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, by Trudy Chuoke Author Article title
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, by Trudy Chuoke Author Article title
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, by Trudy Chuoke Author Article title
Taking Care of Wood Floors
- , by Trudy Chuoke Trudy Chuoke
April 3, 2024
For the last 2 weeks we have talked about maintenance around the home. The first week was keeping your drains running free and last week I wrote about keeping your dishwasher clean and fresh. This week we are going to talk about wood and vinyl floors.
Most homeowners put down wood, vinyl, or laminate flooring. But what I am going to talk about can be use on tile or luxury vinyl plank floor also. Many years ago, I bought a home that had parquet wood flooring. I was thrilled, until they moved out and I saw the floor in its bare form. The floor had so many surface scratches, and some areas around the windows looked faded. In other words, they had not taken care of the floors. The first thing that I thought would be to refinish the floors, but when the bid came back with a comma in it, I changed my mind. I wanted to make the floor look new again but on a budget I could afford.
The first thing I did was clean the floors. Wood floors require so much cleaning, especially if they are dark. I know a lot of homeowners use a Dry Swiffer pad to pick up dust, but I like to use a damp microfiber cloth like one on a Ecloth mop. You just dampen the pad, and it will pull up dust like a magnet. Rinse the pad out when you are done and let it air dry. Don’t use any chemicals with Ecloth. And for some homeowners that damp cleaning of the floors will be all you need. But at my house, there are tiny paw prints, and my tennis shoe prints that require a little more cleaning. I like to use Holloway House Multi Surface Floor Cleaner. It’s a safe choice and has little smell. It’s just an easy squirt and spread process. This cleaner is completely neutral, so in other words, you don’t have to rinse the product off your floor. As the pad gets dirty from cleaning, just go rinse it and re attach it to the mop head. I will tell you a secret, I have about four pads, so when one is dirty, I will just put on a clean one. I will rinse them all out when I am done. If you clean once a week the dust will be easier to remove and surface dirt will not do any damage to the floors.
Once the floors are clean and dust free you want to add a protective coating. I remember when everyone used to wax their floors. My mom had a buffer that I would ride on when she did the floors. Waxing your floor is so labor intensive. Then you must strip off the wax when dirt gets trapped between layers... it’s no wonder homeowners started using carpet in every room. But the days of waxing and stripping the floors are over. On my parquet floors I used Quick Shine Multi Surface Floor Finish. I remember the first night I used it on my floor. I had put my girls to bed, and I had the house to myself. I put on one coat with a microfiber mop, and it dried so quickly. By the time I finished applying the finish in my den, the front part of the house was dry. It had a clean smell but dissipated as soon as it was dry. I just remember how thrilled I was with the results. All the little surface scratches were diminished and not as noticeable. The faded areas looked so much better. So, the next night, I repeated the process. The next morning the floor glowed with the look of a new finish. In fact, I thought it looked so good, I put on five more coats.
Well, that wood floor was one of the things that helped me sell that house in record time. The new owner asked me when he would have to strip off the wax that was on the floor. And that’s the beauty of Quick Shine Floor Finish, you never have to strip it off. Quick Shine is NOT a wax but a polymer finish. You literally just walk it off. When your floor is not as shiny as you like, just add another coat of Quick Shine Multi Surface Floor Finish.