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Here’s how you can clean your precious hardwood flooring

Hardwood flooring has a variety of different features which make it a really good investment. It is beautiful, robust, durable and reliable. Replacing the flooring in your house is always a big investment and if it is hardwood, the investment is even bigger. In order to protect your investment and keep the stunning looks and feel of your quality hardwood flooring, you need to properly clean and maintain it on a regular basis. Maintaining the stylish hardwood is certainly not difficult and troublesome. You can easily maintain it by following a few practical tips. It is, however, necessary that you maintain and clean it on a regular basis.

Learning how to clean your hardwood flooring may seem difficult and really high maintenance at first; particularly because dirt and grime cannot hide on hardwood flooring like it does on carpet floors. It is always visible on the flooring due to the nature of hardwood flooring. Dust and grime not only looks really bad on the flooring, it can also damage the flooring and destroy the good looks and feel of the flooring. The good part about hardwood flooring is that once you establish a daily cleaning routine, it really feels easy to clean your precious hardwood flooring.

Along with regular cleaning of your hardwood flooring, you should also buy a doormat to keep all the dust and grime away. It seems a really simple and unimportant tip at first but it really works very well and will protect your hardwood flooring from different kinds of wear and tear.

This article provides some easy and practical cleaning tips for your hardwood flooring. Read the full article to learn more about them!

 

 

 

 

Daily Schedule – Dust/Sweep

Giving your floors a good dusting with a microfiber mop or cloth will be your best daily defense against scratches and surface damage. Microfiber cleaning pads often use static electricity to trap dirt, particles, and other household allergens. Using a broom to can be effective as well, but using a broom only pushes the dirt around. When you want to clean your floors without damaging them, avoid lifting your microfiber mop up off the floor when you clean—this way you keep the dirt trapped on the pad.

Weekly Schedule – Vacuum/Mop

Weekly maintenance will deal with the harder to reach areas that a daily dusting can’t reach. Vacuums and wet mops are ideal for getting dirt out of trouble areas like corners and the spaces between each piece of hardwood. However, using vacuums and mops come with extra caution when you want to clean floors without damaging them. If your vacuum has a beater bar, make sure it doesn’t hit the bar floor. Also, the wheels on a vacuum might damage the floor. When you’re using a mop, remember that water and wood don’t mix! Avoid putting excess liquid on your floor. Lightly misting your floor with a hardwood floor cleaner will be enough to give it a great clean. A gentle touch is one of the best ways to clean hardwood flooring.

Advanced Tips

Use proper tools to clean your floor – a mop paired with a machine washable, microfiber pad for dusting and cleaning. Electrostatic action attracts dirt, microparticles and common household allergens.

Avoid using water and vinegar, soap-based cleaners, wax or steam cleaners on your hardwood floors. Vinegar and water actually dull the floor’s finish over time, while soap and wax leave residue. Steam cleaners put heat and excessive water on your floor, which can lead to cupping and long-term damage.

Regular dusting and cleaning keeps hardwood floors looking new. But protective mats can further your floor’s life. Use natural rubber rug underlayments with a waffle pattern in entry ways or high traffic areas, and use felt floor protectors on furniture.

Depending on the amount of traffic in your home, we recommend polishing the floors every 2-3 months with our Bona Hardwood Floor Polish and sanding and refinishing approximately every 3-5 years.

The original article can be accessed by visiting the following link:

https://us.bona.com/articles/how-to-clean-hardwood-floors.html

This article tells about the best steam cleaners for refreshing carpet floors

Steam cleaners; often known as steam mops, are great for cleaning and maintaining carpet floors. They are perfect for lifting grime from carpet floors and rugs and they are also great for mopping hard floors like vinyl and laminate flooring . These devices come in a variety of different types and some of them even have small tools for steam cleaning everything, including windows, bathroom tiles, furniture, oven trays and kitchen surface.

A good quality steam cleaner ensures that no dirt on the carpet floors or keeping it perfectly clean without damaging the flooring or scratching the surface on vinyl or laminate floors. This article sheds light on the best steam cleaners for carpet flooring that are available in the market.

The Hoover SteamJet is a sleek, light and fantastic cleaner which provides great maneuverability to ensure pristine cleaning of your floors. It is an upright cleaner which includes a plastic carpet glider along with a floor cloth. The two items clip over the cloth and make the head compatible to clean rugs and carpet floors. However, the Hoover SteamJet does not come with an extra cloth. The water tank attached to the cleaner has a capacity of 330 ml. The cleaner comes with a long, 5m cable, which provides ease of access to difficult cleaning areas of your flooring. The floorhead and handle both are easily detachable and after separating them, your device becomes a small and handheld steam cleaner.

That’s not all with the Hoover SteamJet – it also includes small tools including a concentrator nozzle. Some multiple small brushes, including a metallic one, are also provided along with the cleaner. The button to trigger steam is present at a very convenient location and can adjust easily under your fingertip. Priced at £50, the Hoover SteamJet is cost-effective, efficient, superb, and provide great value for your money.

Read the full article to learn more about the best cleaners for your carpet floors!

Black & Decker 15IN1 steam-mop with SteaMitt – best handheld steam cleaner

This mid-priced steam mop is more versatile than most, thanks to its unusual SteaMitt. This is a glove on a hose that lets you steam clean with your hand. You feel like a housework superhero. It serves fine as an upright mop, with 6m cord, 500ml tank, two floor cloths and a clip-on carpet glider. There’s no trigger on the mop handle, but a dial on the body lets you turn it on and select steam level. Handy graphics indicate floor types, from wood and laminate that require gentle steam up to stone and marble that can take more.

This steam cleaner is powerful, better than many steam mops, and the controls are responsive. Turn it off and the steam stops pretty much immediately. The middle pops out and converts to a handheld. It comes with an easy-to-attach hose and lots of tools. These include a concentrator nozzle, window squeegee, a small brush and three larger brushes, including one with metal bristles. The tools all use the 1m long steam hose, which is easy to attach.

But by far the best tool is the SteaMitt. You literally put your hand inside it (either hand will do) and stroke things to clean them. The SteaMitt comes with its own hose and two cloths. The silicone mitt’s fabric inner comes out for cleaning from time to time too. We used it to quickly clean vast swathes of a tiled bathroom. It would be good on suitable walls and worktops too. The cloth lifted grime and felt like a good way to cover a large area quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kärcher SC5 Easyfix Premium – overall best steam cleaner

This premium, cylinder-style steam cleaner is a completely different animal from a steam mop. It does an outstanding job of cleaning so much more than floors and it can keep cleaning for hours. It has a 6m cord and a large 1.5 litre water tank and the water is then pumped into a pressurised steam tank. This means you can refill the machine at any time, even when it’s in use, without pausing your cleaning.

The only downside of its constant, powerful steam is that you must wait 3 minutes for it to come up to temperature initially. Tools and onboard storage are superb. The 2m hose can be extended with one or both sections of lance, for cleaning floors and high-up or hard-to-reach places. Then you can attach various tools. There’s a large, rectangular floor head which comes with two Velcro cloths and a clip-on carpet glider. This steam cleaner also has a large square brush with cloth and large round brush – with space on the Kärcher to stow.

But there’s more! Lift a flap on the cleaner’s body and you’ll also find a small, round brush for detailed cleaning and a concentrator nozzle. Outstanding selection of steam cleaning tools and storage. The only thing it’s missing that we care about is a window squeegee. However, Kärcher offers a wide selection of accessories if you care about this or other tools.

Cleaning was outstanding – the floor head is much more than a floor head. It’s on a lightweight lance, so we found ourselves instinctively lifting it up and cleaning the bathroom’s tiled walls, right up to the ceiling. This took two minutes and the room has never been so clean. You could do the same with a mattress. This is steam cleaning in 3D.

Steam is highly controllable, with a trigger under your finger and a dial on the body. The top setting didn’t seem OTT but dialling it back to its lowest setting was very impressive. Wooden floors were treated gently and were left nearly dry. The Karcher steam cleaner’s tools are equally impressive. We had to dial it back to avoid the bathroom becoming a steam room

Polti Vaporetto Pro 95 Turbo Flexi– best affordable cylinder steam cleaner

This cylinder-style steam cleaner is pricier than a steam mop but affordable for a cylinder, and good value for the powerful cleaning it offers. It follows you round as you clean and comes with a 2.5m hose and two-part steam lance. Although the 4m power cord is a bit on the short side. It’s tool-tastic though. It comes with two sizes of window squeegee, concentrator nozzle with four different tiny brushes and a larger rectangular brush with two cloths. Then there’s a rectangular floorhead with two cloths that clip securely over the floorhead at each end.

The water tank doesn’t detach but you can refill it at any time because the water is pumped into a separate, pressurised tank to make steam. It takes a few minutes to come to temperature but then you get impressive steam and control. This ranges from very powerful right down to gentle enough for delicate floors. A knob on the body of the cleaner controls the steam level, while a trigger for it sits under your finger.

There are clear indicator lights on the body too. The two-part lance is long and light, which makes it easy to reach cleaning tasks with tools and even with the floorhead. We found it was possible to use the latter to clean the tiled bathroom walls quickly and easily. A great machine if you want powerful steam cleaning for floors and much more.

Author: Caramel Quin

The original article can be accessed by visiting the following link:

http://www.idealhome.co.uk/buying-guide-reviews/best-steam-cleaners-best-steam-mops-198043

 

This article explains how to choose, install and clean new laminated floors

A New Laminated floors are easily one of the most popular types of flooring available.  Laminated flooring has been around for quite some time now and through much technological advancement, new  laminated floors have undergone many refinements and is arguably one of the best flooring options around.

New laminated floors are great and is one of the best alternatives to the expensive stone and solid wood flooring. Before going into the details of new laminated floor options, we need to know what is laminate flooring in actual. Laminate is actually made from four layers of material, sandwiched together to make up the laminate. The construction starts with a base layer to keep the flooring firm and rigid during its installation. After the base layer, a solid fibreboard core is present which makes up the most of the depth. Afterwards, a thin design sheet is applied which is the high resolution image of stone, tiles, hardwood or any other pattern. The last component is a protective coating that repels all the scratches and stains and protects the flooring against dust and dirt.

Laminate flooring didn’t use to be the most robust flooring available like stone, bamboo, engineered planks and tiles but it has undergone many improvements including splash-safe finishes, along with scratch resistance and impact protection. While such upgrades and improvements certainly mean that the laminate flooring is easily capable of handling the wear, tear and traffic of a normal family life, it does not mean that it can cope up with the extremities of bathrooms or really busy hallways.

Are you undecided about choosing laminate flooring for your home? This article will help you clear your mind and answer most of your questions. Read on the full article to learn more about this!

 What are the latest trends in laminates?

Styles have become much more varied so as well as the traditional look, there are also many more unusual designs. Some designs come in interlocking planks that need no glue and just click together.

Some laminates come in great non-wood effects, perfect for children’s bedrooms, playrooms and hallways. Colors range from whitewashed boards to dramatic dark-wood flooring with texture, and even faux-marble, like this design from Quick-step.

Laminate flooring with V-grooves along the edges of the boards and textured surfaces are worth the extra cost as they look more realistic than a completely smooth surface. However, bear in mind that they will take more cleaning than a smooth surface. ‘The latest ranges also have a less defined groove between planks,’ says Philiep Caryn at Quick-Step. ‘This gives a smoother and more polished finish.’

What should I look for in a laminate?

Some laminate flooring can be noisy, especially if you have pets. An underlay will help dampen sound, but also look for versions with sound insulation. Laminate is also prone to electrostatic discharges, so if you tend to get shocked by car doors and shopping trolleys; it’s worth seeking anti-static laminate. An embossed surface, with the texture of stone or timber, will also boost authenticity.

How much does laminate flooring cost?

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for with laminate flooring. Thickness is a good indicator of quality. It is possible to buy 6mm-thick laminate, from £5-10sq m, while 8mm-thick versions are around £10-20sq m, and 10mm-thick laminate will cost in excess of £20sq m. Don’t forget to add the cost of underlay and installation to your budget.

 

How to care for laminate flooring?

Don’t let laminates get soaked. They’re not usually water resistant so should never be soaked with water. Instead, clean them with a damp mop and a specially formulated cleaning product.

Author: Amy Cutmore

The complete article can be accessed by visiting the following link:

http://www.idealhome.co.uk/project-advice/laminate-flooring-how-to-install-clean-choose-191894

This article discusses some ways to clean your new vinyl floor

Vinyl floor and laminates both provide excellent and attractive looks. They are not only attractive but provide good comfort and are quite robust and durable. Even the high traffic areas in the home, where most of the activity occurs, do not diminish the good looks and feel of the flooring so easily. However, it must be clear that it is not an indestructible product. The good news with a vinyl floor is that, it is quite easy to maintain and with regular and proper care, you can maintain its good looks.

The first step with maintaining any kind of flooring is to minimize all sorts of dust and dirt particles. While sounding difficult, the solution is quite simple – you can put a doormat near the entrance. The lesser the dirt and dust particles, the lesser will be abrasions and marks on your exquisite flooring. It is a simple solution and will help you maintain the flooring greatly. You’d be surprised by the results of this simple solution. This article explains some of the easiest and most effective ways to clean and maintain your vinyl flooring. You must read the full article to learn more about cleaning your new vinyl floor.

Do you have vinyl flooring in your house? You must read the full article to learn more!

When it comes to cleaning vinyl flooring, you can’t go wrong with plain water and a sponge mop! Always wipe up spills as soon as possible, and mop frequently with plain water. For more intensive cleaning, here are a few tips and techniques:

• Always vacuum or dry mop the floor to remove surface dirt, dust, and hair before moving on to wet cleaning; make sure you get under furniture, in corners, and along baseboards.
• One of the best cleansers for vinyl flooring is apple cider vinegar. The acidity in the vinegar helps remove dirt and grime without leaving a buildup of soap or wax. Simply mix one cup of cider vinegar with a gallon of hot water and use a damp mop to clean, rinsing the mop frequently with hot water.
• For stubborn scuffs, try putting some WD-40 lubricant or jojoba oil on a towel and rub the area until the scuffs disappear. Clean thoroughly with the vinegar and water solution to remove any traces of lubrication.

There are a few areas of caution and products to avoid when it comes to cleaning vinyl flooring:

• When vacuuming vinyl, do not use a “beater bar” attachment; this can damage the flooring surface.
• Never use highly-abrasive scrubbers or steel wool.
• Do not use detergents, abrasive cleaners, or “mop and shine” products, because these can leave a dull film on the floor.

Author: Donna Boyle Schwartz

Link to the original article:

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-clean-vinyl-flooring/#.WpQSiaiWaUl

Can Bleach Be Used On Laminated Flooring?

This article tells if bleach can be used on laminate floors

Laminated flooring can be made using either plastic or wood. Most of the times it is pressed wood but sometimes it can be made of plastic as well. The feel of plastic laminate, as the word suggests, is like plastic. However, the plastic may have faux stone or wood finishes. On the other hand, wood laminate is made from resins, wood and plastic. The feel and look of wood laminate is a lot like wood.

The good looks and durability of your laminated flooring is in your own hands. If you take good care of your laminate floors, you will have long-lasting and good looking flooring over the coming years. However, caution must be administered while cleaning the flooring. You must only use the recommended cleaning materials.

Now the question arises; can bleach be used as a cleaning agent for laminated flooring? Well, as far as plastic laminate is concerned, you can use bleach to remove viruses, bacteria and other contaminants from it. Bleach is actually a strong cleaning agent with a pungent odor. Since plastic laminate is a nonporous surface, bleach can be used very effectively to remove the contaminants. This article provides a discussion on the usage of bleach on laminated flooring.

Read the complete article to learn more about this!

Using Bleach on Plastic Laminate

To use bleach to clean laminate floors, dilute the bleach with water. Concentrated bleach can dye the laminate surface and can irritate your skin, eyes and lungs. Mix 3/4 cup of bleach per gallon of water. Apply the solution to the floor with a mop, and let it sit for five minutes before scrubbing the floor and soaking up the bleach solution. Always rinse the floor well to remove the bleach residue, and always apply the solution to a test area first to ensure it won’t change the color of your laminate.

Bleach Safety Issues

Because bleach is a toxic substance, always store it away from children and pets that might accidentally ingest it. Never mix it with ammonia, and never use it to clean an area that was recently cleaned with ammonia as the two create a toxic gas when they are mixed. Work in a well-ventilated area.

Author: Kaye Wagner

The complete article can be accessed by using the following link:

https://www.hunker.com/13420979/can-i-use-a-little-bleach-on-my-laminate-floor

This article provides some of the newest and best cheap flooring options

Flooring defines your house. Good, practical and cheap flooring can provide you comfort and certain warmth every time your feet or eyes fall on it. The economy is not in a particularly good condition at the moment but flooring is still driving trends and cheap flooring has seen a massive resurgence. Updating or changing the flooring is a big, time taking and lengthy process. In addition to all that, replacing the flooring is expensive and thus the customers want to have full value of their money. According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the World Floor Covering Association, things have shifted from spending to saving. He also says that even though people have started to spend less, it does not necessarily mean they have stopped investing in flooring; it merely means that they are looking more for value and comfort.

The floor manufacturers and designers have also realized the changing dynamics of the trade and so they are developing new technologies for cheap flooring. New floorings are being developed which have low maintenance and high durability. Furthermore, the manufacturers are trying to bring the costs down as well.

Read the complete article to learn more about some new and great flooring trends!

Vinyl in demand

Choices for resilient vinyl flooring include a spectrum of styles, colors, textures and patterns. Add in vinyl’s easy-to-clean characteristics, comfort under foot and family-friendly stain-resistance, and the result is increasing popularity with value-hungry shoppers.

The demand continues for the “luxury vinyl” segment — top-quality resilient flooring with lookalike qualities that are increasingly difficult to distinguish from stone, wood plank and ceramic tile. At $4 to $5 per square foot, luxury vinyl products sit at the middle of the flooring price range. Nevertheless, the ability of these products to mimic traditional high-end materials, such as tumbled marble and exotic hardwoods, puts extraordinary good looks at the feet of ordinary homeowners at a fraction of the cost.

Carpet leads the way

Carpet remains the market-share leader, accounting for more than 60 percent of retail flooring sales. Manufacturers’ response to the stagnant home market has been to provide more fashion-oriented options at all prices.

“The variety of carpets these days is nothing short of amazing,” says Davis. “Pattern, design, colors, interesting cuts, the whole feel of the material. There’re more wow-factor choices than ever.”

Growing with green

If there’s a growth category in flooring, it’s the green market. Although the notion of green flooring has been au courant for years, demand for commercial flooring that complies with LEED standards has helped lower prices for green residential flooring as well. That translates into more new products and more consumer acceptance.

Most flooring manufacturers are jumping on the green bandwagon, adding lines that boast high recycled content and raw materials obtained from sustainable sources.

Author: John Riha

Link to the original article:

http://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/design-101/flooring-trends