Stop Steam Cleaning Your Hardwood Floors

With widespread distribution of steam cleaners on the market, more and more people are taking the seemingly easy route of cleaning their hardwood floor with such cleaning tools. Science class and experience should have told us but many people aren’t aware that steam and wood are not compatible. Steam is, after all, nothing but water vapor.

When steam cleaning, vapors can and do recombine to form liquid water that sit on and wick into wood. With water wood floors naturally expand and contract. This expansion and contraction result in two major forms of wood deformation: “cupping” and “crowding.”

Cupping (The concave deformation of wood floor) and Crowding (the convex deformation of wood floors) are common issues that develop with high humidity. Both problems occur across the width of the flooring material.

Cupping is when the edges of a board are high and its center is lower. This occurs after water spills onto the floor and is absorbed by the wood. If the wood expands significantly, compression set can result as the boards are crushed together, deforming the boards at the edges.

Cupping is caused by a moisture imbalance through the thickness of the wood: The wood is wetter on the…

Are you doing more harm than good when you clean your floors?

If you’re using the wrong products you may be. Mass-marketed products like Swiffer, actually work against you by leaving an oily residue that builds up on your hardwood floors and also attracts dirt, dust and floor-scratching grit.

We recommend using one of the many chemical-free, non-toxic cleaners on the market today, combined with a microfiber applicator pad. We use environmentally-friendly Bona products, which are wax- and silicone-free. These cleaners also contain a drying agent to speed up the drying process, a real plus because moisture and wood don’t mix.

Microfiber pads pick up dirt, dust and moisture instead of just pushing it around. Even better, they’re machine washable, so you can use them again and again.

We like Bona Cleaners so much we give every client an introductory supply and sell it too. It’s also available at Lowe’s, Do It Best Hardware and Target stores.