Hi..we have hardwood floors with a swedish finish so I dont know if this would apply to all hardwood floors. We were told to use 1 cup white vinegar to 1 gallon water. They are easy to clean and always look shiny. SVW

I also have and enjoy wood floors. About every two weeks I fill a bucket about 1/3 full of warm water and add about 1/4 cup vinegar. This is enough to clean the floors of a two story house. I get the floors only slightly wet but more than damp! The slight and fresh smell of the vinegar remains for a few hours. Sweeping is also such good meditative movement I do that as well.

I did a lot of research before deciding on a finish for my wood floors, and cleaning with water was one consideration, and relevant to this topic - :>)

I recently refinished a soft wood floor (fir) with OS Hardwax Oil, and they actually seem to have quite a hard finish now (an unexpected bonus). Natural product, low VOC, you can spot repair it if needed, and the floor can BREATH, so you don't have to worry about cleaning with water and having it get trapped in the seams.

When I eventually do my hardwood floors (oak), I'm going to use it again. And I plan to spot test on cork flooring for a future bathroom project.

-Warren

I have been cleaning my hardwood floors for 12 years with 50/50 white vinegar/water mix. Works excellent, amazing the dirt that comes up. I had also asked the guy who installed them and he said that would be perfectly fine, would not harm the finish or the wood. You have to, however, use dry paper towels, not a damp cloth to do this. I bumped into another woman in Walgreen's where i was buying my white vingegar and she uses the same thing.
Good luck.

Debra, I just posted another question regarding the Glitsa wood floor finish, now I have a question about CLEANING them. I currently have the Glitsa cleaner but I'm sure it's got to be toxic. I called Glitsa and they wouldn't even tell me what's in it! "..Proprietary information, competitors would copy them..." Is that even legal, to not even post on a label what the ingredients are????! The MSDS sheet sure makes it look hazardous.

I asked about cleaning with vinegar and water and she said it would dull them.

Very frustrated. What should I clean them every now and then that won't make them dull?

Thanks a ton.

Hi there,
I just moved into a house with wooden floors, the house is extremely old and the floors haven't been taken care of.
I'm going to give them a good clean with Vinigar and Water, but i'm wondering how do I get out the dirt in the cracks? and is there anything I can use to fill the cracks? I think the water actually leaks down to the person below us.

Thanks :)

I clean my wood floors the way Ellen Sandbeck suggests in her book Organic Housekeeping. I throw a bunch of clean rags in the washer on the rinse cycle (cold water/small load) and add 2-3 cups of vinegar. After the rags spin out, I put them in a bucket, grab my rubber broom and head to one end of the house. I rubber-band the first rag onto the broom head and start "swiffering." As the rags get dirty, I change them out and keep going. My entire house is wood floors except for the bathrooms (they're tile, and this works for them too), and I can work through from one end of the house to the other (about 1600 sq ft) in half an hour. I often don't even bother to sweep first, because the spun-damp rags pick up all kinds of stuff including lint, dust bunnies and cat hair - something a wetter rag would not do (wet mops and rags tend to push dirt around). I love the idea of adding a few drops of essential oil to the rags (lavender, lemon, sweet orange) but I have kitties and need to be careful about using essential oils around them (some EO's have high levels of phenol, which can cause liver toxicity/liver failure in cats). The rags then go into the "housekeeping hamper" to be washed with other cleaning rags when I get a full load (we use no disposable paper products in our house except for TP - our bit to save trees). Happy short cleaning so you can get out there and do something fun!

ps: for what it's worth - I spot-clean floors with a rag and a homemade all-purpose spray cleaner: dissolve 1 tsp borax in a little hot water, pour into a 20-24 oz. spray bottle, fill 3/4 of the way with water, and top off with 1/8 cup castille soap (Dr. Bronner's or similar) and 6-8 drops of GSE or tea tree oil (optional, for additional disinfecting power if you need it). Shake well before each use.

I too have Glitsa floors, and I really don't want to get the cleaner. In our old house, which we didn't own, we used Method's Wood for Good. It does a great job and really seems to work but I'm not sure whether I want to try it out on these floors. The important thing seems to be not to have a waxy or oily buildup.

What is this rubber broom that Mary Anne mentions in her post? I love this idea with the rags and no paper, not synthetic mop, we have bamboo floors throughout the house and they are hard to keep shiny.

Judy

1. Do NOT use water on your hardwood floors.
2. Do NOT use solvents (either natural or man made)- remember a solvent is made to make water "wetter" (no longer bead) which will then allow it to get into the wood graining.
3. Do NOT place planters, christams trees, etc on your floor.
4. Do NOT put planters on towels then onto the floor.
5. Do NOT use a steam wand (thankyou to the woman at the county fair selling this "Hardwood Floor Cleaning Device").
6. Do NOT let stand on wood for more them moments.
7. Do NOT ignore standing water under your house!!
8. Do NOT wear healed shoes.
9. Do NOT allow your homes humidity to drop below 30%
10. Do NOT allow your homes temperature to drop below 55 or above 75.
11. Do NOT close up the house on vacation.
12. Do NOT paint your hardwood floor - unless you want it to be forever a painted hardwood floor.
13. Do NOT install hardwood in your bathroom.
14. Do NOT blame your hardwood installer for your inability to understand or comprehend simple instructions..........


15. DO sweep daily and use a dry/damp white terrycloth to wipe the floors as necessary.
16. DO be honest with yourself: if the above is unacceptable to you, as a flooring choice Hardwood is not for you. Try a through body porcelain with Custom Prism Grout.

I hope my honesty helps,

signed - a gal who sells and fixes floors in Seattle