Hardwood floors are tough. Even so, once you lay down a finish, the susceptibility to scratches is there. Though they make plenty of hardwood chemical-based cleaners, you don’t need them! Here’s a little bit on how to get your hardwood floor’s look and feel just right, adding a shine through natural or close-to-natural products to do so.
Here are the eleven best home remedies to make hardwood floors shine:
Remedy #1: Sweep And Vacuum
A simple sweep and vacuum is one of the best home remedies to make hardwood floors shine. You may be surprised at how amazing you can get a hardwood floor looking just by doing a sweep or vacuum. Dust and dirt has a way of clouding up the finish of a hardwood floor. By cleaning and getting rid of all the debris, you may decide you don’t need to proceed with a shining method.
Remedy #2: Two Types of Hardwood
What you can and can’t do to hardwood depends on what kind of finish it already has. If the engineered hardwood flooring has a protective surface, polishing it with a homemade polish works. If the hardwood floor has a penetrating finish or if it’s unsealed wood, they will require a wax. If you apply the wrong approach, you may be left with a floor that is very slick, dull, damaged, or requiring professional help to restore it.
Remedy #3: Should I Sand My Floors?
Should you sand your floors – no, probably not. When we talk ‘refinishing’, it means to sand down hardwood floors to apply a new finish. This is only meant done every two to three decades. Instead, we are looking at ‘polishing’ which simply involves cleaning hardwood and applying something on it that will give it a shine. To achieve that shine, there are plenty of inexpensive homemade mixtures to get you there.
Remedy #4: Lemon Juice Mixed With Water
Lemon juice is acidic and so you want to be careful in using it. Even a little too much can unfortunately have a negative effect on your floor. Lemon juice is used in several cleaning products and should always be diluted with water. Going over your floor with lemon juice and water, it’s a simple way to clean and shine up your floor without digging deep into the wood.
Remedy #5: Olive Oil, White Vinegar, and Water
Mix olive oil, white vinegar, and water together. This is considered one of the best natural hardwood floor shiners out there. The secret ingredient that many people miss is the olive oil. Vinegar’s acidic and will give the floor a nice clean. Water’s used for dilution purposes. It’s the olive oil that will leave the hardwood after looking its absolute best.
Remedy #6: Baby Oil, White Vinegar, and Water
Mix together 1 cup of white vinegar, a few drops of baby oil, and a gallon of warm water. The mixture produced is a very mild polish that works wonders on hardwood floors. If you don’t have other oils available, baby oil used in this way is just as effective.
Remedy #7: Two Tea Bags in Water
This is an uncommon way to make hardwood floors shine but it does work. Take two tea bags in water and let it soak for a little bit. The resulting tea water has just enough acidity to gently lift debris off your floor. If you have dirt caught in the grooves of your hardwood floor, this is an excellent way to get all that gone.
Remedy #8: Do Not Soak the Floor
Another worry with hardwood floor that a homeowner has to have is excess moisture causes permanent damage to the wood. You never want sitting water or puddles on your floor. Spritz your hardwood floor shine mixture and work from there. Moisture on hardwood makes it prone to swelling and warping. All in all, you want a technique of spray and polish repeated again and again.
Remedy #9: Do Not Use Baking Soda
There are at least a half-dozen quality hardwood floor shine ingredients and baking soda’s not one of them for a reason. Incredibly acidic and abrasive, baking soda over time can damage your hardwood floor. Even in a single use, you may notice it start to eat away at the urethane finish. Whether you’re cleaning or polishing, we never advise to use baking soda on hardwood floors.
Remedy #10: Homemade Floor Polish Mix
If you want to get even deeper into creating a shine, you can go for a full-on polish by grating a quarter pound of beeswax into a pan and adding an ounce of white glycerin soap. Pour turpentine over everything and allow it to dissolve. Then, boil some water on the stove and add the water to the beeswax mixture. Pour the resulting mixture into a bottle and shake. It should become foamy. Now you have a home remedy for a polish you can use on your hardwood.
Remedy #11: Preventatives
After you have got your hardwood floors to their best shine, the next step is to prevent allowing your floors to get so shine-less again. Ensure you sweep at least once a week. Set up rugs at entryways to catch any debris that comes in from outside which could scratch the hardwood floors. Also, if you have pets, be sure to clip their nails routinely to minimize the risk of digging into the floor.
