The Magic Of Bona Wood Floor Spray Mop

The Magic Of Bona Wood Floor Spray Mop

Every single day we have to deal with damaged hardwood or engineered wood floors. There is always a silly reason and there is always trouble between the owner of the floor, the floor fitter or the shop that has sold the floor. Someone is at fault. But who is to be blamed?

Just you, the owner of the floor. While the floor fitter should have the moral obligation to inform you about the maintenance routine, he or she is not obliged to do so. While the floor supplier should also inform the floor fitter about the type of maintenance required with each type of floor, that also is a grey area with no clear obligations or duty of care. So the final decision is always with the owner of the floor. While the shop will get your money and use it, the floor fitter will also charge you and move to the next project, you will be the one stuck with a damaged wooden floor if you do not pay attention to details. The point of this article is to explain to you how to clean your hardwood floors and how to maintain it correctly to enjoy it for as long as possible.

If you have decided to go for a semi solid or hardwood floor, you need to do your homework and find out what type of finish is protecting the floor (if any), what is the recoating or refreshing routine and what is the best way of cleaning it without causing water damage or any other finish damage. Even if your floor looks identical with your next door neighbor, it means nothing. It could be two similar types of finishes that work in a totally different way and it requires totally different care and maintenance. 

1. Find out if your floor is a semi solid or a hardwood type of floor. Some semi solid wooden floors can only be sanded once or twice in its lifetime while a real wood hardwood floor can be sanded and restored many times over.
2. Find out what type of finish was used to seal and protect your floors. It can be a lacquer, an oil or some kind of natural looking protector. By knowing what type of sealer is used on it, you will be able to order the correct cleaner and maintainer.
3. Find out if the regular recoating or refreshing can be done without the use of a professional set of tools. Some hardwax oils will require the use of heavy floor buffers and other expensive pieces of equipment. If you are unlikely to have the finances in place to hire a professional floor cleaning company once per year, maybe buy other types of floors that require less maintenance.
4. Inspect the condition of your floor after the floor fitter has finished the project or the builder has finished the renovation project. Most of the damage to wooden floors happen when a thick layer of builder dust is left all over the floor and the property owner attempts to clean it. Removing that builder dust is not cheap at all and it takes a lot of time, but if you have started washing the floors, the problem is now yours.

Floor Oils | The floor oils have been used to seal and protect wooden floors for thousands of years. Initially, the ancient people used a blend of animal fats to seal and protect their floors against humidity. While the technology has changed dramatically over the past few years, the principle is still the same. Infuse the wood floor with a fatty component that makes the wood waterproofed. Most of the floor oils used in our times are a blend of sunflower, olive or linseed oil extracts. The idea is that a few coats of oil is used to impregnate the wood and then the surface is way less absorbent and it stains less. The floor oils are the most natural way of sealing and protecting wooden floors and that comes with an issue. The floor oils do not alter the original look of the wood and it gives the visual impression that there is no sealer on the wooden surface. Many people only find out that their floor was oiled with a natural floor oil after the surface was scrubbed with some rough scourer and now there is discolouration on the floor. All oiled floors need regular refreshments and maintenance. The oil that is protecting the floor and makes it look so natural, is likely to evaporate and wash away after a few months of daily use. The UV light, the daily traffic and the regular cleaning are the main factors that can have a negative impact on your oiled floors. All those issues can be sorted out by refreshing or re-oiling the floor once or twice per year. By doing so, you are topping up the finish and you are re-glazing areas that got damaged. To extend the life of your oiled floors for many years, please read the following recommendations:

1. Never use steamers to clean oiled floors. Injecting 120 C hot water inside the wood is never a good idea.
2. Never scrub individual areas or use catering scourers on your oiled floors.
3. Never use bleaches, alkaline cleaners or acidic floor cleaner to deep clean or maintain oiled floors.
4. Do not drag heavy items on the oiled floors, install leg protectors on all your furniture and remove spills as they happen.
5. Do not use water based floor polishes or protectors to overcoat oiled floors. It will not attach to it.

So the main question is, why bother buying oiled floors if there is so much care and maintenance required? Well, because some people just love the way it looks and they also love the idea of using natural products to seal their floors. In fact, if the proper care and maintenance is respected, the oiled floors will last longer and look better than other types of finishes. If you love the look of the oiled floors and if you are determined to put in the work to clean it and maintain it, go for it. If you are one of those people that loves an easy life, look into other types of floors or finishes to avoid having to replace your floors every second year.

Hardwax Oils | The hardwax oils are still floor oils but are designed to create the look of the lacquers without actually using a lacquer. The hardwax oil will slightly glaze the top of the floor and it will provide great protection against the daily traffic and humidity. There are thousands of types of hardwax oils from as many brands, available in all possible colours, some thick, some thin, some single pack, some two pack, some suitable for intense commercial traffic while others are only suitable for residential traffic. But the maintenance routine is 100% the same as for the classic floor oil. So, the normal floor oil maintains the natural aspect of the wood while the hardwax oil creates a glazing finish that gives the surface a lacquered like finish. The floor still has to be refreshed at least once per year on moderate traffic floors and twice per year on intense traffic floors.

Best Refreshers For Oiled Floors:

1. Chimiver Lios Talita Plus | Available in clear and white wash finish. It can be used with or without professional equipment. Compatible with all oiled floors and all brands of floor oils.
2. Tover Rinovoil | Available in clear, white and grey. It can be used with or without a proper floor buffer. Compatible with all waxed or oiled floors.
3. Bona Hard Wax Refresher | Available in clear only. It should be used as a refresher over waxed floors. It can only be used by the professional trade and it can only be used in conjunction with heavy floor buffers and polishers.
4. Bona Oiled Wood Floor Refresher | Available in clear. It can be used on all waxed and oiled floors. A waterborne refresher that can be applied with a flat mopping system. Matt finish.
5. Chimiver Wax Care | Available in clear only. It can be used to maintain and refresh all waxed, oiled and varnished wooden surfaces. It dries quickly and it waterproofs the surface in a matter of minutes.
6. Tover Lux | This product is available in a clear and in a white option. A waterborne sealer that fully restores damaged oiled floors without having to sand it. The product is quick drying, matt 100% and very easy to apply.

***Each of the above products has some advantages and some disadvantages. Each person has their own preference, but overall they all do the same thing, refresh oiled floors***

Floor Lacquers | The floor lacquers are by far the most popular types of floor sealers. Highly durable, easy to clean and available in a wide range of sheens. There are two types of floor lacquers, water based floor lacquers and solvent based floor lacquers. The water based floor lacquers are the newest types of floor lacquers that are way less polluting, non yellowing and much more natural looking. The old solvent based floor lacquers are still around but not as popular as it used to be. The solvent lacquers are smelly, dries slowly, creates an artificial super glossy finish and it yellows badly over a short period of time. Durability wise, the solvent based floor lacquers are still a bit better quality than the new water based floor lacquers but the gap is getting smaller year by year. While the water based floor lacquers and the solvent based lacquers are much more durable than the floor oils, they still require proper care and maintenance to stay in great shape and to protect the wood floor for long periods of time.

1. Never use a lot of water to wash your lacquered floors. The water will leak between the floorboards and it will expand the floor creating large gaps and a visually unpleasant finish.
2. Never use steamers on any type of lacquered floor. The steam will crack the sealer, it will cancel the protection and it will increase the wood humidity levels. 
3. Never use bleach based floor cleaners, alkaline floor cleaners or acidic floor cleaners on lacquered floors. 
4. Never drag heavy furniture, heavy items or scrub the lacquered floor with steel scourers.
5. Once in a while use a proper polyurethane floor refresher to re-seal the floor and enhance the protection.

Here is a list of the best lacquered floor cleaners and lacquered floor refreshers:

1. Chimiver Velurex Cleaner Star | One of the best wood floor cleaners and wood floor maintainers ever. The product is designed for regular maintenance and intense wood floor cleaning projects. It safely removes dirt and it protects the finish of the wood. 
2. Bona Cleaner | A heavy duty wood floor cleaner suitable for deep cleaning all types of hardwood floors that were exposed to a lot of use. The product is particularly good at deep cleaning wooden floors after renovations.
3. Tover Pulito | A highly concentrated wooden floor cleaner and wooden floor maintainer from Tover. Highly effective, highly deodorized and very reasonably priced.

Here is a list of floor refreshers and floor polishes that can restore and refresh all lacquered floors:

1. Bona Wood Floor Polish | A water based wood floor polish available in a matt and glossy finish. It restores lost sheen and it waterproofs the floor. It can be applied with a flat mopping system.
2. Chimiver Re-Pair Lack & Chimiver Re-Pair Matt | Two of the most durable and most cost effective wood floor polishes ever. One is available in an ultra matt finish while the other one is available in a glossy finish. Suitable for commercial and residential use.
3. Cleanfast Floor Polish 25% Acrylic | The most advanced and most durable water based wood floor polish available in Ireland. A product suitable for intense commercial use.

The best way of cleaning and maintaining wooden floors, regardless of what type of finish was used on it, is with a flat mop head and a cleaning product that is 100% neutral and contains little or no water. Bona has created some of the most advanced and most cost effective spray mops ever. By using Bona Wood Floor Spray Mops you are guaranteed to increase thee life expectancy of your floor dramatically and to maintain the natural look of the wood. Bona has two types of wood floor spray mops, Bona Wood Floor Spray Mop for lacquered wooden floors and Bona Oiled Floor Spray Mop for all oiled floors.

1. Bona Wood Floor Spray Mop | This wood floor cleaning mop is by far the most popular wood floor spray mop in the world. The way it was designed and the way it evenly sprays the cleaning detergent makes it unique in its class. The new Bona Wood Floor Spray Mop can be used for deep cleaning and daily maintenance of all kinds of lacquered or polished wooden floors. The kit contains the frame of the mop, the velcro head, 1 cleaning pad, the cartridge, 1 L of the amazing Bona Wood Floor Cleaner and the user manual. The amazing Bona Wood Floor Spray Mop does not require any batteries and its pressure is generated by a system of springs. The cleaning product that comes with the spray mop contains no water at all and it cannot negatively affect the wood. While the microfiber cleaning pad that comes with the spray mop can be used for light cleaning projects or day to day cleaning projects, for intense heavy duty wood floor cleaning projects there are additional rougher floor pads that are designed to scrub the grain of the wood and extract deeply impregnated dirt. The amazing Bona Wood Floor Spray Mop is a complete kit that contains everything you need to maintain your floors for about 1 month. The cartridge is refillable and the 4L refillls can be purchased from our website. After every clean, the wooden floor will look spotless, radiant and it will dry streak free. The dirt from the floor will be transferred to the highly absorbent cleaning pad. The microfiber cleaning pad can be machine washed.
2. Bona Oiled Floor Spray Mop | A complete kit for cleaning and maintaining all types of oiled and waxed floors. The product is very light, ergonomic and it fits in all narrow corners. It can be successfully used to deep clean and maintain commercial and residential oiled floors. The amazing Bona Oiled Floor Spray Mop is sold in a kit that contains the frame of the mop, the velcro pad holder, 1 Bona Cleaning pad, 1 cartridge that contains 1L of the Bona Oiled Floor Cleaning Pad and the user manual. The assembly of the mop should not take longer than 30 seconds. When assembled, insert the cartridge inside the mop, attach the cleaning pad and you are ready to go. What makes the new Bona Oiled Floor Spray Mop different from the other spray mops, is its cleaning product. A fine mist of the amazing Bona Oiled Floor Cleaner will be sprayed evenly all over the floor surface and the microfiber cleaning pad will scrub the floor, agitate the dirt and extract the dirt from the floor quickly and easily. During the cleaning operation, the floor will also get refreshed. The cleaning product contains a blend of waxes and special ingredients that are designed specifically for oiled floors. So if you are the lucky owner of an oiled or waxed floor, this is the best tool to deep clean and restore oiled floors.

Some people have beautiful, spotless floors for years while others never manage to maintain it right. The secret really is in the maintenance and the types of products and equipment used. By refreshing your hardwood or engineered wooden floor regularly with proper finishes and by cleaning your floors with proper spray mops, you are likely to end up with beautiful wooden floors for long periods of time. If you are looking for any advice or if you are in the process of buying lacquered or oiled floors and you are planning a cleaning and maintenance strategy, please give us a call.

Bona Wood Floor Spray Mops