How to keep your floor beautiful
From Floor Coverings
Contents |
What Type of Floors do You Have?
How do I keep my floors looking good?
What you have is key to what you have to do, in order to keep it looking great and maintained. It doesn't work out if you have a gorgeous hardwood floor, for instance, and decide to mop with a very damp mop and sudsy water. That's just an extreme example, of course. Flooring varies so much that it can be difficult weeding out all of the info available on how to clean and maintain it. If you installed your floor recently, or had it installed, then some kind of instructions should have been in the box, or left by the installer, on how to keep that particular floor looking good. Your flooring could also be a mix (in different rooms) of hardwood, laminate, concrete, vinyl, linoleum, bamboo, marble, natural stone tile, engineered hardwood, ceramic tile, and possibly innumerable other materials.
How to Take Care of Your Floors
If you don't keep your floor beautiful, it will wear out faster and look shoddier more quickly. A regular duty should include either sweeping if a hard surface or vacuuming (with a HEPA filtered vacuum preferably), if a soft surface. Depending on the finish on your floor, further maintenance may be a swift damp mop once a week, to an out and out scrubbing. Many vinyl floors are virtually no-care, just needing that damp mop occasionally. Hardwood floors like to be oiled (it includes a suitable cleaner) now and then, and if they get really worn over the years, a stripping and buffing and resealing can be needed. A new coat of poly needs to go on certain other floors every year or so, and the manufacturer should have full instructions on when and how that may be done. Always be careful where and how much detergent you use. For some floors, it's a virtual plague and can cause discoloration and straining all over which makes the floor look far worse than before the cleaning. Natural stone tiles can sometimes be easily stained, so thought is needed before going ahead with the cleaning of those kinds of tiles. Saltillo tiles (ceramic) are gorgeous but can also stain quite easily, so much care is needed in cleaning them. Just a bit of studying on the cleaning methods for your floor types, will keep them all beautiful for the foreseeable future.
Cleaning Products for your new floor
There can be simple and home remedies, through complex and professionally made. Vinegar in some warm water can restore the shine to hardwood (damp mop only!). A little mild detergent in warm water is good for linoleum and vinyl. More exotic floors may need more exotic cleaners but these days with truth in advertising, it will usually state what's in the product, and what it can be used on. And they will also tell us exactly how much to use, and for what sized area.
