How Do You Clean a Wooden Floor?
Sweep or vacuum with a soft brush head, then mop with a barely damp microfibre mop and a pH-neutral cleaner made for wood. Wring the mop until it feels almost dry: standing water is what damages a wood floor, not dirt. Wipe spills as they happen, keep grit off the floor with doormats, and never use a steam mop, neat vinegar, bleach or furniture polish.
That is the whole routine. Everything below is the detail behind it — the ten habits we hand over with every floor we fit, and what changes depending on how your floor is finished.
1. Sweep or Vacuum Before You Mop
Grit is the real enemy. Sand and dust act like fine sandpaper underfoot and dull a finish far faster than any cleaner. Use a soft-bristle broom or a vacuum with the hard-floor head — not the beater bar, which is meant for carpet and will scuff a lacquer.
2. Mop Once a Week, Damp Not Wet
For most homes once a week is enough, twice in a hallway or kitchen. Use a microfibre flat mop, wrung out hard, and a pH-neutral wood floor cleaner. If you can see wet marks drying behind you, there is too much water on the mop.
3. Deal With Spills Immediately
Water left on a wood floor works into the joints between boards and swells the edges. On an engineered floor that shows as a raised line along a seam; on solid boards it can cup a whole run. A cloth within a minute prevents a repair later.
4. Take Outdoor Shoes Off
Wet soles carry grit and road salt, and stiletto heels concentrate a whole body weight onto a few square millimetres. Shoes off at the door is the single cheapest thing you can do for a wooden floor.
5. Use Doormats at Every Entrance
A coarse mat outside and an absorbent one inside catch most of what would otherwise be walked across the floor. Avoid rubber-backed mats on wood — the backing can trap moisture and discolour the finish underneath.
6. Put Felt Pads Under Furniture
Felt pads on chair and table legs cost very little and prevent the arc-shaped scratches that appear around a dining table within a year. Check them occasionally: a pad with grit embedded in it does more harm than none at all.
7. Never Use Furniture Polish
Furniture polish and silicone sprays leave a slippery film that attracts dust, makes the floor genuinely dangerous underfoot, and has to be removed completely before the floor can ever be re-coated. The same goes for oil soaps on a lacquered floor.
8. Check the Cleaner Is Meant for Wood
Use a pH-neutral product made for wood floors, and match it to the finish: a cleaner for oiled floors on a lacquered one leaves a haze, and a standard detergent on an oiled floor strips the oil out of it. Acidic cleaners — vinegar included — etch a lacquer permanently.
9. Keep Steam Mops Away
A steam mop forces hot water vapour into every joint at pressure. It is excellent on tile and it is the fastest way to ruin a wood floor, whatever the packaging says. This is the one mistake we see most often on floors that come to us for sanding.
10. Watch the Humidity, Not Just the Floor
Wood moves with the air around it. A London house that sits at 30% humidity all winter with the heating on will open gaps between boards; the same floor closes up again in summer. Keeping indoor humidity roughly between 40% and 60% does more for a floor than any cleaning product.
Lacquered, Oiled and Waxed Floors Side by Side
Almost every argument about how to clean a wood floor comes down to one question: how is it finished? The three finishes behave differently, and what is right for one is wrong for another.
| Lacquered | Oiled | Waxed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to tell | Slight sheen; a drop of water beads on the surface | Looks and feels like bare wood; water slowly darkens it | Faintly waxy to the touch; dulls in traffic lanes |
| Weekly clean | Damp microfibre mop, pH-neutral wood cleaner | Damp mop with a soap-based cleaner made for oiled floors | Sweep and buff; use water sparingly |
| Never use | Steam, vinegar, abrasive pads, silicone polish | Standard detergents, which strip the oil; steam | Water-based cleaners, steam |
| Upkeep | None until the lacquer wears through | Re-oil traffic areas every one to three years | Re-wax and buff as it dulls |
| Scratches | Show as bright lines; need a re-coat of the whole area | Often repairable in place with a little oil | Usually buff out |
| Best for | Busy family floors, least day-to-day work | Floors you want to keep repairing rather than replacing | Period floors kept traditionally |
If you do not know which you have, put a drop of water on an out-of-the-way part of the floor and leave it for ten minutes. Sitting on top as a bead means lacquer. Soaking in and darkening the wood means oil or wax.
When Cleaning Is No Longer the Answer
There is a point where no cleaner helps: the boards look grey and tired rather than dirty, scratches have gone through the finish into the wood, or there are dark rings where something stood for years. At that stage the floor does not need washing, it needs sanding and refinishing.
That is usually far cheaper than replacing it, and on an older London house it keeps what is original to the building. There is a set of before-and-after photographs from a house in Lewisham on our recent work page — four rooms of original pine, dark with a century of wax, sanded back and refinished. If you are not sure whether your floor is a candidate, our installation and restoration page explains what we look at.
If You Are Choosing a New Floor
How much cleaning a floor asks of you is decided before it is laid, by the finish rather than by the species. A brushed, matt-lacquered oak hides everyday marks and needs almost nothing beyond the routine above. An oiled floor asks for a little more attention and gives you the ability to repair a patch without touching the rest of the room.
Our range runs to 130 engineered wood floors, of which 82 are priced online between £25.99 and £83.99 per m² excluding VAT, with a median of £47.99. Herringbone starts at £25.99, and there are currently 11 floors on clearance from £36.49.
Browse engineered wood flooring, herringbone, solid wood or the sale and clearance floors. You can order up to three samples free to see how a finish behaves in your own light, visit the Forest Hill showroom, or send your measurements for a quote.
One honest note: we sell floors, not floor cleaners. Use the cleaner the manufacturer of your floor recommends — on many warranties, using the wrong product is the thing that voids them.