Do you want to learn a new way of cleaning hardwood floors? or are you here to get answers on where you can steam clean hardwood floors? If you are here for either of the above, worry less. We have compiled some researched suggestions to make it easy for you in your cleaning process.
Using steam-cleaning in hardwood floors has been proved by far to be the best way to sanitize floors since it does not pose any negative effects on the wood surface. In this article, we get to discuss some steps and the pros and cons of steam cleaning on hardwood floors.
Types Of Hardwood Floors To Steam Clean
The market offers a vast choice when it comes to types of hardwood floors. These hardwood floorings include lamellated sealed hardwoods, unsealed hardwoods and wood grain vinyl flooring. Among the above type of hardwood flooring, the unsealed hardwood flooring is the only one that should not be cleaned using steam cleaner. Yet, the rest can be steam cleaned without stripping the floor surface when steamed appropriately.
If you want to double-check if your hardwood floor is safe for steam cleaning, ensure it is acid cured or features aluminum oxide, water based polyurethane, oil based polyurethane or moisture cured urethane finish. Having wet penetrating oil sealer applied to your hardwood floor will most definitely reduce the quality of the floor with time through steam cleaning, and you will have to keep on redecorating it just to counter the effects of steam cleaning. But if you want to get a polished shine then you may use the best steam mop for laminate floors.
How To Steam Clean Hardwood Floors
Prep Your Floor
Before undertaking the process of steam cleaning you should note that first of all you should vacuum the floor in order to remove dust and grit that might scratch the floor.
As for many steam cleaners you will discover that the only thing that they require is water, however if you could manage to find a steam cleaner to which you could add a prepared cleaning solution with a pH of neutral is okay.
Confirm if your wood floors are sealed. If some sections are unsealed, it may not be safe to use the steamer. This is true because if you use the steam cleaner on the unsealed flooring the steam will have an effect of warping on the wood.
Warm Up Your System
It would be best to warm up your steam cleaner for some time to heat the steam well enough and release the drier steam to use in cleaning floors. Second, as it heats up you can begin washing your walls or the carpet to have the dry steam ready.
Set The Volume
If your steam cleaner does have a volume control then be sure to lower it to the lowest. If it is going to be numbered then one or at most two will suffice. Low volume setting precedes the production of the highest temperature accompanied by steam intensity.
Have Some Accessories
It is important to have some accessories that may help you in cleaning the full floor. Some of these accessories may be cleaning products like a large rectangular floor brush that you will attach to at least two extension handles.
You should also make sure that you have a filler pad made of nylon bristles that will spread out on the heat side to apply steam on the whole surface of the brush. The filler pad is also advantageous in collecting more condensation that might occur as steam comes out of the steam tube, to the brush, which is in an open space.
Wrap It Up
You should wrap the floor brush with a terry towel so that all the steam gets to the floor surface without blowing out the ends of the floor tool. This process is called the diapering of the large floor brush while using the filler pad, and the terry towel.
If you will use a microfiber towel, then you should make sure that the steam does not get trapped behind the microfiber towel. If the steam is trapped behind the microfiber, it will make the fiber very wet quickly, and the time when the towel is wet it will not necessary absorb excess moisture quickly.
Do A Spot Test
You can steam a small space as a trial in order to check whether steaming on your hardwood floor will impact your floor finish or not.
Start Brushing
While going in the opposite direction to your wood grain, start scrubbing with the brush in a sideways fashion back and forth similar to vacuuming in a slightly slower motion.
Make sure that the speed of steam cleaner is lower than that of vacuuming because moving on to the next area rapidly. They do not want the hot stool standing on the floor because the heat may cause the hardwood flooring to deteriorate.
Clean The Tough Spots
If you notice any stubborn stains while cleaning, you can run the steam cleaner on them again. Try to do as many passes as you can to get a clean finish.
Enjoy The Shine
Once you are done with the cleaning procedure, it is time to enjoy your glossy finish. So sit back, relax and pat yourself on your back!
Cons Of Steam Cleaning Hardwood Floors
A steam cleaner uses heated water vapor to clean a surface or a material. The peculiar aspect about it is this: rather than turning into gas form of water vapor through evaporation, it uses a gas to clean the surface of the surfaces. Every steam does not evaporate away in the air and it gets dissolved.
If you frequently use steam to clean hardwood floors, the steam will seep into the seams of the floor if you do not dry the floor promptly. This is because, steam is much thinner than water, thus it is feasible to penetrate through the seams of hardwood flooring .
Once the steam has entered the seams the steam will to turned into liquid water. Extremely much can go wrong whenever wood comes into contact with water. For instance, the base is a hard wood floor; it can wane when water has seeped through a woody texture.
There are a number of things to note on the right way to steam clean a hardwood floor; there are side-effects associated with steam cleaning that can damage a hardwood floor; so make sure the floor is sealed all through in order to prevent any mishap.
Hardwood floors will not aid the floor become seep proof but it shall be much better than not having them sealed.
