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 best way to clean hardwood floors is to adopt a regular routine. Use a broom or hardwood floor mop for cleaning wood floors daily. A microfiber dust mop pre-treated with a dusting agent will pick up dust and dirt and prevent scratches. Vacuum your hardwood floor once a week.
Avoid Hardwood and Laminate Floors
Avoid using a steam mop on any type of flooring that should not have hot water on it or on adhesive tiles with lifting corners. It's common for steam-mop manufacturers to warn against using steam mops on "unsealed" floors, a vague direction.
You can use a commercial wood-cleaning product, like Bona or Murphy Oil Soap. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions. You can also make your own cleaner by mixing one part vinegar to 10 parts warm water. Add a few drops of liquid Castile soap.
Soft microfiber mops work best on hardwood floors. You can spray a sanitizing cleaning solution or hardwood-friendly cleaner on before dusting for a deeper clean, but a mop with a gentle microfiber pad is the best option for engineered wood or hardwood floors.
Our testing has found that all steam mops remove stains fairly well, with marginal differences, and are likely slightly better than a regular mop and bucket due to the heat and vapour produced by the steam.
The Bissell 1940 PowerFresh Steam Mop works on most hard floors including sealed hardwood, marble, granite, ceramic, linoleum, and laminate floors. It produces three levels of steam on demand (unlike many other models that produce continuous steam).
Do not wet mop wood flooring. Damp is good. Dripping wet is bad. If you can ring out the mop or pad, you're working with too much water.
Soap only lifts dirt and oil into water, making them suspend in water. Therefore, the more soap you use, the more your mop gets saturated with dirt. So, if you do not remove all the soapy water from the floor, the dirt remains, forming streaks on the floor.
A steam cleaner is dependent on water and steam and does not use chemicals. How often should you steam clean your floors? Make steam cleaning your floors a weekly cleaning chore.
To tell the difference in a pinch, just rub your finger across the floor. Be sure to do this on a clean floor. If no smudge appears, the floor is surface sealed. If you do create a smudge, the floor has been treated with a penetrating seal, oil finish, shellac, varnish or lacquer, and then waxed.
Vinegar and Ammonia: Cleaning products that have a base of vinegar or ammonia eat away at the dirt on your floor - and also the floor's finish itself. Overtime, the acid will wear down your hardwood, leaving you with splotchy patches that are difficult to revive.
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.
Don't use a steam cleaner on your floor as this will direct too much moisture into the layers of engineered flooring, leading them to separate. Avoid scratches by steering clear of scouring pads and steel wool. If your floor has been lacquered or oiled, there are more restrictions on what cleaning products may be used.
The beauty of steam cleaning is that it effectively trades heat for chemicals without sacrificing strength. When used correctly, what a steam cleaner is used for is to kill 99.99% of germs and bacteria. It's a safe, healthy, eco-friendly, all-natural way to clean your home from top to bottom.
Unsealed parquet floors are fairly easy to clean. They should only be cleaned with a vacuum, broom, or mop, and if you need to use moisture to remove any dirt, then try to stick to only water.
Steam cleaning is absolutely safe for sealed hardwood floors, and is an excellent way to sanitize them without using any harsh cleaning products.
So, where does the dirt go when you steam clean? Actually, it doesn't go anywhere. Instead, the heat and vapour of steam cleaning ensure that all the unwanted substances or stains are fully broken down and easy to get rid of.
Steam mops are great for sealed hard floors like tile, stone, marble and hardwood, but heat and steam can penetrate some types of flooring and cause damage. Don't use a steam mop on unsealed wood, unglazed ceramic tile or vinyl plank flooring. If you're not sure, check with your flooring manufacturer.
An easy way to fill in microscratches and shine wood floors is to polish your floors after mopping. After dusting and spray mopping, use a designated microfiber mop pad to apply polish to wood floors to add shine. Bona floor polish is easy to use and adds a protection and shine with every application.