I would never use a steam mop on wood. The steam eventually softens the wood and the edges start to splinter. (Don't ask me how I know this :-)

Bona is the best cleaning method that I know for hardwood floors. .

jerzeegirl - Yes - I thought the bona was supposed to be the best also, from reading other threads on Gardenweb. I think that is why I am a little grossed out about the dirt left even after using Bona. Admittedly, I get sucked into the infomercials, which show the steam mops being "safe" on wood - even though it contradicts everything I ever heard.

I use Bona too, especially for a quick wipe, but I think it just pushes the dirt around. To get my solid wood floor really clean it needs to be mopped and rinsed the old fashioned way once in a while. I would never leave standing water on the floor but think about it, people have had wood floors for generations and they were all mopped.regularly in the past. I bought a large steamer years ago to clean the tile floor in the kitchen; it does not get used much since I replaced that tile with heart pine but a couple times a year I pull it out and steam clean the floors. The amount of dirt it gets up is scary. It might be different with engineered wood, perhaps it depends on what type of flooring you have but I have not experienced any splintering edges. My floor does have a poly finish.

I used a damp mop on a parquet floor I had and after a while I could see the edges of the wood were starting to splinter off. Our floor guy said that water and wood do not mix so just don't do it!

That being said I have always wondered if you could polyurethane the heck out of the floor (three layers of poly maybe?). Would you be able to damp or steam mop. At that point, wouldn't the floor be a layer of plastic that is impervious to water?

I give myself a bit of leeway when it comes to the kitchen floor. It's never going to be spotless because I have two dogs that track dirt from the street and garage. Wood floors are very forgiving when it comes to dirt because it's hard to see. If I had wood in the kitchen I would sweep it and spot clean it daily and Bona once a week.

I would think there would be a difference with the engineered hardwood because it is pre-finished before it is put into place. The water could seep into every joint. On a floor that is finished in place, the poly finish would cover all the joints and water would be less of an issue. Isn't water an ingredient in Bona?

This post was edited by jellytoast on Mon, Feb 10, 14 at 10:54

My unstained red oak floors were finished in place, and have 3 coats of finish, oil I believe. The floors do not show dirt at all. I sweep or vac when needed, but I'm not doing anything on a daily or even weekly basis. When I notice a spot on the floor, and spot clean it, I'm not getting copious amounts of ambient dirt along with it.

I subscribe to the Old Country, hands and knees method of cleaning my wood and tile floors. Scrub a dub dub. I'm not a big proponent of Swiffer or that type of thing. I have one, and it seems to catch little hard pieces of things (e.g., cat litter) and drag them across the floor, smooching dirt right back into the surface.

Water. I use judicious amounts of water when cleaning my hardwood floors, actually water with white vinegar added as my floor installer recommended. The water still beads up and gets wiped up. Seven years and counting with this floor and the edges look the same as the day they were laid.

I really don't get all the "over-cleaning" on this forum and the appliance forum - not just floors but counters and appliances. If your floors look clean, why isn't that good enough - it's not like you're eating off the floors. I can't imagine cleaning every day. I have a cleaning service that comes in every other week and that's good enough except for spills and other occasional issues.

Just another thought....do you have forced air heating? Are your filters clean?

You consider *infomercials* to be a reliable source of information?

How does the manufacturer of your floor say to clean your floors? If you don't have any information from them, use something like Bona or Pledge for floors. I would be a bit concerned that the crud you are removing could actually be damage from the floor - overcleaning and damaging, maybe..

I honestly don't understand the obsession with having perfectly clean floors. Unless, as someone else said, you are planning to eat off the floors, why worry? It sounds like you are a darned good housekeeper.

I'm with weissman. Even if I could get my floors that clean...they would hardly stay that way with 2 kids and 2 dogs going in and out all day. I know I could make everyone take off their shoes (that's how my mom did it)...but the dogs don't wear shoes and the kids would just start going out back in their socks which grinds grass and dirt in the socks which makes them very hard to clean (I know...I just yelled at my 10 year old for this after finding a pair of socks with dried grass basically weaved into her socks).

Life is too short. I just taught the kids not to eat off the floor and the dogs to lick it clean when I spill something.

Go to qvc.com and get a microfiber mop by Don Aslett. It will stick to your floor at first until it gets all that built up dirt off and after that a weekly cleaning with cleaner of your choice will work smoother.

The cleaning pad sticks to the mop base by velcro and pull it off and rinse in your bucket of solution a few times. I have the triangular shaped one and like it alot for corners. My pole did break and I used a wooden broom handle with threads to the bottom to replace it. This is the only mop I use as the sponge type just not efficient.

Oh, thank goodness there are others here who are more, um, relaxed about cleaning their floors. It's true, I am not eating off the floor. I even sometimes kiss my cats' paws and you know where they've been!

Never had a problem cleaning site finished oak hardwood floors (w/poly coats) with a steamer. Steam clean an area and immediately wipe with dry towel, repeat. Much less water touches the floors compared to damp mopping.