Too much water means that the cleaner won't penetrate and cleanse the dirty floors like it's meant to. On the other hand, if you use too little water and a higher concentration of cleaner, the cleansing materials will stay on top of your wood floors after they've dried.
Begin by dusting or sweeping your floors well. Then make a cleaning mixture using 4 cups warm water and a few drops of castile soap or dish soap. Do not shake, but gently mix this, then mop or scrub small sections at a time, drying them with a clean cloth or dry mop after."
Floors can look or feel dirty for a number of reasons. Dirty hard surface floors are usually caused by the environment, an overuse of chemicals, and a large volume of traffic. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to keep your floor looking and feeling cleaner for longer.
Rinse with clean water and dry the floor
Rinsing will help remove any soapy residue left behind by your cleaner. After wiping, all left is to wash and wring your mop, then wipe once more to remove excess moisture. Now your floors should be stickiness-free!
Apply a heavy concentrated solution of floor soap and hot tap water. After soaking, scrub up dirt with your motorized scrubbing tool. Remove dirt-filled water with wet vacuum or mop. Mop floor again with fresh hot tap water to rinse residual soil and soap.
Avoid ammonia – Ammonia will discolor, deteriorate, and dull the finish. Using ammonia to clean a wood floor will take years off of its life. Steam cleaners are bad news – You should only use steam cleaners on carpets and other surfaces that they are designed for.
Manufacturers and industry experts advise against cleaning hardwood floors with water because wood naturally expands when it's wet and can cause your floor to crack or splinter.
Mix a one-to-one ratio of water and vinegar, dampen a cloth, and rub off the hazy buildups. Rinse with another cloth dampened with clear water and dry the floor immediately with a third rag. Washing coupled with wear and tear can eventually make the hardwood floor look old and cloudy.
The best way to clean your kitchen floors is with castile soap, an olive-oil-based cleaner that can remove stubborn stains and, when added to warm water, serves as an especially effective cleaner for hardwood and tile floors.
But as a rule of thumb, you should mop your floors at least once a week—especially in areas that are more likely to get stains from drips and spills, like the kitchen and bathroom. “Of course, you need to vacuum or sweep the floor before mopping,” explains Leiva.
The best solutions for mopping a floor include using white vinegar, dish soap, window cleaner, or rubbing alcohol methods. These floor cleaners are easy to make at home and keep your floors clean. Before you use these methods, you'll first need to know how to care for your flooring type.
Reasons your hardwood floors are always dirty include cleaning product build-up, heavy foot traffic, pets, or poor air filtration. Sunlight, tracking in ice and salt, and dust can also leave floors dirty and dull. Dragging furniture, wearing shoes indoors and not cleaning them often are also causes.
Don't use vinegar or baking soda.
Many DIY home cleaning solutions involve the use of vinegar or baking soda, but these are, in fact, the worst things you can apply to your wood floors. They actually damage and dull the polyurethane, which can irreparably ruin them.
Vinegar is an acid and hardwood floors need a pH neutral or close to it cleaner. When mixed with water, the solution's acidity is drastically lowered and it becomes an effective method to wash hardwood floors. The vinegar and water mixture cuts through dirt and grime, leaving a streak-free and naturally clean floor.
Hot water can dissolve over time the luster of your floors finish and penetrates the wood a lot easier than cold.
Mix a few cups of water with a few drops of dish soap in a bucket. Gently mix to the point that you can see a few traces of foam, but no large bubbles. Dip your mop in the mixture and wring it out until it's slightly damp. Rub the mop in circular motions on your floor.
Solid Hardwood Floors
Sealed hardwood floors can withstand the moisture and heat from a steam mop, and they clean really nicely with a streak-free finish. However, avoid using a steam mop on unsealed hardwoods, as they're more vulnerable and easily damaged by excessive moisture.
The only vinegar that works for cleaning floors is distilled white vinegar. The simple kind. It has an acidity of 5 percent which is perfect for cutting through grease, grime, and dirt. It is also cheap enough that you can use tonnes of it in cleaning all your surfaces, and still not break the bank or your budget.
Vinegar's power to clean lies in its acidity. With a pH of around 2.5, vinegar is effective at dissolving grime and mineral deposits like hard water and rust stains.
Vinegar is a natural disinfectant that works well as a mopping solution without leaving any chemical residue on your floors. Although some people don't like the scent, this odor is evident only as you mop and clean—it will fade away rapidly as the solution dries. The results left behind are a gorgeous, clean floor.
Housekeepers can use a flat mop for scrubbing the floor surface or even the walls, a round head mop for washing dishes or cleaning bathrooms, and a triangular head mop for mopping floors. Angled Mop: This type of mop is ideal for cleaning floors in small, tight spaces.