White vinegar is also the most inexpensive option.
Can you clean hardwood floors with water and vinegar.
Plain white distilled vinegar should be your only choice.
To clean hardwood floors with vinegar start by sweeping your floors to remove any dust and debris.
Using vinegar and water as a homemade hardwood floor cleaning solution can have a negative effect on your hardwood floor.
Lemon oil also helps to cut grease which may be very useful if you re trying to clean wood floors in a kitchen.
Then mix a 1 2 cup of white vinegar with a gallon of warm water in a bucket.
I strongly recommend you only ever use basic white vinegar for cleaning purposes.
Vinegar can do damage to your wood floor finish if the vinegar to water ratio is too strong if you use the wrong type of vinegar or if you allow the vinegar water mixture to pool puddle or over soak your floor.
Avoid using red wine or balsamic vinegar for cleaning your wood floor.
The great thing about water and vinegar is that it can be used to clean many things around the home.
While cleaning wood floors with vinegar and water is ideal it isn t the only natural option.
Just don t use vinegar and water to clean hardwood floors.
You can also add a few drops of essential oils to give the solution a nice fragrance.
Final thoughts on how to clean hardwood floors with vinegar.
Some of the other types such as apple cider vinegar as delicious as it is will have a brownish tint which could potentially damage floors.
If you like the cleaning power of vinegar but want to cut the smell just add an essential oil such as lemon.
Or alternatively you can use a spray bottle and microfiber mop whereby you spray the vinegar and water solution on the floor and wipe it with a mop.
While there s disagreement as to whether you can use water and vinegar for hardwood floors there s no debate that as a general cleaning solution for windows and ovens and glass items water and vinegar truly works well.
Do not use red wine balsamic or apple kinds of vinegar.
In case you realize after moping that your floors look wet you can use a dry clean towel to dry your floor and let it to air dry.
I don t recommend using vinegar or lemon juice at least not in large quantities as these can damage the floor.
White vinegar has no particular color so will not stain hardwood.
For cleaning unfinished hardwood floors fill the bucket with warm water and white vinegar dunk the mop head into the vinegar solution and wring out any excess liquid.
You can also use cleaning vinegar but note that cleaning vinegar has a higher acid concentration than the regular white vinegar.
Cleaning with vinegar and water is cheap safe for the environment and generally does a great job at cleaning many items in your home.