Hi, Sunset, welcome to the Forum!

 Nothing is easier or cheaper to keep clean than floors, but the how-to always seems to be problematic.  I've cleaned people's houses for 18 years, and did offices for a professional cleaning service before that.  Here's what I've learned:

Dish soap does the trick.  Even very diluted, say, 1 tsp in a bucket of mop water, it will help a lot toward cleaning the floor.  If the floor is very dirty, sticky, or greasy, make it a little bit stronger.   Don't worry; it will all come up, and easily.  Use straight hot water.  Don't wring the mop as dry as possible for this go-round; the dirt has to be kinda wet in order to dissolve so you can pick it up with the mop.

When that's done, pour out the dirty mopwater, and this time refill with clean water and 1 c of any vinegar...the cheapest you can find.   Mop again, this time wringing the mop as dry as possible.  Vinegar cuts the soap, and so while you're picking up the dissolved dirt, you're also rinsing any detergent residue off of the floor.  With wood floors of any type, dry the floor afterward.  Actuall, drying the floor is a good idea no matter what; it gets up the last of anything that could be left behind to show streaks.

Test any cleaning method this way:   After you've cleaned and rinsed the floor wipe it again with a damp white cloth.  If your cloth doesn't come out clean, the floor isn't clean.  Simple as that.  Streaks come from detergent or dirt residue; get the floor really clean and there won't be any.

Denise from Ark

Denise in Ark:

I've cleaned people's houses for 18 years, and did offices for a professional cleaning service before that.  Here's what I've learned:

Dish soap does the trick.

I can not use water or water based cleaners on this floor. I have issues with humidity even.

 Well, all that really matters is that they are getting clean.  If you have figured how to avoid using water in any fashion and they are still getting clean, that's all that matters.  This is generally has more to do with the quality of the flooring itself (or the materials used to seal it) than it does with the way it's cleaned.  What's there is what's there, and must be dealt with accordingly.  Most floors are sealed with polyurethane, which is a plastic, and usually sealed well enough to use a mop that is wet enough to do a good job cleaning.

Denise in Ark:

Most floors are sealed with polyurethane, which is a plastic, and usually sealed well enough to use a mop that is wet enough to do a good job cleaning.

 

These floors are not polyed. An old fashioned waxing is the sealant. I have no idea why the original owner of this home thought that was a brilliant idea.

I avoid mopping as much as possible which is the advice from several flooring experts. The wood flooring is in a high use area so it remains a problem and are dirty.

I have found that more frequent waxing keeps them shinier so they don't look as bad.

:(

I work for a cleaning service and we use vinegar and water, but never get them wet, just a little sprayed on a smop and thats it.

gabbiecat:

but never get them wet, just a little sprayed on a smop and thats it.

I use a little vinegar spritzed on the mop but that's only recommended a few times a year.

Keep in mind that these floors are not sealed so any moisture, even humidity which we have aplenty effects them.

 Ohh now I get it...we're talking about solid hardwood, not engineered floors, and they aren't sealed.  Makes a huge difference.

 I had one house where he'd had theLR and hall refinished - when they do that, the DO use poly.  But the bedrooms still had just the original flooring and no sealer at all. You know, I didn't even think of them that way until reading your comment.  I've been cleaning his house in Arkansas for about 15 years, and just mop the floors with the dish soap water.  It's real humid there, too, but the floors are in fantastic shape exc for needing refinish.  Much of your warping issue is probably about a lot of things...the quality of the wood, installation, dryness of the underside of the house, etc

My best friend has a 125 year old house and the first thing that they did was get the floors refinished and sealed.  The only issue with those floors has ever been that they used a high gloss sealer and they have to get CLEAN *and* dried or they will streak and look awful.

It must be frustrating to know that you can put work into your floors and they are still not clean.  I remember from childhood a house with wood/waxed floors...we are talking serious amounts of WORK with regular stripping/rewaxing in addition to daily care.

gabbiecat:

I work for a cleaning service and we use vinegar and water, but never get them wet, just a little sprayed on a smop and thats it.

It's pretty embarrassing, though, to have a customer complain that, despite the big $$$ they are paying for housekeeping,  their baby gets filthy when playing on the floor because it didn't come clean.  That's when I learned about poly sealants that withstand a little dish soap in the water, and that "laminate" floors with no hardwood are really plastic in the first place, so as long as you don't get them puddly-wet  where the water is likely to soak through the seams, they withstand a good cleaning very well.

Denise in Ark:

My best friend has a 125 year old house and the first thing that they did was get the floors refinished and sealed.

If this was a 100 year old house, I'd understand why the floors were not sealed. This is a four year old house though.

The only thing that comes to mind as a why is that this house is an Acadian replica that includes some elements of the old Louisiana houses like the large windows and floor plan set to allow that air flow when the windows are open. Maybe the original owner chose the flooring so that it would develop that old look to feel more like the real deal and less like a new house built to look like an Acadian. It falls short with many other things that date it as newer though,

Denise in Ark:

we are talking serious amounts of WORK with regular stripping/rewaxing in addition to daily care

Oh yes and I don't have the time or energy that this floor really requires.