Common Sense Cleaning Reminders for Great Looking Flooring
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Posted On :
Mar-06-2011
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Article Word Count :
656
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Keeping the flooring in your home clean is a very important step in elongating its life and enhancing its appearance. How often and with what you clean floors throughout your home are pivotal keys.
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Keeping the flooring in your home clean is a very important step in elongating its life and enhancing its appearance. How often and with what you clean floors throughout your home are pivotal keys.
Hard Floors
Because you aren't scrubbing fibers, using a shampoo of some kind isn't necessary for tile, laminate, granite, slate or hardwood flooring. The shampoos can dull finishes and actually damage the material.
It's not recommended that you use harsh ammonia or vinegar solutions on hard floors. They, too, can damage the material, stain it or dull the finish.
Good cleaning methods include frequent sweeping with a soft-bristled broom and light cleaning with a barely damp mop. Avoid using a lot of water all the time; over time, that water can seep into the floor's material and warp, crack or curl it by your adding a high-humidity environment element.
Wax lightly as needed but remember to remove the wax build up periodically. How often that might be is up to you, but if you use very little wax periodically, you are, in essence, merely touching up uniformly and will reduce the overall stickiness and build-up common with heavy applications.
Ceramic or other tile uses grout. Repeated exposure to a lot of water can damage it which loosens the tiling and increases the chances of cracking, chipping and lifting the tiles. Harsh cleaning elements and shampoos are a no-no here, too. Frequent sweeping and barely damp mopping work well in maintaining your tiled flooring.
Cement, granite or slate floors need impact protection. Beautiful and elegant, these types of floors might tolerate a higher water application than hardwood or tile, but don't let standing water stay on it. Water stains are difficult to remove. Seal these surfaces often with a compatible water sealant. Soft bristles on brooms are important, even for the cement floors.
Carpet and Rugs
Use of sturdy rugs inside each entrance helps remove dirt, grime, and moisture from shoes as you enter your home. If possible, place outside mats on porches at the door to remove the worst of it prior to coming inside, and the interior rugs will help protect your flooring from what may be left.
When cleaning these entrance rugs, though, be sure to carefully pick them up or roll them up, take them outside and shake thoroughly to remove or loosen as much of the in-ground dirt as possible. Then bring them back inside and vacuum both sides if possible. If one side is rubberized, use a whisk broom on that side while on still on the porch.
Vacuum your carpets and rugs as often as you sweep your hard floors. Dirt that remains in the carpet works its way down into the pile, and those crystalline granules saw away at the fibers which is what causes the worn traffic areas to appear in carpeting.
Shampoo with only recommended products after you test compatibility with the carpeting. Don't leave a lot of water in the pile; it will soak through the carpet into the padding beneath and even below that. A good rule of thumb is that the carpet should be dry to touch within two hours at most. Complete drying is overnight.
Area rugs can be shampooed on both sides. Make it a habit to clean both and hang on a line or a shower rod until dry. Using a damp area rug can damage both the rug and the material beneath, regardless of carpeting, wood, tile or any other material.
Clean stains quickly, even if the carpet or rug is stain resistant. Remember: 'stain resistant' is not 'stain proof.'
Summary
Keeping these common sense reminders can help you maintain terrific looking floors, and if done regularly often don't take up half your week. A few minutes each day can extend the life of your flooring for years.
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Article Source :
http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Common Sense Cleaning Reminders for Great Looking Flooring_54857.aspx
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Author Resource :
Janine Green writes about different home improvement ideas and flooring trends out of Toronto. Always looking for the highest quality materials at the best prices, she tends to end up shopping at http://www.carpetone.ca more often than not.
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Keywords :
flooring,
Category :
Home and Family
:
Interior Design
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