How to tell what kind of floor you have

You bought a house with wood floors but you are not sure what the make of the floor is. Either the seller didn’t have the information or you forgot to ask. Now you are faced with the issue of how to care for your floor. If you don’t know how to clean your floor, here are some guidelines.

It is how your wood floor is treated, not the wood, important. Some rare occasion you may have an untreated wood floor.

Most of our wood floors are surface sealed. These types of floors are resistant to stain and water damage. If you know that the floor was put in recently, most probably you have this type of floor. Simply sweep and mop.

Another more common type of floor is penetrating or oil treated. Wood has been soaked in oil. You need to care for these types of floors more than the previous. After you sweep, clean and mop use a wax to protect and shine the floor.

You may have a wood floor that is varnished, shellacked, lacquered or simply a wood floor. You need to sweep and wax these floors.