Cleaning Hardwood Floors With a Vacuum Cleaner
Many people who have hardwood floors in their home think that they have to clean those floors with a broom and mop exclusively. They think that a vacuum cleaner will damage or scratch the floors. This is only partly true. While there are vacuum cleaners out there that will damage hardwood floors, there are also units with specific settings for hardwood, laminate, tile, and vinyl flooring. Using these vacuums on the correct setting can help to get your floors very clean without the backbreaking labor of sweeping and mopping.
Most upright vacuums are actually great for hard surfaced flooring. It makes sense to use the upright as you normally would on carpet, on the floor, then using the hose attachment to get in the corners and sides of furniture or appliances. The catch is, you have to make sure that the upright you are using has a setting specifically for solid floors. This setting will actually raise the vacuum up, so that the sweeping motion of the brushes doesn’t hit the floor and cause scratching.
The higher setting will not affect how well the floors get cleaned because the dust and debris that you will be vacuuming up comes up much easier than the dust and debris in carpet. There are no carpet fibers to snag and hold the stuff back.
The last thing to think about is the wheels of the vacuum. Make sure to vacuum slowly, especially when making turns. Because the surface of the floor tends to be somewhat slick, the vacuum could slide instead of turn on its wheels, and this could cause scratching.