Jake's Hardwood Floor Cleaning Tips Hello, I'm Jake with Robinson's Flooring and today I'm going to give you some tips on how to protect and maintain your hardwood floors. Floor Protectors So you just purchased your new hardwood floors. Now we need to protect and maintain that investment. One of the first things you should do is buy floor protectors. These should be put on all of your furniture, especially the furniture that moves. Dining room chairs, barstools, ottomans, and even larger items like sofas or entertainment centers that may occasionally move. Hardwood floors will scratch and will dent; these floor protectors will help prevent that. Touch Up Pen The next thing you want to do to help maintain your floor is to get a touch up pen or a touch up marker. You can get these pens or markers in different colors to help match your floor, so if you do have a scratch these touch up markers can come in handy and help hide that scratch on the floor. Cleaning Kit - Shaw R2x Vibrant Hard Surface Mop Kit Another thing you should do to help protect and maintain your floors is get a cleaning kit. Here I have a Shaw Cleaning Kit. This kit has a micro fiber pad, dust pad, cleaner and mop and handle inside. Bona also has a hardwood cleaning kit that is very good and very similar. And I'll give you a short demonstration of how easy it is to clean a hardwood floor and maintain it. Here I have the Shaw Hard Surface Cleaner, I have the mop with the micro fiber pad on it, I'm going to spray the cleaner directly onto the floor or I can spray it directly onto the micro fiber pad and then you're going to mop. Very simple, easy to clean, low maintenance, and when you're done cleaning your house you can take the pad off. This micro fiber pad has Velcro; put it in the washing machine; reuse it. Also you can take the dust pad that was in that cleaning kit that we purchased, and do light dusting with it. The dusting you want to do every few days; the cleaning with the micro fiber pad and cleaner you want to do at least once a week. Walk-Off Mats Finally, you may want to consider walk-off mats or door mats for your hardwood floors. These are nice at points of entry from outside doorways because those first few steps from the outside are on that mat. That debris, soil, rocks or pebbles that may be your shoes, you hopefully will get them off on those walk-off mats and you won't scratch or dent your new floors. Hardwood Floor Cleaning Don'ts Those are some of the things you want to do to protect your floor and I'm going to tell you also about some things now that you do not want to do to help maintain that floor. Don't Use Water One thing you do not want to do with your new hardwood floors is use water to clean them. Wood will absorb water causing it to swell which will then cause longterm damage to your floor. Some areas are more prone to water like kitchens, bathrooms, or utility rooms. In those rooms, you just want to make sure they are well ventilated and you want to be diligent in cleaning up water that may get on the floors in those areas. Pool Water Another thing to consider is if you have a pool, try not to track that water from the pool into your house. The water in itself is a problem but also that water has chemicals in it. Those chemicals can discolor the floor and cause damage to your new hardwood purchase. Area Rug Backing Finally, you have your new hardwood floors and you're considering getting an area rug. What you do not want to do is get an area rug with the wrong backing. You need to have a soft backed area rug like a monk's cloth that will allow the flooring to breathe, the hardwood flooring to breathe, and it will prevent it from scratching. If you already have an area rug and it does not have the right backing, you can always get a pad to take care of those concerns. Conclusion We hope these tips will help you maintain your hardwood floors for many years. Robinson's Flooring has locations in Fresno and Hanford. Visit our websites for more helpful flooring information https://www.robinsonsflooring.com or https://www.robinsonscarpetone.com. Disclaimer: Before cleaning any of your new flooring products - hardwood, laminate, LVT, carpet - check with your professional flooring salesperson to make sure you're using the proper cleaning products and methods.
