Cleaning Real Wood Floors

[dexters]

Please help me! We live in a Victorian period home with what are apparently the original wood floors all over the house. They appear to be unfinished, or else the varnish has worn off.

They are also appallingly filthy. Walking around in our socks leaves them positively black. We don't wear shoes in the house, and I've mopped it with Pledge Wood Floor cleaner to no avail.

Is there something else I can do? My DS is about to start crawling, and I can't abide the thought of him down on those disgusting floors.

Also, how often do you mop your (wood) stairs?

Okay, so you have two jobs to do - the first is to clean and the second is to seal the floors.

If they don't look dirty and you can bear to live with it - just clean them as best you can and then seal and varnish them (the best way actually is to sand them and use the sand dust mixed with PVA to fill the gaps then varnish the whole bloody lot). We did this in a log cabin with floor varnish in under a day - one coat did the trick.

As for mopping stairs, get a runner and bugger it - life's too short

We have an oldwood floor in our hall. I have to be honest I very rarely mop it. I do clean the kitchen floor alot. I am not a total slob.

I hoover it. I clean it with flash or something about twice a year though.

Varnish?? Doesn't that flake off quite quickly

Not if it's floor varnish. Obviously you need to vac before you put it down so its not just sticking to the dust rather than the floor but particularly the roller type varnishes are similar to yacht varnish and can last for a decade or more.

Having said - DD in a fluffy nappy was brilliant at cleaning the kitchen floor!