How To Clean Unfinished Wood Floors 3 Best Methods

Unfinished wooden flooring have a distinct charm because they’re as natural as floors can get. The wooden isn’t sealed with wax or the other finishing. Yet natural and organic untreated wood may be damaged via so much detergents, so one must be very cautious with how they select to scrub their floors.

To clear unfinished wooden floors, you will need to dilute a cup of vinegar in a single gallon of water, dip a mop within the diluted vinegar, and mop the floor whilst drying off extra water. To spot-clean any stains, you can use trisodium phosphate.

There are 3 popular ways to clear unfinished wooden floors, and this text covers all of them. In detail, you will learn how to use vinegar, trisodium phosphate, and mineral spirits to scrub your floors. Furthermore, you’ll study how you could shine unfinished wooden flooring and the way to preserve them.

Method #1: Clear Unfinished Flooring With Vinegar

One intent many homeowners decide upon unfinished wood flooring is to sustain a healthy look. and what larger way to clean healthy wood if no longer a healthy cleansing solution. Vinegar is efficacious at combating deep-seated dirt that’s wedged within the creases and crevices of the plants. It additionally continues mildew spores and mould from harming unfinished wood. Follow the stairs under to scrub your unfinished wood flooring with vinegar.

Prepare the Cleansing Solution

This is a imperative step in the cleaning method as an answer too diluted will never be effective enough to deep clear the floor, and while vinegar isn’t toxic, a very concentrated answer can leave at the back of an unsightly odor. Follow those steps below:

1. Pour one cup of vinegar into an empty bucket (make certain the bucket is freed from dirt or dust).
2. Add one gallon of water and mix well. You could scale the answer as long as you retain the ratio. So you can have two, three, or 4 cups of vinegar as long as you tournament with two, three, or four gallons of water, respectively.
3. Do no longer fill the bucket to its rim as it is going to spill each time you dip a mop in it. Seeing that this step takes below a minute, that you must just to make enough to fill 0.5 the bucket and make more cleansing solution if it runs out.

Prepare the Floor

Before you start cleaning, you wish to organize the floor by using eliminating any furniture, objects, or rugs protecting the unfinished wood. It is also advisable to block out the room so no person can come in and go away clean footsteps while you are cleaning.

Clean the Surface

Dry-mop the floor and make sure it is free of dust and surface-dirt. When the vinegar cleansing answer will assist clear most of the dust and stains on your floor, it’s perfect to take away the surface layers with a broom or a dry mop first to permit the vinegar solution to affect the layers underneath.

Vacuum the Floor

While this step is not obligatory, it is enormously advisable as it reduces how usually you should deep clean. Once you use a vacuum purifier to take away the rest of dust on the floor, you enable the vinegar to paintings its magic at depth. So vacuum the floor from conclusion to finish and hover longer with every stroke.

Mop With the Vinegar Cleaning Solution

The solution made in the 1st step is needed here. Dip a mop into the bucket and then use a strainer to remove excess liquid. Use the moist mop to cover the surface. It is valued at noting that a strainer makes no sense yet will assist you use less of the method to clean a bigger area.

Since unfinished wooden is not polished, the liquid cannot be unfold throughout a large region because it seeps into the surface too quickly. Therefore, you should pressure the surplus liquid into the bucket and use it as little as attainable on every application.

Let the Floor Dry

While detergents can stain a floor and require one more step of cleaning with water, you could circulate ahead with the drying level right after cleansing with the vinegar cleaning method. At this stage, you just have to ensure not to place any fixtures over the floor or let anyone step on the ground while it’s wet. As you know, drinks could be very conducive to dust, and having footsteps leave dirt deposits at this stage defeats the purpose of cleaning.

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Method #2: Spot-Clean Stains on Unfinished Wood Floors

Often, people seeking how to clean wooden flooring have a undeniable spot in mind. Whilst cleansing with vinegar is a great, natural way of cleansing the complete floor, you need to use a much more strong cleaning solution for stains. For this, we promote trisodium phosphate (TSP) like the Sunnyside TSP. It is also attainable to use TSP over the complete ground (it does no longer harm wood). Follow the stairs under to spot-clean your wooden flooring using TSP.

Prepare the TSP Cleaning Solution

If you are using a trisodium phosphate cleaning liquid, then you may skip this step. But TSP generally comes in its powder form. You need to dissolve half a cup of TSP in2 gallons of ideally warm water. With hot water, you may dissolve extra TSP and make sure the water evaporates quicker upon application. You don’t want extra water on your unfinished floors.

Prepare the Floor

If you’re spot cleaning a stain, you may skip this step. When you are utilizing the TSP purifier to deep clean the entire floor, you ought to be sure all the gadgets covering the incomplete wood are safely removed and that nobody can stroll if you are cleaning.

Apply the TSP Cleaner

While the vinegar cleansing method calls for dry-mopping, brooming, and vacuuming before application, those steps are solely non-compulsory with trisodium phosphate as it is a heavy-duty cleaner. It could battle the stains despite even if there’s dust or not.

• For smaller stain spots, use a teaspoon to apply the liquid and a toothbrush to scrub out the stain.
• You have to use a shoe polish brush for relatively larger stains to scrub out the stain after making use of tsp liquid with a sponge.
• If you arecleaning the entire floor with out particular stains to address, use a mop. While using a mop, you could strain the surplus liquid before using the moist mop to clean the floor.

Dry the Floor

This step is necessary because while trisodium phosphate does no longer affect your flooring adversely, extra waters can warp and damage unfinished wood. After spot cleaning the stain, use an absorbent towel to dry the skin immediately.

When cleaning the complete floor with TSP, pause after each ten mins of utilizing the moist mop and use a fresh dry towel to dry the area you’ve covered. That’s due to the fact if you are cleansing a big sufficient area, likelihood is the moisture has seeped into the wooden before you’ve complete cleaning. If that is the case, drying does not assist preserve the floor.

Method #3: Cleaning Unfinished Wooden Floors With Mineral Spirits

Cleaning unfinished floors with mineral spirits like Klean Strip can be very effective. However, it is not the popular technique of cleansing as a result of the spirits’ toxicity. The spirits, while inhaled, can pose a major future health risk. Don’t use this system if you haven’t got a respirator and sufficient ventilation. In case you do, then follow the stairs below.

1. Prepare for Mineral spirits use. Open all of the doorways and windows so there is enough ventilation. Wear a respirator to maintain yourself from breathing in the spirits.
2. Apply the cleaner. Mineral spirits often come in spray bottles. At this stage, you spray the spirits on the stain and use a tender textile to rub the spirits until the stain has misplaced hold. Since the spirits are high-impact, you don’t want to apply coarse rags or bristle brushes to rub the stains as you will harm the wood.
3. Remove the surplus cleaner (if any). If there’s any cleaner left on the floor, use a dry absorbent textile to absorb the excess. What can’t be absorbed via the fabric should be left to air dry.

How to Preserve Unfinished Wood Floors

While unfinished wood flooring have the advantage of a natural aesthetic appeal, they require exquisite care. Follow the guidelines under to maintain your unfinished wooden floors’ healthiness and visual appeal.

• Broom weekly, vacuum bi-weekly. Pretty much of thumb, the extra often you could get your ground clear without getting it wet, the better it’s for the incomplete wood. The commonest way homeowners spoil unfinished wood is by way of getting it wet. The wooden receives warped by using moisture, and repeatedly even molding can arise below with out the owner noticing.
• Use doormats. Preserving unfinished wood floors from staining is best than removing stains. Therefore, you should put money into doormats for all entrances to rooms and spaces with unfinished wooden floors.
• Spot clean anyplace possible. In no way inn to full-floor cleaning with beverages detergents while you could spot clean a stain. Use vacuuming to deal with the floor in general. It is anyway deep cleaning, which you need to do on occasion. Yet generally, you need to avert getting the ground wet.

Making Unfinished Wooden Flooring Shine

While unfinished wood floors appear more natural than the waxy appears of the alternative options, you may still want to make your flooring pop. To make duller flooring look more appealing, use here option to carry a natural and organic shine on your unfinished wood floors.

• Make your healthy wooden shiner. This answer is made by way of taking shine-inducing elements that do not harm untreated wood and combining them in hot water (so it evaporates faster upon application). Take a quarter cup of olive oil and pour it right into a small pot. Upload one-third of a cup of white vinegar to the pot. Stir the liquid with a spoon. That is your cleaning solution.

• Dilute the wooden shiner on your hardwood floor. At this stage, the shiner is in a targeted form and may go away stains. So that you ought to dilute it in five cups of warm water. Use warm water so the excess water can evaporate quicker. It’s valued at noting that the proportions listed above are a ratio that may be accelerated up or down based on the region you wish to polish.
• Mop the ground with the diluted shiner. You should pour the diluted shiner into a bucket and use a mop to begin sprucing the floor. Use circular motions to apply varied layers over each area. Do not circulate to the subsequent region until where you are overlaying has the desired shine. Utilizing this strategy, disguise the whole ground while staying careful of the opportunity of slipping.
• Clean the surplus shine. This step is merely applicable if, after cleaning, you see that the floor is slippery. Use a dry rag or mop to remove extra oil.

Things to Maintain in Intellect While Cleaning Unfinished Wood Floors

While every cleaning technique has its own precautions and instructions, the following ones practice to all cleaning methods.

• Use warm water instead of cold water for dilution. Warm water permits you to make a more cleaner-concentrated solution, which leaves behind little water for the wooden to absorb.
• Don’t use detergents for what vacuum cleaners can do. Untreated wooden isn’t conducive to liquids, so with the exception of eliminating stains and deep-dirt, a vacuum purifier is always the leading alternative.
• The extra usually you clear with a low-impact method, the better your deep-cleaning becomes. In case you vacuum, broom, and dry-mop often, you don’t have to decide upon TSP or mineral spirits and may use vinegar to get the deeper dust out of your unfinished wood floors.
• Always experiment the cleaner. Even with the method you are going with, first use the answer on a small, less visible area and observe the cleaner’s impact. Greater secure than sorry.

Final Thoughts

Unfinished wooden flooring come with all the vulnerabilities of natural and organic untreated wood. Therefore, it is advisable to broom and vacuum your ground often so you may have faith in vinegar to deep clear the flooring rather of resorting to trisodium phosphate or mineral spirits, both of which are excellent at spot-cleaning stubborn stains.