Best way of cleaning an wooden (oak) floor?

[HyacinthB]

Can I hoover it or is it sweeping only?

Is it possible to lightly mop it (not so it is saturated, but using a 'damp' mop) and if so, can I put a cleaning product in the water?

etc...

I have white oak floor and clean with a diluted floor cleaner - I put a wrung out hand towel under my mop - and then dry with a fresh hand towel/old nappy type thing. hhovering before hand is good, or an oldfashioned broom or a swiffer works well. been doing this for three years and haven't ruined them yet - but I do check floor cleaner doesn't say Not for wood floors

on your hands and knees?
I swiffer most of the time but give it a good go on knees every month. much cleaner result!

Right, some dumb questions here but need to know the exact details.

Hana - What do you use for hands and knees floor cleaning? What kind of brush and what kind of cleaning product? How do you rinse it off?

MrsAS - hadn't thought about drying it myself(slaps head), always used the drying time as and excuse not to do it that often!

We recently had our oak floor resanded and sealed, and I asked the man for advice on cleaning it. He said the best method is to hoover it, then mop with a flat-ended mop which has been wrung out so it is just damp, not wet. I use Pledge wood wipe cloths on the end of my mop.

I hoover and use a "pledge soapy cleaner for wooden floors"

I think I would prefer to hoover - we've got dogs and hoovering is more effective than sweeping for dog hairs (which seem to cluster in balls like tumbleweed)

bucket of dinosaurs -
I just use hot water with a splash of all purpose cleaner
I do use 2 cloths - just rags that used to be tshirst - one to wash and one to rinse the soap off with . I don't use any scouring pads

I usually vaccuum every couple of days and wipe up the crud from my girls after every meal that lands on the floor!

Still dumb - How does the rinsing actually work? do you have 2 buckets then, one for soapy water and one for rinse water?

Sallystrawberry, where do you get scratch remover from?

even dumber question - what is a swiffer ?

yes, where did the verb "to swiff" come from?

have to 'fess up that my cleaner hoovers and mops once per week and I sweep and wipe up as and when needs it in between.

A Swiffer is a pretend mop/broom, you wrap a disposable 'Swiffer' dustwipe around the bottom (or head?) and you can dust floors, walls, ceilings even. I have one lurking in the cupboard and used to find them effective but disposable wipes make me feel guilty (don't even use them on the baby's bum.) Am tempted to buy a pack lately though...

no I should have a seperate bucket for rinsing, but I just use the same (rinsing) loth a few times, then rinse it out with hot water and go back to the washing/rinsing!