Cleaning Hardwood Floors – A Case Study

Hardwood floors are becoming increasingly more and more popular. They provide a great ambiance for a formal dining room or a trendy look for an apparel store, but they can be tricky to keep clean. We all know that dust mopping or sweeping regularly is important, but over time, even if you do that, they will collect dust and lose their shine. So what do you do? The average person would run to the local grocery store, walk through the cleaning aisles and find a cleaner advertised to clean and restore shine to the floor. Sounds pretty straight forward, right?

Unfortunately, there is a major pitfall that these products don’t make obvious through all of their promotional labeling and great advertising. These products are intended for occasional use, and overuse will leave buildup and residue on your floors. Not just that, but just about every professional floor cleaning technician out there will tell you that you need to use a solution to remove the residue from the first application before applying a second time. Sounds like a lot of work.

Recently we completed a service for a retail organization that ran into the most common mistake that people make with these products. They were using these products on a regular basis to clean their floors without cleaning the residue off from the previous application. This went on for a while. Before long they were noticing a gummy, sticky, dark buildup on the floor and needed it taken care of.

We came in and removed the buildup and cleaned the floor. Check out the pictures below. The blueish piles of dirt-like substance on the left is the buildup these cleaners were leaving behind. The picture on the right shows what the floor looks like clean without buffing it to a shine.

After the floor was cleaned we buffed it and brought these tired wood floors back to life!
So the next time you are getting ready to clean your wood floors, follow best practices. Make sure you use your manufacturer recommendations on caring for your hardwoods. And if you don’t know who manufactured your wood floors or how to properly care for them, give us a call. We are always happy to provide a free quote for service and leave you with a great maintenance plan for you hardwood floors!