Sweeping Hardwood Floors?

darkmavis · Feb 10, 2011

I don't know where to put this thread, so I'm putting it here. Feel free to move it if appropriate.

I never noticed that Genever really doesn't shed much at all until we got Dorothy. She sheds a lot!! Unfortunately she's not too keen on being brushed, either. I've found I have to sweep the whole house (except bedrooms- they're carpeted) a lot more often than I used to. Pretty much everyday, really. I just go around with a broom and a dustpan & brush, or sometimes I just end up hopping around with the dustpan and brush all over. It's not the best at picking up cat hair though, so... can you recommend something for sweeping hardwood floors that really picks up hair + litter dust? (The litter dust will lessen a lot once I change back to the Dr. Elsey's litter now that we don't have giardia anymore.) I have a dry swiffer mop but that never seemed to work well on the floor either, I wonder if I sprayed a little Pledge on it if that would be ok?

Thanks for any info you can share..

ladygananoque · Feb 10, 2011

I live in a carpet free home and in all the corners of my house you will find balls of cat hair.I used to just use the swiffer sweeper but it just doesnt get the house clean enough so i just use the hose on the vacuum to clean, takes a while but it feels much cleaner then using the swiffer. I wouldn't use spray becuase my husband tried that and it made the floor very slippy!

justjayde · Feb 10, 2011

My home is all flooring - I got a special vacuum made for bare floors (( that doesn't scratch )) and it works like a charm. I vacuum nearly every day also - and I keep a dust buster near Kismet's "Crate" which is where his litterbox is - I vroom through there with it a couple times a day (takes a minute).

Willowy · Feb 10, 2011

There are these microfiber dust mops that I've heard good things about. But I don't have a lot of hard floors so I can't say for sure how great they are. But they're the kind of thing professionals use.

strange_wings · Feb 10, 2011

No Pledge! If you have modern hard wood flooring (polyurethene finish) all it will do is make them greasy/oily, which will attract fur worse. There's some risk of making a slick spot to slip on, too. If you happened to get it on a spot with less finish on it, it could penetrate the wood and require you to sand more to get it out.
It's simply not made for polyurethene finishes. All of that aside, I'm pretty sure it's toxic.

You shouldn't have to sweep so much. I can go a week if I feel lazy and I have 7 (carpet needs to be vacuumed more often than the floor swept

). But, I also don't use litter.

Go to walmart and get a simple dustmop with a removeable washable cloth cover. No paper pads to replace, no extra trash to send to the landfill. Lightly dampen the cloth cover with a spray of water or water+distilled vinegar. The latter maintains the pH of the floor which helps protect it.

swampwitch · Feb 10, 2011

A dry mop on hardwood floors works best for every day, wet mop once a week or so, but make it a very dry wet mop and cool water, adding a tiny bit of Murphy's wood oil soap is nice too. Sweeping leaves a lot of grit behind, and walking on it can scratch your hardwoods like sandpaper.

Don't use furniture polish on your floors - it will make them slippery as ice! I love hardwood floors but they are a lot of work.

strange_wings · Feb 10, 2011

^Murphy's oil soap leaves a soap residue and is toxic. If one uses it they must rinse, the instructions on the bottle even say this.

momofmany · Feb 10, 2011

I just got rid of my carpet and had hardwoods put in. The flooring guy recommended Bona cleaner for the floor. When I went to buy it, I noticed a very cool micro-fiber floor sweeper made to go with the cleaner. The micro-fiber cloth can be laundered over and over again. I bought it at Home Depot in their cleaning aisle. They also had a swiffer type product made by Bona which I did not buy - the plain sweeper works for me.

I use the micro-fiber floor sweeper in between the times when I vacuum and it keeps the majority of the hair out of the way. I have 7 shedding cats and 3 large dogs that shed 100x more than the cats. I have a major hair issue in my house and this seems to be working.

When I do vacuum, I just use the bare floor attachment.

darkmavis · Feb 10, 2011

Oh man, if I didn't sweep for a week, there would be more litter out of the box than in it!! I don't know how they track so much out! They have to walk about 6-7 feet from the litterbox, over a towel and carpet and another little rug OUTSIDE the bedroom before getting the the wood floor hallway. There is still so much litter every morning! Not a huge deal, but it amaxes me just the same. So i really sweep the hall area everyday with the dustpan and brush, and sometimes I just keep going and don't realise it until I'm almost done with the rest of the floors too.

The living room I guess I really do more like every other day. I really notice the cat hair though! It's funny, I forgot about shedding, I guess, because Genever obviously doesn't shed much. But we have cat hair now!!

<--- that's the hair exploding off Dorothy.

We have this for wet mopping. I'd never heard of it, but BF had somewhere and insisted on getting it. It's been working nicely enough so far. http://www.mybonahome.com/products/h...floor-mop.html

I suppose I could use that mop with a tiny bit of water on the cloth thing to dry mop as well... you think?

And yeah, I wasn't thinking about Pledge making the floor slippery. Duh!

It's slippery enough as it is!

Thanks for the suggestions!!

edit- Momofmany, I guess you posted while I was typing my post. So we've got the same cleaner then!

momofmany · Feb 10, 2011

Originally Posted by DarkMavis

We have this for wet mopping. I'd never heard of it, but BF had somewhere and insisted on getting it. It's been working nicely enough so far. http://www.mybonahome.com/products/h...floor-mop.html

Your BF was right. It was recommended by the guy I bought the floor from, and also highly recommended by a completely different set of people that I work with, who happen to sell flooring. They weren't trying to sell me so I believe them.

I've got the version of this without the sprayer built in. Just the mop handle with the swivel head on the base with interchangable covers (one micro-fiber and one that is more fluffy). I'm pretty sure I paid under $15 at Home Depot.

The cheapest place I found for the cleaner was Costco btw. $13.88 for a huge jug of the stuff.

capt_jordi · Feb 10, 2011

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I just got rid of my carpet and had hardwoods put in. The flooring guy recommended Bona cleaner for the floor. When I went to buy it, I noticed a very cool micro-fiber floor sweeper made to go with the cleaner. The micro-fiber cloth can be laundered over and over again. I bought it at Home Depot in their cleaning aisle. They also had a swiffer type product made by Bona which I did not buy - the plain sweeper works for me.

I use the micro-fiber floor sweeper in between the times when I vacuum and it keeps the majority of the hair out of the way. I have 7 shedding cats and 3 large dogs that shed 100x more than the cats. I have a major hair issue in my house and this seems to be working.

When I do vacuum, I just use the bare floor attachment.

I am a huge fan of Bona! We were a test facility for them and a new type of flooring at the kennel I worked at. Basically they replaced a 8'X8' square of our rubber flooring with a type of pet friendly wood floors that were supposed to hold up to claws! And I have to say at the end there really werent many scratches and the floor looked great! We had it down for 2 months and on average there were 50 50lbs+ dogs running over it at high speeds for 8 hours a day! And the bona cleaner kept it looking great!

blueyedgirl5946 · Feb 10, 2011

Originally Posted by DarkMavis

Oh man, if I didn't sweep for a week, there would be more litter out of the box than in it!! I don't know how they track so much out! They have to walk about 6-7 feet from the litterbox, over a towel and carpet and another little rug OUTSIDE the bedroom before getting the the wood floor hallway. There is still so much litter every morning! Not a huge deal, but it amaxes me just the same. So i really sweep the hall area everyday with the dustpan and brush, and sometimes I just keep going and don't realise it until I'm almost done with the rest of the floors too.

The living room I guess I really do more like every other day. I really notice the cat hair though! It's funny, I forgot about shedding, I guess, because Genever obviously doesn't shed much. But we have cat hair now!!

<--- that's the hair exploding off Dorothy.

We have this for wet mopping. I'd never heard of it, but BF had somewhere and insisted on getting it. It's been working nicely enough so far. http://www.mybonahome.com/products/h...floor-mop.html

I suppose I could use that mop with a tiny bit of water on the cloth thing to dry mop as well... you think?

And yeah, I wasn't thinking about Pledge making the floor slippery. Duh!

It's slippery enough as it is!

Thanks for the suggestions!!

edit- Momofmany, I guess you posted while I was typing my post. So we've got the same cleaner then!

I just wanted to add that there are some kinds of hardwood floors that should never be damp mopped. My floors are the prefinished kind and the manufacturer says never put water on them. I vacuum them. I also use a mop called ShhMop. It has terrycloth covers which can be washed and reused. I sometimes use a spray which is just a dusting spray, no wax. Pledge on the floors sounds like a slip sliding accident to me

Sometimes after I vacuum, I use a hardwood cleaner by Bruce sprayed on the mop to clean with. Good Luck.

3catsn1dog · Feb 11, 2011

For dust and hair the best thing I found to pick it all up is a Bissel 3 In One Sweeper. It was like 10 bucks at WalMart when I got it a couple years ago but I am 99% sure they still make it. It is amazing for non carpeted floors. When we had Max the golden it picked up all his chunks of fur and was a life saver cuz a broom didnt do a darn thing. The only down side to it is that the filter to it needs to be cleaned off everytime to empty the canister. I empty everytime I use it (which is everyday) and just pop the little filter off and give it a couple whacks in the garbage can to get the dust and stuff off it.

It really works awesome especially with fur and all the dust we get from the wood stove so I highly recommend it. It doesnt work for beans on carpet though.

Sweeping Hardwood Floors?

darkmavis

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ladygananoque

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justjayde

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Willowy

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strange_wings

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swampwitch

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strange_wings

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momofmany

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darkmavis

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momofmany

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capt_jordi

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blueyedgirl5946

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3catsn1dog

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