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Tile Cleaning and Grout Cleaning

Admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 11:13:59 +0000

Tile Cleaning

Cleaning ceramic tile floors are important to keep it clean, beautiful and durable. This is especially true if you enjoying walking on bare foot. Tile and grout cleaning probably come together. If you clean the tile but not paying attention to the grout, it may not look as what you expected.

Cleaning tile floors

First step for tile cleaning is to mop and vacuum clean the floor to remove any debris. Then you can mop the floor with warm water or the mixture of hot water and vinegar. When mopping, you should mop from side to side and up and down. Finally use water only to mop again as rising. Allow the floor

If you wish to have the sanitizing function, you can use 1:99 water to bleach for normal floor sanitization. If you have family member sick, you can use a heavy proportion with 1:45 water to bleach to clean the floor.

How to clean tile grout

The water and vinegar mixture (50:50) can be used to clean the tile grout. Spray the mixture onto the grout. Pour some baking soda onto the grout and then spray the mixture again. Then use the brush or toothbrush to scrub hardly. Repeat several times and you may see the tile grout clean.

You can also try to use the water and hydrogen peroxide (50:50). After spraying the solution onto the grout, wait for 15 minutes before brushing.

You may also use toothpaste or shaving cream to brush the grout. It is always recommended to test for a small area first to see if there is any damaging effect.

If you find the stain on the grout cannot be remove. You can you a small piece of cloth. Soak cloth with a little bleach or diluted bleach. Put the cloth onto the stained grout for 15 minutes. Finally use water to rinse. To note that this method may not be suitable for special colored tiles as the color may be bleached.
Tile Floor Cleaning Tips

Do not walk in with your shoes in order to prevent sand and dirt.
Use doorway mat to trap the dust, dirt and sand.
Sweep the floor regular.
Try to wear slippers as the oil and dirt from foot can damage the tiles.
Apply sealant regularly.
Wipe dry the floor after cleaning can bring you the shiny floor.
Clean spills quickly.

For more home improvement tips, visit: Home Columns

Rug Cleaning

Admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:53:43 +0000

Wool and oriental rugs are beautiful and are well known for their durability. No matter how great is the rug, once you get it into your house, it becomes dirty. You of course do not wish to throw away every rug that becomes dirty. You need washable rugs so that you do not need to throw one away every month!

First, read the cleaning directions for your rug to see what kind of cleaning is suitable. For most of the rugs, wet cleaning is suitable while for some, only dry cleaning is suitable.

To clean rug, hold and shake your rug and let any bigger particles or debris all out from the rug. Some people like to beat the rug when they come to this procedure in order to let more debris falling out. You should never do that as this may break or loosen the threads and the rug may break. Oriental rug cleaning should always be more careful and you may wish to consult the manufacturer for more cleaning details.

After the shaking, there are still a lot of tiny particles and dust attached to the rug, you have to vacuum clean it. Vacuum both sides of the rug. Do it slowly especially to those oriental rugs. Repeat seven times forward and backward motion. Be careful not to vacuum the fringes as they can be easily damaged by vacuum cleaning when you pull them out.

Before actually cleaning the whole rug, start the spot cleaning with stain remover. Then you can mix up mild liquid soap with a bucket of water. Shampoo over the whole rug and use a sponge to wipe clean. You may not wish to use the strong detergent or the carpet shampoo as they can damage the fabric of the rug. Also, if they are not cleaned thoroughly, you can end up with even more particles attached to the rug.

After that, rinse the rug with sufficient of water until it is completely clean. The remaining work is to dry the rug by towels rolling up. Do not try to dry the rug under sunlight as the colors change or fade.

Cleaning rugs is not that difficult! But to keep the rug long lasting as its inherent attributes, you need to maintain it well. Here are some tips:

Clean the stain as soon as possible.
Neutralize the pet odors by mixing 2 cups of cornmeal and a cup of borax and sprinkling onto the rug.
Mix 1/4 cup of vinegar, 1/2 tea spoon of liquid soap and 2 cups of lukewarm water as the cleaning solution.

Floor Cleaning – Hardwood floor cleaning

Admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:26:52 +0000

Cleaning floor is one of the housework that you do most frequently. Why, because you have to walk on the floor. Especially to those who love to walk on their bare foot. If the floor is not clean, you foot suffer. Cleaning floor is not difficult but you have to pick the right method for different floor, for that I mean different materials. Cleaning wood floors is very different from cleaning tile floors, using the wrong method may harm the materials that your floor made of. If you must use water for cleaning, use a damp soft cloth. Clean from one section to the other. Dry the floor immediate after cleaning.

How to clean hardwood floors

Water is its biggest enemy for cleaning hardwood floors. Try not to use water to clean the floor if possible, otherwise if water leaks into the planks, the wood may swell and the floor can be cracked in the worst case.

Soft broom and mop is the best floor cleaning equipment for wood floor. Sweeping should be the primary work for cleaning of hardwood floor. Just use broom and mop to pick up the small particle and dust. You can vacuum cleaning, but not too often, once a week is the maximum as vacuum cleaners sometimes can damage the wood floor.

If you find the wood floor is damaged quite seriously and normal hardwood floor cleaners do not make it look better, you may need to try screening and recoating.

Screening is to abrade the existing polyurethane on the wood floor. Then, recoat it with a new layer of urethane. By screening and recoating, the damaged floor can be rejuvenated.

Tips for Maintenance of Wood Floor

Put mats near doorway or entryway to trap the small particles so that they are not brought into the house and scratch your floor.
The color of the wood floor can be changed when it is exposed to sunlight. Try to prevent the floor from exposing too much to the UV light. You may wish to use carpet for help but remember to rotate the place for the carpet for even exposure.
Do not wear high heel shoes and walk on the wood floor and the floor may get scratched.
You can use furniture pads to prevent scratches by furniture legs.
Do not drag the furniture on wood floor. This can surely leave scratch on the floor. Hold it up and move if possible.
Pet nails can also leave scratches on the wood floor. Make you cut their nail regularly.