How to Prevent Cloudy Hardwood Floors
If your home has hardwood floors, then you know keeping them shining and maintained is invaluable to your space’s aesthetic. Nothing is duller and more discouraging than cloudy hardwood floors, especially if you don’t know what is causing this dullness and what you can do to correct it.
When you find that milky film on top of your flooring even after clearing, Elite Hardwood Flooring knows what to do to bring your hardwood back to its former glory. But before we do that, you may want to know what caused that film to form in the first place and what you can do to keep it from coming back in the future.
What Causes the Haziness?
Several factors can cause cloudy hardwood floors. It may be from waxing your floor when it didn’t need waxing, which reacts with the finish and results in a sort of milky fog. Hazy floors can also result from excess moisture or something as simple as a flawed or inadequate finish from your floor’s original installation. (That’s why we always recommend you choose an NWFA-certified installer.)
All that said, the most common cause of cloudy hardwood floors is cleaning agents. There are countless products aimed at caring for hardwood, but some of them aren’t as credible as they make themselves out to be. If these solutions contain paste wax, furniture polish, or soil soap, they can leave some buildup on your hardwood.
However, there are products out there that, when diluted, clean without leaving a mark. A good suggestion is to test a hardwood cleaner beforehand by spraying it on your window or mirror. If it doesn’t streak or leave a residue when you clean it, you can expect the same results on your floors.
Preventing Cloudy Hardwood Floors
When the finish on your floor gets damaged, it makes the wood appear cloudy and milky. You can keep this from happening through regular maintenance to protect your hardwood and your home’s appearance as a whole. That means dust-mopping and damp-cleaning on a consistent abscess to get particles of all sizes off the surface.
When you clean with moisture, you should be especially careful about the amount of liquid you’re using. We don’t suggest bringing a mop and bucket like you may have assumed. There’s a much better way that’s more effective, as well as kinder to your floors.
You can take a bottle with a fine spray, use it to mist a pH-neutral cleaner, and clean your floors section by section. And it’s worth investing in a microfiber mop to absorb as much liquid as you can while you work. In the end, you’ll have a sparkling clean hardwood floor and no damp spots to step around.
Another preventative measure is cleaning with Bona Deep Clean Solution® once per year. This professional-strength, water-based cleaner gives finished floors a deep clean without staining or leaving any residue. Bona will get rid of any unyielding scrape or scuff marks on your floor, too. It can even wash your outdoor deck!
Restoring Your Floors with Elite Hardwood Flooring
Elite Hardwood Flooring is already known for the flooring services we offer to the Annapolis area. We do installations and finishing, but we can refinish cloudy floors, as well. That is the best way to remove stains and give your floors the perfect appearance you deserve.
So if you’re ready to stop the buildup and get straight to reinvigorated hardwood, contact Elite Hardwood Flooring today. Our service is as pristine as the floors we create.
