – you should contact a wood floor cleaning and polishing company to evaluate the state of the floor. If there is simply a build-up of surface grime, then cleaning and surface buffing should be sufficient – but if there has been surface marking and if the wood itself has been stained, it is possible that the surface of the wood needs to be sanded and cleaned, before being polished and re-sealed.
If you’re looking for a guide to different types of wood floors and their benefits, check out this page.
