Clean and Buff Hard Floors the Right Way

Hardwood and vinyl wood effect flooring give a spacious a continuous flow throughout each connecting room. Though durable, like any other type of flooring, they do require care and maintenance to retain their look.

Many homeowners or tenants love a matte finish hardwood or wood effect vinyl floor, however, if the floor isn’t properly maintained, the natural matte appearance can, over time, become dull, dim and dirty.

Others may prefer a high-shine finish, or something in-between.

In any case, we all want the flooring to look as good as the day it was installed. For this reason, we would always recommend getting your hardwood floor or wood effect vinyl floor professional cleaned and buffed at least once a year, to bring some love and life back into the floor – even if you do not want that high-shine gloss finish.

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Why do my hard floors look dull?

Your moving dirt around: if you don’t lift up and remove all of the dust, dirt and residue, which usually get trapped between the grain, forming a dirty layer and residue covering the entire floor.
Vacuuming should be one of the first tasks to
complete before you onto stages such as mopping or scrubbing.
It is also wise to make sure that the mop is thoroughly clean before you use it on the floor if you choose the mopping method.

Your cleaning chemical is too harsh or leaving residue: depending on the type of floor and whether it has been sealed or polished, certain chemical cleaning solutions can lead to various negative outcomes. Emulsion floor polish can cause some floor types to turn patchy or milky.
A patch test is always essential, as certain chemical cleaning solutions can damage certain floors, causing effects such as staining, or even stripping off the top layer.

You’re using too much product: you must follow the instruction on the chemical container. Using too much chemical, at a too high concentration can reduce the effectiveness of the chemical cleaning agent’s ability to work effectively. Sometimes a lower concentration allows it to activate how it should.
Also, high concentrations of product can leave a residue over the floor, causing the floor to look dull.

Too much polish build-up: periodically putting down wax or floor polish can, over time, leave a thick and uneven layer which, as it builds up, eventually hides the grain and texture of the floor, and darkens the floor – reducing the amount of light reflected.

You haven’t buffed out the floor evenly: whether you have put down polish or not, if you have not buffed out any residue or watermarks, you will leave the floor looking dull. Buffing heats up the top layer of the flooring, helping to even it out and bring out the original shine.

How do professionals clean hard floors?

1. First, vacuum the floor;
2. remove any glue or residue using citrus gel;
3. using warm water and a no-residue floor cleaning solution, clean the floor using a floor scrubber & dryer machine;
4. wait for the floor to dry, then check for any dirt – if dirt remains, re-scrub the floor;
5. using a floor maintainer and a buffer machine: spray a light mist of diluted floor maintainer on a patch of floor, then immediately buff in using the machine.
6. continue to spray and buff the entire floor;
7. once the entire floor has been sprayed with floor maintainer and buffed, check to see whether there are any inconsistent patches;
8. if you find any patches, re-spray the area and re-buff using the machine.

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How should you maintain hard floors?

1. First, sweep, or preferably, vacuum or the floor;
2. use a damp white scourer pad to remove any tough baked in dirt and grime;
3. fill a bucket with warm water;
4. add a low or no-residue floor cleaning liquid chemical to the water (following instructions for dilution ratios);
5. place a clean mop in the bucket and thoroughly rinse out any excess water;
6. mop the floor in the direction of the floor grain only;
7. change the water if it’s dirty and there is still a significant amount to mop – add the cleaning liquid chemical as before;
8. once dry, go back over with a dry microfibre mop/pad and a trigger spray with low-residue solution in it, such as a window cleaning solution – if the floor has watermarks that is;
9. spray very lightly onto the floor and buff the spray solution in using the pad until it is completely dry, following the direction of the floor grain;
10. work you way back out of the room, until the entire floor is cleaned, buffed, and streak free. 

Simply Cleaning is an Office Cleaning, Construction Cleaning and Commercial Cleaning specialist. With over 25 years of professional cleaning experience and thousands of happy customers, Simply Cleaning is a cleaning company you can trust. For further information on our Professional Cleaning Services, please contact our team today.

Email our cleaning services on: info@simply-cleaning-uk.com

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Categorised in: Cleaning Tips

This post was written by Tony