Ask your installers. There are some wood finishes you can actually damp mop.

And, as always, you can vacuum.

My floor guy (hardwood everywhere but kitchen/bathrooms/entry) gave me a terry cloth covered dustmop and a spray bottle of Bona hardwood floor cleaner to use sparingly as necessary. Nowadays, they use microfiber instead of terry, and have an automatic version with the sprayer built into the mop. Same product. It removes gunk and leaves the finish.

Same as plllog for us-- the Bona spray with a terry/microfiber flat mop head. The Bona spray is a very fine mist and it must have a lot of alcohol in it(?) because it doesn't leave ANY moisture on the floor after I wipe. It is also great for spot cleaning with a dry washcloth. Once in a while I am lazy and grab the windex bottle from under the sink for a spot clean, and I think this has dulled the finish in spots. )o: Don't do that!

I've been using the shark steam mop on our wood floors and it seems to do an OK job. I've gotten the green light from our floor guy. Our floor is also site built w/ 3 coats poly, but its quarter sawn oak.

Great post--I'd love to hear other tips. Our whole house is wood, and the steam mop can be a chore.

I have a red oak floor everywhere except bedrooms and baths. It also has 3 coats of oil-based finish. The floor guy told me to wipe it with a mix of white vinegar and water.

This floor shows nothing other than an obvious splotch of something in the kitchen. I'm old school when it comes to thoroughly cleaning the floor and do it up close on my hands and knees, using lots of old rags and towels. I do this maybe twice a year.

we have cumaru everywhere. I've been using a microfiber "mop" to sweep, then for cleaning use Bona (I just bought a nice big package with spray, microcloth and refill bottle at Costco!). I also have been using the Method - Good for Wood you can get at Target, which you kind of spray down and wipe/mop with microfiber. Be careful about using the Orange Glo products - this is very bad for certain floors!!

I use Bona Kemi. Sometimes I use the Bona Kemi mop, which has its own spayer built-in, and sometimes I use a microfiber cloth on a Swifter mop and spray the Bona from the regular Bona Kemi sprayer.

We mop our 90-yr-old fir floors with vinegar and water every few weeks; use a damp Swiffer and broom/vacuum in between. Finish is a water-based poly.

Our 100 yr old floors get vinegar and water mixture via a spray bottle. This was recommended by my floor guy when he refinished them over 10 yrs ago. It brings back the shine on dull floors too.

Enjoy your gorgeous floor! Like others, I use the terrycloth covered mop and Bona on my maple floor, and once a year get down on my hands and knees. I'm posting not just to achieve a consensus :) but to comment on Swiffer. Swiffer is disposable and thus incredibly wasteful and damaging to the environment compared to the washable terrycloth cover. It also leaves visible streaks on my floor and dulls the finish compared to Bona.

Blue (who is also green)

hi Blue,
Argh - I know, I know. It's a sore point with me & my guy. He does the floors and is OCD enough to demand something disposable: I've compromised, since I've forbidden paper towels in the house (we use only washable cotton kitchen floursack towels). But I'm working on him. :-)

(By the by, we tried the Bona liquid and it made our floors murky - maybe that's because they're water-based not oil? or just some peculiarity of our finsh?)

Our entire house is red oak, site-finished floors, and I'm a bit OCD when it comes to clean floors, so I recently bought a steam mop. After much research, I decided on the Eureka Envirosteamer, and I love it. You'd be suprised how dirty the cloth gets, and I clean the floors about once a week. Cleans floors much faster (and less painful) than hands and knees! And with the steam action, it gets up dried spills and goop (small children in house) with ease! It comes with 2 re-useable cloths that attach to the bottom.

I've used the Bissell steammop for the last few years. Prior to that I used various mop systems, including the much-touted Bona. Handsdown the steam mop is the easiest, gets my floors really clean, and for the first time, I never, never have any smudges or streaks. I'll never use anything else. I also love that I can go right through the house and clean my tile etc. all in one go, without changing cleaners.

20-year-old red oak kitchen and dining room with poly has been cleaned with dustcloth for doghair then mop dampened with white vinegar in water and looks great after all this time.

Another Bona fan. :)

And yet another long-time BONA user (10 1/2 years!).

We have red oak throughout the house. The floors are mopped with vinegar and water every two to three weeks. They shine!

I use about 20 clean rags and a large bucket of vinegar and water. Water ALWAYS stays clean becuase I use a new rag for a new area.

I'm so glad to see this thread, we have the Bona and microfiber cloth mop, and for a while it was great. For some reason though, lately it's been leaving a dull shine. Someone suggested that maybe the soap and/or softeners are leaving the film, so I've rinsed it several times in just hot water to no avail. I think I'm going to try the water vinegar solution, does anyone have a forumula they can share? Thanks!

Another one here using white vinegar/water on my site-finished red oak floors. 12 years old, had them "roughed up" and another coat of finish on the 2 years ago. They look great! Raised 3 boys and a border collie with these floors.

I tried a wet swiffer a few years back and YUCK! It left a film and I had to go back over them with the vinegar and water solution.

Bsuke and bestyears, this is random, but how tall are you? I'm 5'7, and my shark steam mop seems better suited for someone shorter. I find that I have to hunch over to push it across the floor, and I'm wondering if either of your mops have a longer handle. Thank you!

Mirage engineered hardwood floors here. Use same alcohol/water homemade product that is used on counters. Use fine spray bottle and swifter mop. Floors come out sparkling. (formula 1/3rd isopropyl alcohol with 2/3rds water). Use after sweeping floors.

Ebse, I am also 5'7" and the Eureka seems fine for my height. I definitely don't hunch. Hope that helps. Let me know if you want me to measure it.

Hi ebse - I am 5'6 1/2" and I don't have any sense of hunching over my Bissell.

Great. I looked both of those mops up on the internet, but I wasn't able to find replacement pads for either. I would definitely like to have extra. Suggestions?

Thanks for the help. I"m hunching over my shark as we speak :)

HSN should have the replacements for the Bissell. They did the last time I visited. Hope this helps!

I just ordered the Eureka at Amazon.com and they had extra microfiber pads, which I got too. (Conveniently suggested to me at the bottom of the web page ;-)) I'm happy for this thread - I was looking at steamers just the other day but not the Eureka - it seems to get the best reviews. I'm excited to get it - the mop bucket is getting old!

Thanks everyone. Is this Bona something I can get at a Walmart? Or online? I'm also interested in how much vinegar people use. Thanks!

Bed Bath & Beyond carries Bona and you can use the 20% coupons for it.

JB1176 - Thank you for providing the forumla you use, I've never heard of using Alcohol on wood, but if it will remove the film, I'm going to try it now!!!

2nd Request for Vinegar/Water users, can you please post formula you use for that as well? Thanks!

They now have Bona @ BB&B so you get to use coupons for it! It's also available @ Restoration Hardware (or it was--haven't gotten it there in awhile).

I dust mop with the Bona dust mop and use vinegar and water on the Bona terry cloth. I then go over the wet floor with a dry Bona terry cloth.

I use 1 cup of white vinegar in a gallon of water.

BTW, a floor installer told me never to use anything on my floors but vinegar and water so that they could buff them in the future rather than sand them. I am assuming that the Bona spray is vinegar and water. I am too thrifty to buy the Bona solution when white vinegar and water works really well.

Vinegar and sponge, hands & knees, buff dry with a towel, much swearing and harrumphing. 100 year old pine finished with Waterlox.
Casey