You and I know that, but when you are cleaning a million dollar home my company is a little concerned about getting hardwoods wet especially the unsealed ones. My Grandmother used a brush, strong soap and water and a rag to dry up on her hardwoods for 70 years, they looked brand new when she died. The manufacturers tell customers not to use this and that, so you will buy thier products. For major spills we take a cloth and a little soap and water to get it up always dry the spot though. I work for a multi million dollar company we clean about 2000 homes every month and have maybe 2-3 compaints, which are solved right away by me or the other field manager. 2 out of the 2-3 compaints are usually the cronic complainers who are never satisfied and we file them under that. We hand out cards with a telephone number or website for survey and they score us based on several catagories, the company scores us. our score as a company is 95 percent satisfaction so that's pretty good, the Team Leaders who take a team and go into the homes get a monthly bonus based on that score and any complaints and inspections I do on them once a month. The bonus is from 300-500 a month so they strive for perfection.

gabbiecat:

My Grandmother used a brush, strong soap and water and a rag to dry up on her hardwoods for 70 years, they looked brand new when she died

I can't speak for your Grandmother but my Great Grandfather's floors had layers of wax to protect the wood. When we got his home, Mom was able to work off that and wax monthly to keep them looking nice.

That word nice is relative. They were shiny but full of character with age and wear showing. Nice floors here don't look worn like mine do. And mine aren't mine, they are really the landlord's who I do not believe understands this flooring.

Oh no I would not recommend that for your floors, I was just answering the other ladys post. My grandmother may have used wax in fact I'm sure she did.

gabbiecat:

Oh no I would not recommend that for your floors

I was just comparing the floors of the past to what I have now. I wondered why mine were different than those I grew up with and went poking through some info to find out.

It led me to realise I don't have that build up of wax that is needed and I am not waxing often enough to get it. This is not a good flooring for us at all.

I think I would go out and buy lots of throw rugs for the high traffic areas.

Anybody have any ideas how to clean laminate here?

I just wet the dust mop and used it like a mop after I sweep.

Maybe I could spray some vinager and water on it first???

I haven't figured out how to keep it clean yet.

isn't there a difference between real wood floors and laminates...most newer floors are more laminate then real wood.

 Laminate, such a Pergo floor, is plastic.  Think the same thing as a Formica countertop.  How do you clean countertops? You wash them with detergent and water.  What you have to be careful of is getting puddly water standing on the floor.  Check at Home Depot or somewhere.  The backing on some of those floors is a compressed paper, so standing water, left long enough, could seep through the seams and expand the backing, causing problems.  However, this is not such a huge issue that you have to be paranoid about basic mopping.  If you will scroll up in this thread, I shared the way I mop for all of my housecleaning clients.  I have cleaned for a lot of families with very young children over the years, and they wanted those floors CLEAN.  The only kind of floors that it might cause problems on would be unsealed wood floors.  Laminates and poly-sealed woods will clean well with this method with no damage to the floor. Wax-sealed wood floors can be cleaned with this method as well, as long as your wax layer is built up and intact.

Thank you Deniese,

What I did last week was swept with regular broom... then I picked up what I could with a dust mop.... then I took another dust mop type cloth and wet it with water and vinager from teh sink and mopped.  I came up pretty good.

I just don't know what to do with a dust mop after I mop!  I can't really take it and shake it outside cause I have neighbors that might not appreciate it.  So... what to do with that thing??

Anyway, I found that sweeping and then dustmopping gets all the cat hair, sand and whatever up, then mopping with another clean wet dustmop.

Still so many steps compared to vacuming!  ;-) 

dmc_2008:

Anyway, I found that sweeping and then dustmopping gets all the cat hair, sand and whatever up, then mopping with another clean wet dustmop.

Still so many steps compared to vacuming!  ;-) 

I have hardwood and linoleum floors, with tile in the bathroom, and I use only a dustmop to clean loose dirt. Then I use a damp mop on the hardwood, usually with vinegar. I sweep with the dustmop far more often than I mop, though, so it isn't a big deal. I'd ten times rather do that than vacuum.