As you might be aware, baking soda is quite a useful thing when it comes to cleaning. As a matter of fact, some consider it the best cleaning agent for almost any surface.
But is it the best cleaner for hardwood floors? Find out whether it is and discover the best solutions for cleaning your floors right here.
Using Baking Soda On Hardwood Floors
Baking soda is a great cleaner for many things, but it isn’t suitable for cleaning hardwood floors. When cleaning with baking soda, your hardwood will end up with a dull finish and a powdery residue. Instead, look for a floor cleaner that is specifically formulated for hardwood floors.
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In fact, baking soda could even put dark stains or age the wood too quickly if it is used on hardwood. So it is better not to use it on hardwood unless that particular surface is compatible with the pH of baking soda.
Reasons Why Baking Soda Is Not A Great Solution For Hardwood Floors
Experts recommend that you don’t use baking soda on hardwood floors. They would simply do more harm than good. Here are the reasons you don’t want to use this ingredient on hardwood.
Baking Soda Has Incompatible pH:
Baking soda is an alkaline element and may cause damage to your hardwood floors if misused. When using baking soda to clean your floors, you need to keep in mind that it can become too caustic if used too much.
Another problem with using baking soda on hardwood floors is that it has a tendency to leave a film on the surface of your wood floor.
This film will make your floors more difficult to clean because it makes it more likely that dirt will get through to the subfloor and soil tracked onto the floor.
The pH of baking soda is about 10. This makes it easier to use on traditional hardwoods such as teak, maple, or cherry, where the wood is naturally alkaline.
However, for some exotic hardwood species such as rosewood, the resin content is quite high and baking soda can leave a very different stain than traditional liquid cleaners.
It Can Stain Wood:
The type of hardwood that contains tannin is not compatible with baking soda. It can cause darkening, staining, and discoloration of the dough and the resulting baked good.
Tannin is a bit like a thin skin. It’s a bit like thick skin. It’s a bit like liquid skin. This can be found in the sapwood of most hardwoods, and also in the heartwood of some hardwoods such as oak and mahogany.
It is partially responsible for why you should never use baking soda to clean the hardwood.
Hardwood floors with high amounts of tannin content can get easily stained if even a little bit of baking soda comes in contact with it. The chemical reaction that occurs causes this staining and it is actually irreversible.
Ages Wood Quickly:
Baking soda can cause wood to age too quickly, causing it to darken. This occurs because when you mix baking soda and water together, you create a solution that has aging properties for certain surfaces, such as hardwood.
When you create such a baking soda and water solution and apply it to the wood, it causes the hardwood to darken when it dries. Resulting in faster aging than normal.
Does Baking Soda Terminate Fleas On Hardwood Floors?
If you have hardwood floors, you may have noticed that they seem to be crawling with fleas. Well, baking soda is an excellent flea treatment, as it terminates flea eggs and flea larvae on hardwood floors.
All you need to do is sprinkle some baking soda on your hardwood floors, wait a few minutes, then vacuum the baking soda up. This will instantly terminate any fleas on your hardwood floors, and also remove any dirt, stains, and odors.
When your hardwood floors have fleas, baking soda can terminate them off so you can vacuum them up. Sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda on your hardwood floor and leave it there for at least 30 minutes.
Scrub your hardwood floor as usual and vacuum up the baking soda. Your hardwood floor is now flea-free, and you can continue to clean it as usual.
How To Safely Use Baking Soda On Hardwood floor?
But if you absolutely must use baking soda on a hardwood floor here are the things you should consider before doing so.
Figure Out The Type Of Hardwood You Have:
Your first step is to determine what kind of hardwood you have. The pH of the hardwood needs to be compatible with that of baking soda.
Incompatible hardwood will not react well with baking soda. As experts say, baking soda can potentially damage the hardwood surface due to its pH levels not matching hardwood’s.
Make sure the hardwood has a lower pH level so that baking soda does not cause any damage to it.
Use Safe Amounts:
Baking soda powder leaves a white residue behind. This is caused by the acid in the powder reacting with the surface it touches, damaging the finish and leaving a white residue.
It’s not a big deal if you only use a little bit of baking soda, but if you want to use more, you’ll need to find a way to safely remove the powder so that it doesn’t damage your floors.
Wipe Off Excess Powder:
And once you are done using baking soda for cleaning purposes, be sure to wipe off the powder quickly. This should hopefully avoid the residue or even the darkening.
What Are The Best Things To Use To Clean Hardwood Floors?
While you shouldn’t use baking soda for cleaning hardwood, there are a bunch of other options that you can choose from. Here are the best things you can use to clean your hardwood floors.
Vinegar:
Vinegar is an effective cleaner for hardwood floors. It can remove dirt, dust, and stains without the harsh fumes or scrubbing that traditional cleaners produce.
It also leaves a protective coating that prevents dirt from returning, keeping your floors looking clean and gorgeous.
This ingredient is a powerful cleaner that can remove dirt, grease, and stains from hardwood floors. It also disinfects and deodorizes, making it an excellent choice for housekeeping.
Plant-Based Liquid Soap:
You would be surprised to know the difference plant-based soaps make when it comes to hardwood floors.
Traditional liquid soaps leave a greasy film on hardwood floors, which doesn’t allow them to breathe and can turn your once beautiful floors dingy, brown, and dirty looking.
But plant-based liquid soaps won’t leave any greasy residue on the floors, which will allow them to breathe, and look just as good as when you first installed them.
This will also make it much easier to keep your floors clean without having to vacuum or scrub them every day.
Lemon Juice:
Some people think that cleaning their floors with lemon juice is a strange idea. However, lemons have natural cleaning abilities that can help remove dirt and stains from hardwood floors.
When you clean your floors with lemon juice, it will remove the dirt, germs, and bacteria that are embedded in the surface of your floors.
Lemon juice is a great way to clean your floors without having to use harsh chemicals, and it can also be used as a disinfectant. You can use lemon juice as a traditional cleaning solution or mix it with water and use it as an all-purpose floor cleaner.
Just be sure to test it on a hidden area of your floor to make sure it doesn’t discolor your flooring before applying it to your entire floor.
Vegetable Oil:
One of the easiest ways to clean hardwood floors may be to use oil products that are not diluted or mixed with any of the harsh chemicals that are found in stores.
Such products are visible and easy to use and have the fewest possible side effects. These include vegetable oil, which can definitely show impressive results.
The oil can be used to clean hardwood floors or to make your own floor polish. To clean hardwood floors using oil: Mix the oil with a mild dish soap (1 cup of soap to 1 cup of canola oil). Apply floor polish with a mop or a sponge. Let the polish dry.
Final Thoughts
You should not typically use baking soda on hardwood floors to avoid darkening or untimely aging of your hardwood. Instead, opt for something like vinegar or lemon juice along with water. That should help clean the hardwood better and also prevent any kind of damage to the surface.