There is no dearth of difficulty when it comes to maintaining a house by oneself. But perhaps the toughest is to clean the floors and make sure they look respectable. This is especially the case with Hardwood flooring.
Tiles are hard to clean properly as well, because of all the dirt that gets trapped and then starts to inhabit the crevices in between tiles.
So we decided to compile a short but exhaustive guide on cleaning such surfaces, so people like us don’t have to try ten different techniques and end up messing up their floors even further.
General Instructions
Cleaning hardwood and tiles is especially difficult, since there is such a big possibility of staining and discoloration when you use usual cleaning materials on them. So, what is the way out?
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How to Clean Hardwood Floors?
A simple technique is to wipe the surface with hot water. Some also advocate using a few tea bags (don’t use more than three) in a bucket of boiling water and letting the tea steep and color the water with its tannic acid. Then mop the floor as usual and you should see amazing results.
Also important to note is that one shouldn’t scrub the floor with a dripping wet rag. A light cloth just lightly wet in the bucket of dilute tea is all you need. Squeeze out as much water as you can, so the floor dries off quickly and easily.
The tea stains the floor lightly, which helps maintain the sheen much better, and for longer than any other products commonly used would allow.
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How to Clean Tiled Floors?
Tiled floors are harder to clean than they appear to be. The dirt often doesn’t get off the floor, but shuttles into the grout. Over time, your neat white vitrified tiles with a smooth, unnoticeable edge running can start to look like a dirty assembly of white blocks. It’s plain unsightly.
To get rid of the dirt, it is best to vacuum the floor first by using a good vacuum for tile floor. Sweeping can help too, but sweeping often leaves a big portion of the dirt on the surface. Using a microfiber cloth to get rid of the dirt can help as well.
Once the dirt has been lifted with dry methods, it is time to bring in the wet cleaning. Using a different microfiber cloth preferably, soak the cloth and wring it to make sure there isn’t too much water that lays on the floor after a wipe. Sweep as usual, and you should get a cleaner surface immediately.
If your grout turns out to be harder to clean, you may want to bring out some more tools. A brush, for example, would work really well with some soapy water. Make sure there isn’t too much soap in the water though, or things might be hard to clean afterwards.
Scrub in a circular motion to take out the dirt. However, make sure the brush doesn’t scratch your tiles.
Here are the 32 Ways To Use Steam Cleaner More Efficiently. You can also refer this article for further cleaning tips.
Using a toothbrush over the grout can help, but you might want to get some help or a room can take you an entire day to comprehensively clean.
Note: In both cases, it is best to avoid sponges. Sponges are great in general, but they can soak up an unmanageable amount of water which is bad when you’re trying to clean hardwood floors, and also they may trap dirt in their crevices which might act to scratch your tiles and make things unsightly.
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How to Remove Particular Kinds of Dirt from Tiled and Hardwood Floors?
There are a lot of kinds on dirt and grime that can stain your floors, which you should be aware about how to deal with. Let’s list a few ways to get rid of some of them.
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Dirt in Grout
Dirt in between tile grout can make the room look pretty dirty. Getting rid of it is easy though. Using a little soap in a bucket of water, wet a rag, a brush or a toothbrush and scrub at the grout. Make sure to not leave scratches by getting too enthusiastic; a light scrub is all that is needed most times. You can also cover the grout with a tiny amount of POP if you can find some, but make sure you only apply a tiny amount, and the color matches the tile.
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Marks of Paint
Paint on the floor is a common problem when you have kids, for example, or when you had the walls repainted and there was an uncovered spot somewhere. Depending upon the kind of paint, different methods may be useful to remove the stain. If the paint comes off in a clean strip by scratching at it, there’s really nothing more to do than try to lift it off the floor by sliding a metal strip at it. If the paint was water based, you might be able to get rid of it by scrubbing it with a wet rag. If it was oil based, however, things can get complicated. Get rid of as much paint as you can mechanically, then use an organic solvent like acetone to dissolve a little of the paint by dabbing the solvent using a cotton ball and soak the paint out into the cotton. Be sure to test the solvent on a hidden place on the floor before laying it on the paint.
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Food Marks
Ketchup and other such foods can leave a hard to remove stain on the floor. Using a little bleach could help you get rid of some foods, while others might require gentler stuff like some baking soda mixed with some vinegar, or a small piece of lemon. As before, test the method before in a hidden spot.
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Chars and Burns
A charred hardwood floor is pretty unsightly. It may be because someone dropped a lit cigarette, or because your hands were a little clumsy when you were handling your barbeque. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely remove the mark. You should rather consider hiding it.
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Alternatives to cleaning tile and hardwood floors can include covering the spot under a doormat, a decoration or something of that sort, covering the floor entirely using a carpet or revamping the floor altogether. It can be hard to make things stay spotless, so be sure to be regular in using the methods we described above.
Know any other ways to get a floor to stay clean? Let us know in the comments below.
