the best way to clean hard wood floors?

[PaperDollWings]

I have them for the first time ever. I've tried swiffer products and that's about it. They only seem to work alright.

[mohawk]

It depends on what type of wood floors they are. They can be the laminate kind, the hardwood without an oil polish, or hardwood WITH an oil polish. (there might be more type on top of that, I am familiar with these types).

Laminate floors can be cleaned with various products like Swiffer. Many are aimed right at laminate floors.

Hardwood floors withOUT an oil polish can best be cleaned with Murphy's Oil Soap.

Hardwood floors with an oil polish can only really be cleaned with more oil polish, or be resurfaced. I, unfortunately, have this type of floor currently.

[smalltowngirl]

Method also makes a floor cleaner that you squirt on and use a swiffer like mop to wipe around. I've found that works pretty well and smells good, like almonds!

I also sometimes used diluted simple green as a floor cleaner on wood floors.

But I also second Murphy's Oil Soap.

I like pretty much any mop thing where you can squirt it and mop it with a reusable mop head thing! (usually microfiber)

[madgeylou]

when i had wood floors (old ones, recently refinished), i used a swiffer head, and instead of covering it with a swiffer cloth, i put a barely dampened microfiber cloth on it. did a really good job.
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[smokingmonkey]

Interesting, I had a floor refinisher guy once tell me to never ever use Murphy's Oil Soap. The generally accepted and preferred method apparently is vinegar & water. (Don't make the floor wet, the mop should be damp) There's a comment left near the bottom of this page by a floor guy.

I've read other comments that as long as you dilute it enough, it works fine.

I've used the Method stuff, but it started leaving a residue over time, and got streaky, dull, and waxy looking. Before that I used something from Home Depot in a spray bottle that was specifically for cleaning wood floors and it worked great.

I''ve since been using a very diluted gentle multi surface floor cleaner, and will switch to vinegar and water.

* This is all experience on real wood floors in old houses, not laminate. I don't know what the finish was on all of them, I'm guessing newer poly since they were all really nice to start with, and had to have been refinished sometime in the last 100 years.

[PaperDollWings]

Thanks...I'll definitely try some of these ideas out.

[MtyAphrdti]

I actually just use water and a wood floor mop (it doesn't get 'wet' just damp). I really want a steam mop though.

[SayItAintSew]

I think it really does depend on what kind of floors they are.

At our old house we had 40+ year old Oak floors with a very, very light poly finish on them and I could use the swiffer with no issue.

In our new house our solid oak floors have a super shiny hard poly factory finish and the swiffer stuff does not work at all. Lowes recommended Bruce hardwood floor cleaner (which is alcohol based) and it is the only thing that really gets them clean. (We have hardwood in the kitchen areas too.)

Whatever you do, do not put orange glo hardwood cleaner on them! It left some kind of really waxy/sticky stuff on my floor in the small area I tested it on, and even after months of using the Bruce on top of it I had to get down and use ammonia twice to strip that stuff off.

My girlfriend uses a steam thing on hers with no issue, but again Lowes (where we bought the wood) said to never put that on my floors. I am way too scared to even try!

[Payslee]

We use the Method Wood for Good cleaner. I haven't had a problem with the buildup yet, but..um..that may be due more to the infrequency in which I actually clean my wood floors :/

My brother in law and his wife swear by this system called Bona - I think my in-laws may use it as well, and both of their floors are gorgeous. I've never tried it myself.
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