It's a fact; large surface cleaning products kill your oiled floor!
The maintenance of oiled floors requires cleaning products designed... for oiled floors. Failure to do so will result in a reduction in their lifespan.
Think about it. Most cleaning products act as powerful degreasers. Difficult for an oil finish!
WHAT IS AN OILED FLOOR?
To understand how to maintain an oiled floor, it may be useful to first understand some of its characteristics. An oiled floor breathes because the oil has a chemical composition that is similar to wood and thus bounds with its structure. Therefore, the floor reacts well to temperature changes because of its direct contact with ambient humidity.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF AN OILED FLOOR
If your wood floor is well maintained, it will stay beautiful for decades. Maintenance is very simple and so easy that you can do it yourself. If you pay attention to signs of wear appearing at the surface of your oiled floor, you will notice that they depend highly on walking traffic.
FREQUENCY OF MAINTENANCE
For high traffic in the house doorway or in the kitchen for example, it may be advise to revive your wood once every 2 to 3 years. For medium traffic such as the living room, maintenance frequency could be between 5 and 7 years, whereas for very low traffic such as bedrooms or reading rooms, it is possible that the maintenance may be extended each 15 years or more. Furthermore, the various maintenance layers should create an increasingly durable patina, which should have the effect to lower frequency of maintenance in the long term.
PRECAUTION TO DELAY MAINTENANCE
As with any type of floor, reducing the traffic load will increase its life. You could, for example, put a mat at the entrance of the house, wear slippers, put felt pads under the legs of your furniture and cut your pet’s claws. Also, it is important to never leave plants in direct contact with your floor, as a permanent ring may be created by humidity under the pot.
MAINTENANCE OIL KUNOS 1862
The local application of floor maintenance oil is another way of delaying the complete oiling of the floor. KUNOS 1862 - floor maintenance oil is a colourless product that will bring out the oiled aspect, is less expensive and dries faster (5h instead of 12h) than the finish oil. Ensuring that oil is always present in sufficient quantity on the surface of the wooden floors will prevent them from becoming dull and staining.
TIPS FOR CLEANING AN OILED FLOOR
Before you start cleaning your oiled floor or pre-oiled floor, it will take a minimum of two weeks. This will prevent the water from seeping in and you will avoid staining.
OIL IS NOT VARNISH
Unlike varnish, oil does not form a plastic layer on the surface of the wood floor and therefore does not withstand the use of certain more corrosive cleaners. Degreasers product such as Mr. Net®, Vim® or Pine-Sol® should be avoided. Why? Because these products are basic pH products that will have the effect of removing the layer of oil applied to your wood surface.
As with varnished floors, the excess dust can be removed by sweeping or vacuuming. For common cleaning, it will be important to use a neutral pH product such as TRENA with each cleaning and GLANOS each 4 or 5 cleanings. On the other hand, the use of water must be limited and a moist cloth is desirable.
NEUTRAL PH CLEANER
The TRENA is an all surfaces cleaning product for the house except for the rough wood surfaces and the windows. Very concentrated and very efficient, it is free of phosphate, formaldehyde and solvent. It needs to be diluted with 10 mL, ie 1 tablespoon in 10 L of water. If used in too high concentration, TRENA could make the surfaces more matte or even rough. Cleaning is done with a moist, non-wet cloth.
WAX CLEANER
The GLANOS cleans while depositing a light wax film and creates an antistatic effect. It is used for moist cleaning of oiled or waxed furniture and floors and is suitable for other floor types such as linoleum. For high traffic load on floor, the wax finish will wear down rather than the oil finish. GLANOS is made up of shellac, carnauba wax and Japan wax. It needs to be diluted with 10 mL, ie 1 tablespoon in 5 L of hot cleaning water.
PRECAUTION FOR GLANOS
GLANOS product is to be added to cleaning water each 4 or 5 cleanings. If the application is too frequent, an undesirable accumulation of wax may be caused even preventing further oiling without sanding the surface.
In conclusion, the maintenance of oiled floors is very simple and within reach of all. Moreover, cleaning with the right products will greatly delay their maintenance.
