How to Add Shine to Hardwood Floors

Hardwood floors need regular maintenance to protect the showroom shine you first fell in love with. Basic precautions and a regular cleaning schedule should keep hardwood floors in excellent condition for decades. However, if your hardwood floors have scratches, ingrained dirt or dull areas, you will need to deep-clean them, recoat them or resand them, depending on the extent of the damage. These are heavy-duty cleaning projects, which require training, experience and expensive machinery, so it pays to keep a good maintenance schedule to avoid them altogether.

Maintenance

1. Sweep your hardwood floors regularly. If you use a vacuum, attach a felt head to avoid damaging your floor. Built-up grit damages hardwood floors and makes them look dull. Regular sweeping and dusting is the easiest and cheapest way to keep your floors with the shine you love.

2. Clean spills on your floor quickly with a soft cloth. If spills are not cleaned at once, they can damage the fiber in the wood and require expensive treatments to fix.

3. Dust mop your hardwood floors with a microfiber cloth dampened in hardwood cleaner. According to the National Wood Flooring Association, standing water and other liquids will dull the finish and damage your hardwood floors. Use wood cleaners recommended or sold by hardwood floor manufacturers.

Floor Repairs to Add Shine

1. Treat your hardwood floor to an intensive clean. You will need a professional wooden floor cleaning machine. Scrub the floor with an intensive hardwood floor cleaner recommended by the manufacturer. Scrub again with a commercial floor cleaner and polish with a microfiber cloth.

2. Re-coat your floor before it wears down to bare wood. First clean it thoroughly with a wooden-floor intensive cleaner recommended by your hardwood floor manufacturer. Apply regular floor cleaner and scrub with a professional cleaning machine. Apply a new coat of finish and repolish with a cleaning machine.

3. Re-sand your hardwood floors when they are worn down to bare wood. Use a professional floor sanding machine. Clean with a wooden-floor intensive cleaner and apply a new coat of finish. This is an extreme fix for severely damaged floors; you should never have to do this if you take good care of your hardwood floors.

Things You'll Need:

• Soft broom
• Vacuum cleaner with felt head
• Microfiber cloths
• Hardwood floor cleaner
• Professional floor cleaner

Tips

• Avoid wax- or silicone-based cleaners. Instead of making your hardwood floors shine, it will make them harder to clean and damage the floor's finish.
• Keep your pet's nails short. Avoid using high heels inside the house, and place rubber mats under furniture.

Source: HomeGuides.sfgate.com