Hardwood Floor Cleaning Tips

Maintaining your hardwood floors the easy way

Here's a set of Essentials For Clean Living™ tips.  

Taking care of your hardwood floors can be pretty easy if you practice some simple preventative measures and use the right products.  Please read these important tips so you can make – or keep – your hardwood floors looking great.  

Brookstone mat

One of the best things you can do is have a sturdy floor mat just inside all of your outside doors.  This catches the grit and other particles that do the most damage to your polyurethane finish.  In case you’re wondering if your floors have a polyurethane finish, the answer is YES.  Whether it’s oak, pine, cherry, bamboo, ‘engineered’ or laminate, they all have some type of urethane finish.  The only exception is if your flooring installer said to use tung oil or some other ‘wipe on’ oil-based product and that would be extremely rare.

Miele canister

The next tip is our favorite – vacuuming your floors regularly.  Yes, you can sweep or use a dust mop but they will always leave some abrasive particles behind.  When you walk on it, that could grind those small particles into the finish and dull it making it look ‘scuffed’.  If you take your shoes off as you enter the door – great! – but your body weight can still do damage the same way as shoes just not as quickly.  

Lastly, get liquids up immediately to prevent moisture damage to the floor.  We have new dog that drips large amounts of water out of his mouth after he drinks from the water bowl.  My wife, son and I are now trained to have the microfiber mop close by to immediately wipe up the puddles he creates. Perhaps you have a similar situation!

So what’s the best way to maintain them after you’ve gotten the dirt and pet hair off the floor? 

 You’re probably aware we sell the Bona brand and you may have been using it for years.  We have the cleaners for hardwood and stone/tile floors as well as the Refresher product for restoring the finish to a brand new look.  We’re glad to offer our expertise to your floor care questions.

We recommend that you not use the Bona Hardwood Polish.  It cannot be removed unless you buy the ‘remover’ that is sold only on Bona’s website.  It’s trying to be a shortcut product to the Refresher but it’s not necessary if your hardwood finish is already in good shape.

Introducing the Miele Scout RX1

Vacuum Cleaner Hospital is excited to introduce the all new robotic vacuum cleaner, Miele Scout RX1.  

Here are some of the great features: 

• The Scout covers every bit of open space by vacuuming in a parallel path rather than a crazy, chaotic path its competitors use.

• Cleaning multiple rooms are no match for the Scout, which can thoroughly clean for up to 2 hours  and then return to its recharging base.

• The sophisticated sensors and ceiling scanning camera insures that every square inch of open floor space is vacuumed and leaves no areas untouched.

• Miele robot vac has seven infra-red sensors on the front of the unit. These scan a 180° area ahead of the machine in order to avoid collisions with furniture and other obstacles. In contrast to most other common systems on the market, these sensors stop the vacuum cleaner well before a collision occurs. 
• Three further sensors below the unit prevent the Scout RX1 from falling down stairs.
• Equipped with 2 innovative side sweeping brushes and a high-efficiency suction motor, the Scout is very effective at giving you a thorough cleaning.
• An AirClean filter ensures clean room air. 

• Four cleaning programs. ‘Auto' mode, the unit travels through all rooms. 'Spot' mode is intended for a defined area. In 'Corner' mode, all rooms are first cleaned in 'Auto' before returning to clean all edge areas once again. 'Turbo' mode in which the robovac cleans the entire home but travels in straight lines with greater spacing. 
• The battery lasts an amazing 120 minutes. When cleaning larger areas, the unit pauses when needed to return to its base for recharging. 

The Scout does a great job navigating whatever floor or rugs it may encounter in your home.  It can easily tackle the edges of area rugs or thresholds that can stymie other robot cleaners.  If you want to exclude an area, simply place the provided magnetic strips on the floor or under a rug.  The Scout can even be programmed to clean while you’re away! Visit our Miele page.

Shopping Local Pays Forward

We all know that Amazon is the most powerful force in the online retail world and it's easy to see why:  convenient site layout, fast delivery times and a huge selection.  Amazon, as well as other sites, keep us 'on our toes' on a daily basis since we know if we don't have something in stock - you may buy it on Amazon and not come back to us for the same item again.  I have a good friend who rarely steps into a Chapel Hill store because he buys most things on Amazon for the convenience without thinking of the local impact.  I'm hoping you'll take a moment to think about the effect the local merchants-such as ourselves-have on worthwhile organizations.

Just recently, Project Graduation had a record contribution year from local merchants- and Vacuum Cleaner Hospital was a major contributor (more than $500 in services).  VCH also advertises in more than four different school yearbooks as well as give vacuum cleaner contributions to various charitable organizations.  We were a sponsor for Touch A Truck in April that benefited the UNC Children's Promise Fund.

I was thanked just a couple of weeks ago by a professor at UNC for our Dyson canister contribution to the Wesley Foundation last October.  This is all made possible because local residents continue to shop with us

While Amazon is super convenient, if we all do more with them, there will be fewer local merchants where you can go for helpful, friendly advice as well as the product right when you need it.  You may save a few dollars online but don't forget by buying local, you're keeping your sales tax dollars in your local counties as well as employing local people, not fulfillment packers in other states or countries.

Thanks again for shopping with your local merchants.