How and with what to clean wooden floors: 3 methods for cleaning plank flooring and parquet

Types of wooden floors

The most common types of wood for flooring are coniferous trees such as spruce and pine. Alder and fir are less common. And a very expensive pleasure - oak.

Important! For homes where people do not wear shoes, coniferous flooring options are most often chosen; they do not have the same strength as oak, but with proper care they will last a long time.

So, we decided on the tree. Floors made from this material have their own names based on the size and type of boards. Namely:

Parquet;
Plank floor.

Important! Parquet is a flooring made of small boards of equal size, tightly nailed to each other. A plank floor consists of larger boards, which are not always the same in size and therefore caring for such a floor has its own nuances.

That is, if you know how to clean parquet from dirt and how to properly care for it, this does not mean at all that caring for a floor made from a larger board should be the same.

Preparatory stage

Before you start washing the surfaces in the steam room, you must first prepare everything. This process consists of several standard steps:

Removing items, stools, bath furniture (if available) and other accessories for the steam room (panama hats, brooms, soap compositions). It is important to exclude all objects that may interfere with cleaning.
Removing cobwebs from ceilings, sweeping dust off walls, removing leftover leaves from brooms and other debris from shelves.
Cleaning the stove (if its firebox is located directly in the steam room), ash and other combustion products are completely removed from it.
Sweeping the floor, if necessary, pre-wash it with liquid soap (soap or a special composition for wooden floors).

After the above steps are completed, you can begin processing the internal surfaces.

On a note! When choosing cleaning products, remember that they should not harm the wood from which the bathhouse is made.

How to care for plank floors?

Care for a wooden floor depends on how it is processed and what it looks like.

Cleaning unpainted floors

How to clean old wooden floors? Before washing a wooden floor from dirt, it is necessary to carry out preliminary work, namely, to remove debris and dust.

Important! Dust must be removed very carefully, preferably with a broom or vacuum cleaner. If you do not do this right away, then later you will never remove what is clogged at the joints of the boards. It may come to the point that you will have to change the sex prematurely, and this is not a cheap pleasure.

After you have removed the garbage, you need to inspect for stains. Let us pay special attention to them, because different types of contaminants are removed from wooden floors in different ways.

Black stains from shoes

Baking soda will help you. Apply dry baking soda to the stain and scrub with a dishwashing sponge. Wipe off any remaining stains with ammonia.

Sticky stains

When choosing how to clean a wooden floor from dirt that sticks to the surface, first remove the stickiness with ammonia. Then, carefully remove the remaining sticky substance with a spatula. After this, work with soda and a sponge in the same way as in the first case with the black spots. Remove any remaining baking soda with a vacuum cleaner.

Urine stains

You are not immune from this phenomenon if you have a small child or pets in your home. Urine tends to penetrate deeply and destroy the structure of the coating.

Important! Remove such stains immediately, do not wait for them to dry!

To solve the problem, how to clean a wooden floor from dirt if there is urine on it:

First, remove the liquid itself with a dry cloth.
Then, gently scrub the stained area with dish soap.
Finally, wipe with ammonia.

Once you've dealt with the stains on your flooring, move on to cleaning the entire floor. There are several most common options for how and with what to clean a wooden floor from dirt when it is not painted.

Lime and sand

If you are not lazy and you have the opportunity to obtain these two components without difficulty, then do the following:

Mix 50 g of lime and 150 g of sand.
Add the mixture to 4 liters of water.
Wash the floor with this solution using a soft brush.

Important! This method will not only clean the flooring from dirt, but also disinfect it.

Soda

Dissolve half a standard package of baking soda in 4 liters of warm water and wash the floors with the solution using a brush.

Vinegar and ammonia

Just 2 tablespoons of vinegar and the same amount of ammonia per 5 liters of water will help you get rid of dirt and make your wood flooring perfectly clean.

Washing painted floors

A painted floor differs from an unpainted one in that it is much easier to clean. All dirt that accumulates on the coating is not absorbed into the wood due to the monolithic layer of paint. There is no need to say much here:

Stains can be removed with ordinary household chemicals, such as washing powder or dishwashing detergent;
You can wash the floor with clean warm water, adding 2 tbsp to a bucket of water to be sure. l. vinegar.

This is more than enough to maintain your painted wood flooring. You won't have a bigger problem than cleaning a wooden floor from dirt.

Ceiling cleaning

After a long period of use of the steam room, fungus and mold often appear on the ceiling surface, and the coating turns black. You can get rid of these consequences using simple folk remedies.

Clean ceiling in the steam room Source par-torg.com

Copper sulfate solution

Copper sulfate itself is a powerful antiseptic; it not only disinfects, but also prevents the further development of dangerous fungal microorganisms on wood. To prepare a detergent based on vitriol, do the following:

take 50 grams of copper sulfate and dissolve it in 10 liters of water;
make sure that each crystal of the product is converted into a liquid composition;
soak a soft foam sponge in the product, stand on the stairs and carefully treat the ceiling surface;
Wash areas with large accumulations of mold (corners, crevices between wood) with this mixture twice or three times;
After treatment, apply detergent to the same sponge (liquid laundry or regular soap is suitable), foam it well and wash the ceilings again.

After cleaning, be sure to rinse everything off with clean water.

Copper sulfate solution for cleaning surfaces in a bath Source infourok.ru

How to clean dirt from a wooden floor after renovation?

Let's talk about the broom again. After repairs, a lot of debris of various origins remains. You will never discover stubborn dirt and stains on your decking until you sweep and vacuum the floor.

After completing the procedures with a broom and vacuum cleaner, you will probably find stains from paint, plaster, wallpaper glue and other repair paraphernalia. How to clean wooden floors from such dirt? There is an answer.

You need to use special chemical compounds that are sold in “Everything for Repair” stores; there is no other way out. They will once and for all remove all traces of repair from the coating and you will never return to this issue again. Until the next renovation.

Methods from the people

If you still don’t want to use chemicals, try several traditional methods, which are outlined below. They do not guarantee a 100% result, but they can help if the pollution is not very intense.

You need:

Take sandpaper and very carefully rub the floors where the paint has stuck, being careful not to touch the coating.
Brush off any remaining lime or plaster.
Dilute 200 ml of gasoline or kerosene in a bucket of warm water and wash your flooring with this solution.

Important! Don't be afraid of the smell, you can wash the floor afterwards with water and vinegar and all the smell will go away.

Materials and tools for work

To remove various types of contaminants, including soap scum, soot, soot, and mold, you need to stock up on special tools and materials that will help with processing. The list of these includes:

hard brushes and sponges with no abrasive;
cycle of sufficient sharpening;
medium and fine grit sandpaper;
foam sponges with long handles and washcloths;
soft rags (preferably not synthetic), cotton and terry cloth are suitable;
buckets, basins, water containers;
disinfectant composition (the best cheap alternative is “Belizna” or any chlorine-containing composition);
broom, mop with microfiber attachment;
stepladder or stable chairs to reach the highest point for cleaning);
liquid household chemicals, soap, sprays (a degreaser for stoves is suitable), means for internal cleaning of the firebox and chimney duct, oils for impregnation;
personal protective equipment (mask, respirator, gloves, apron)

Steaming surfaces in a steam room Source archiwum.allegro.pl

Parquet care

How to wash parquet flooring from dirt while maintaining its exquisite appearance is not an easy task, but the coating is not simple, but very expensive. First, let's talk about protecting parquet flooring from damage.

Prevention

As soon as you have such a floor in your home, be prepared to cherish it like a jewel:

Often parquet floors are not covered with a protective layer, but only rubbed, so you just need to rub them regularly and don’t forget about it;
When entering the room, there must be a mat for wiping your feet - parquet does not tolerate dust and sand;
try to remove stains from the flooring as soon as they appear, using the same methods intended for caring for unpainted floors;
if your parquet is varnished, do not use dry cleaning agents under any circumstances: wipe off stains only with acetone or solvent - methods for caring for unpainted floors are not suitable here;
the varnish coating must be periodically rubbed with polish;
vacuum the flooring every day;
Monitor the air humidity - your home should not be too dry and too humid, maintain the right balance.

Wet cleaning

Wet cleaning will take more or less time, depending on how long you have ignored the need for cleaning and how neglected your floor is now. Based on this, the means by which you can wash the parquet from dirt will also vary.

Stains

First, it is recommended to deal with stains, if any:

Stains on unvarnished parquet can be removed using the methods described above to remove dirt from unpainted floors.
If you have stains on the varnish, then solvent-based products will help you. Or just solvents.
Chemical agents that can dissolve grease and dirt can carefully remove stains on a laminate flooring.

How to clean dirt from parquet if you have difficult stains? Traditional methods, unfortunately, do not give good results in this matter, but the chemical industry has all the means to ensure that your parquet sparkles with cleanliness. Choose the right products from a brand you trust. Please note that the packaging is marked “for parquet”.

Wet cleaning

Let's start cleaning the floor. You need to remove debris and dust with a vacuum cleaner, then wash the flooring with a soft, well-wrung out mop. Add a special parquet cleaner to the water, which can be purchased at any household chemical store.

Important! After wet cleaning, the coating must be wiped dry. Any parquet cannot withstand excessive moisture and quickly deteriorates if you leave water on it after washing.

Final stage

After you have brought your parquet into proper shape, all that remains is to do a very important final step, thanks to which your flooring will say “thank you” to you for a long time. Namely, apply a protective coating.

Important! Wax, oil, and special polishes may be suitable here. Decide which is better based on your own concept of ease of use.

Cleaning walls with alternative folk remedies

In this case, compounds that are available at home are also used. You can use one of the three recipe options below.

Application of acetylsalicylic acid

To prepare the cleaning product, take a half-liter jar and pour boiling water into it to the top.
Grind one aspirin tablet (it contains 500 mg of acid), place it in water and dissolve thoroughly so that there are no grains.
Then let the solution cool slightly, then soak a sponge in it generously and apply the product to the surface of the wall.
Moisten so that the solution thoroughly saturates the top layers of wood. Leave for 15 minutes for the reaction to occur.
Afterwards, take an enamel basin and fill it with clean water, take a soft metal dish scraper and, soaking it in water, rinse the treated wall surface.
Rinse again with water to finally get rid of dirty stains. Leave the surface to dry completely.

The result is a fairly light wall while maintaining the wood grain.

Aspirin acid for cleaning wooden surfaces in a bath Source otnogi.ru

Use of citric acid

Fill a glass container with half a liter of boiling water, then pour 25 g of citric acid (a bag) into the water and dissolve the crystals well.
Then, using a sponge, apply this composition to the surface of the wall and leave for 15-20 minutes. The solution must penetrate into the pores of the wood.
The next step is to rinse the solution with warm, clean water using the abrasive side of the sponge, just do not overdo it, the top layer of wood cannot be damaged.
Leave until completely dry, after which you can continue using the sauna room. The cleaning effect is quite good.

Video description

Wood bleaching for 30 rubles.

Note! The use of scrapers and abrasives is permitted only if the walls in the bathhouse are not covered with a special paint and varnish material. Otherwise, you risk damaging it, after which the wood will get dirty more often and more severely.

Citric acid for cleaning wood surfaces in a steam room Source proba-luxe.ru

A mixture of soda and laundry soap

To prepare the cleaning product, you will need 100 grams of 72 percent laundry soap, 100 ml of hot water and 75 grams of baking soda.
Grate a bar of soap into a plastic bowl and pour hot water. Then whisk the soap shavings until all the pieces are completely dissolved.
To do this, you can use a fork, whisk, or even a kitchen mixer. Beat the product until smooth and form an airy foam.
If the mixture is the consistency of sour cream, add a little more water and continue whisking.
Then add baking soda to the mixture and mix everything thoroughly again. After preparing the product, you can use it immediately.
Apply the composition to the surface of the wall and thoroughly rub it into the wood, leave the foam on the coating for 15-20 minutes, and then rinse thoroughly with water.

Processing shelves and benches

To clean shelves and benches in a bathhouse, you can use a scrubber, which will not only remove stubborn stains, but also remove the top layer of wood. Therefore, after cleaning, be sure to open the wood with a protective compound. It is just important to avoid applying varnish, as it gets very hot and can cause burns when using the steam room.

The ideal way to remove all stains of grease and sweat on benches in a bathhouse is to use a Karcher mini-wash or a device from another company. Under high pressure, it delivers a stream of water mixed with air and removes everything, even the most difficult stains. You can add ammonia to the washer dispenser to enhance the effect. Subsequent use of a steam cleaner is also allowed.

Clean shelves in the bathroom after treatment Source na-dache.pro

It’s just important to control the distance of the nozzle to the shelves: if you bring it too close, you risk not only getting rid of stains, but also making a hole in the wood. This defect can only be corrected by replacing the board.

Choosing a rag

Choosing the right cloth for cleaning your floor is equally important. Several options are especially popular:

Viscose. This material absorbs moisture well, but when in contact with water, the fabric becomes less durable. Twisting during spinning also significantly reduces the life of the material.
Fabric containing cellulose is more reliable. In addition, it has excellent absorbent properties.
Synthetic material is one of the best options. These rags dry quickly and remain in good condition for a long time.
Microfiber fibers penetrate into the most inaccessible places and small crevices. They attract dirt, leaving surfaces perfectly clean.