When it comes to maintenance of wood floors most of us are used to the traditional oak floors finished with oil base polyurethane. This finish sits on top of the wood so wiping the floor with pretty much any cleaner works fine.

With hard-wax oil it’s a little different. We recently finished a floor with Rubio Monocoat Pure and topped it with their Universal Maintenance oil.

To give it more water resistance properties. I am mentioning this because there is a big difference in how the hard-wax oil behaves in whether or not you have one coat or two coats. Here are some tips as to how to clean and maintain your wood floors that have hard-wax oil on them:

• Vacuum regularly to keep particles and grit off the floor.
• Very lightly damp mop would do the trick to pick up any dust and dirt sitting on top of the surface.
• Use the manufacturer recommended cleaner. Most hard-wax oil products follow the same idea which is that the oil is being burnished into the wood at the time of application. Once cured you don’t want to just use any cleaner out there. Some cleaners sitting on the shelf at the big box stores could damage your finish.
• Call a wood floor professional to clean and maintain your floor with a fresh coat of hard wax oil.
• As with any other finish make sure you have the manufacturer maintenance instructions and that you follow them. The most common mistake people make is misusing cleaner products and damaging the wax-oil.

Maintaining your hard-wax oil hardwood floors is easy and fast. Repairing and touching up these floors is easy and unlike other finishes does not require a professional to redo the whole floors just to eliminate one worn area. Following these simple steps would ensure the longevity of your wood floors for years to come.