Wood Floor and WoodBlock Flooring care and cleaning

OLD WOOD LLC
www.woodblockfloors.com
888-545-9663

Care and Cleaning of Wood and Wood Block Floors:

Remember the flooring Axiom: wear the finish, not the wood. 
The same is true for cleaning; if you are into bare wood: Fix It! Scratch and Coat with urethane or clean and oil, early, not late in the game. 

Don’t get the floor too wet and most any cleaning method will work.
A well wrung damp mop is fine for Douglas Fir, Pinon or Pine made by Old Wood. 
Depending on what you have as a final finish coat, you can use any good commercial wood floor care/cleaning product such as Bona which is in most Box Stores.
In our showroom, we use a product called Holloway House which is available at WalMart. It adds shine to an oiled floor but it does tend to build up and can be hard to keep pretty around the edges. 
If you have a urethane or oiled top coat, you may use a damp mop alone or a light soapy solution for sanitizing.
If you have an oiled finish, such as Old Wood House Oil, you may use Murphy’s Oil Soap diluted quite well. The idea is to clean but not remove the finish.
If after you have soaped an oil finish a number of times it begins to be dull or lackluster in appearance, a wipe down with a lightly oiled cloth will bring it back to life nicely.
Also, the beauty of oiled floors is that over time you are building a deep lustrous finish.
Be careful NOT to apply wax to oiled or urethaned floors unless you intend to keep waxing. Once you have waxed, oils and certainly urethanes don’t ‘take’ nearly as well.
If applicable, follow whatever instructions your installer gave you and it’s always wise to test a spot in a corner before beginning the whole floor.

For commercial or heavy cleaning:
On urethane: spot clean with a Purple Soap or Goo Gone Paint Thinner as appropriate to the stain. 
Clean the overall surface as above but you may increase the soap ‘level’ as necessary to get a good clean surface. In kitchen areas, be sure to hand clean the edges and corners occasionally to avoid grease buildup. The grease gets hard with time and you will destroy your finish (any finish) trying to clean it. Be consistent and thorough in your cleaning regimen.
What to avoid: soaking wetness. If a mop bucket tips over or a line breaks, dry it the best and the fastest way you can. This is critical with wide plank and wood block floors.
If you allow the water to soak in for any length of time at all, you can expect to see buckling or warping of your floor. At that point,… dry it as best you can and hope for the best! Fans and open windows are just for starters if you get really wet. 
Wood Blocks can be easily replaced or re-caulked if necessary. Call or write for instructions. Take reasonable care and you will get a great result. Thanks. 

David Old
david@douglasfirfloors.com
www.douglasfirfloors.com