Before taking care of the parquet, you should clean it carefully with gentle agents.
Before you can worry about maintenance, you should clean your parquet floor. Proceed in the same way for sealed and oiled parquet:
- Clean the floor daily with a soft broom from dust, sand and other dirt, so that no scratches occur when mopping.
- Continue in the next step with a cotton mop over the wooden floor – it also absorbs fine dirt particles.
- About once a week you can use the Mop the floor, using a heavily wrung cotton cloth should.
You do not need a special parquet cleaner. If you need to remove stains, you can add various agents to the cleaning water. Which one is suitable depends on the type of parquet you have.
1.1. Here’s how to clean your sealed hardwood floor
Find stains on sealed parquet that cannot be removed with a damp cloth, you can add various home remedies to the water, about:
- vinegar
- Ammonia
- Spirit
- Turpentine
Use it sparingly! A splash is enough. Wipe again with a damp cloth without additives, When the stains are removed.
Tip: You can also use a vacuum cleaner with a soft brush if you want to clean sealed parquet floors. However, it causes scratches more easily.
1.2.Be careful when cleaning oiled parquet flooring!
Wring out the cloth with which you want to clean the oiled parquet very strongly so that the wood does not swell up.
Oiled parquet is more sensitive than sealed parquet. Here you should be especially careful not to scratch the surface. Even if one or the other advisor says the opposite: A microfiber cloth is not suitable for this. Instead, use a soft cotton cloth and wring it out very strongly: Without the sealer, the wood tends to swell even more when it comes in contact with water, similar to hardwood floors.
If there are stains to be removed, it is better not to use the home remedies that work on the sealed parquet. Instead, you can find relatively inexpensive parquet cleaners in drugstores such as dm. These are specially designed for the needs of the wooden floor.
2. Care is especially important for parquet
The wood of the parquet can wear out over time, it gets scratches and dull spots. You need to take care of it just as you would a beautiful old floorboard. Here too The procedure depends on whether your parquet is sealed or oiled.
2.1. Sealed parquet can be maintained according to simple rules
How exactly you care for your parquet with the special agent is indicated on the packaging.
Do you miss the shine of your parquet, which it showed at the beginning, you can resort to a simple home remedy: Use cold black tea instead of water for mopping. It can refresh the parquet and make it shine again.
In addition, you should use a parquet care product at least once every six months. You can find these agents in the drugstore and in large supermarkets or in specialized stores. How exactly it should be applied is written on the package. The purchase does not tear a deep hole in your pocket, because the care products cost only a few euros. For this, however, they protect the floor quite reliably.
2.2. That is why oiled parquet needs care of individual nature
By oiling the hardwood floor, you improve its protection and prepare it for waxing.
If your parquet or floor made of planks is not sealed, the choice of care products depends on the wood used: oak needs different maintenance oil than birch or beech. If you are unsure, it is best to seek advice in a specialized store. Tips such as cleaning with olive oil, you best ignore: This will cause the floor to discolor unevenly and look dingy.
Follow the package instructions when oiling your parquet floor. It can easily happen that you use too much oil. You should then wipe this up with a dry, clean cloth. After oiling the parquet should be waxed. This gives the surface a thin protective layer that repels dirt and makes scratches less likely to occur. Depending on how much you use the room in question, this task is due about twice a year.
3. How to remove scratches
In case of rather superficial scratches in the lacquered parquet you can polish the spot. Just make sure that the furniture polish does not contain mineral oil derivatives or silicone oil. scratches of medium depth can be closed with repair putty. If the scratches are too deep, However, only sanding and resealing remains. This work is best left to professionals, because laymen can ruin the ground very easily with the grinding machines – and this will be much more expensive than paying the workmen.
For oiled floors, you can also touch up the scratches yourselfWood putty in different colors and some tools in practical sets are available in specialized shops, which you can use to easily fill in the scratches. This requires a bit of skill, but the instructions are very precise. In this video you can see how this work can look, which requires a little patience:
4. Tips for parquet maintenance in everyday life
If you want to take care of your parquet with all diligence, the previous measures are not enough. The climate in the home also plays a major role. Temperatures of 19 to 23 degrees Celsius and a humidity level of between 50 and 65 percent are ideal for parquet floors. If the air is drier, the wood can dry out and contract: Joints are formed.
Here are some more Cleaning products and equipment that you should avoid when treating the parquet:
- Brush
- Sponges
- Microfiber cloths
- Vacuum cleaner with hard plastic rollers
- Scouring milk
- Chlorinated or other very harsh cleaners
- Steam cleaner
When you take off your shoes, you protect your parquet and do not bring dirt into the apartment.
Be careful not to walk on the floor with narrow heels – ideal is to take off your shoes right at the door. A larger doormat or runner in front of the front door ensures that not too much dirt is carried into the apartment. If dark streaks appear due to the abrasion of shoe soles, remove them easily with an eraser.
In order to be able to clean the parquet floor without having to put additives into the cleaning water, you should make sure that stains do not appear in the first place. Immediately wipe up any liquids or food residue that drips or falls on the floor. This way, nothing can dry or stick, and the wood will not swell in that place either.