Maintenance of the parquet

In spite of wide spread opinion, take care of the parquet is a very simple thing, if you do it in a proper way.

During the usual cleaning, the parquet should be polished with the help of vacuum cleaner or you should brush it. Sometimes, it should be wiped clean with a damp and squeezed sponge or with a slightly wet mop. You shouldn’t wet the parquet; the spots will vanish easily with the help of soft detergents.
The dirt and sand influences the parquet in the same way as an emery paper, that’s why you should use the door rugs.
The varnished parquet doesn’t need the special attendance during 10-20 years under condition that you take care of it well. The parquet with a thickness of the higher layer approximately 4 millimeters can be polished twice or four times. After each polishing, you may use coating, which you prefer (lacquer or oil).
The parquet, covered with oil, needs special attention, because the wood is porous and these pores leave open. It needs to be covered with a wax polish more often and approximately once a year it needs a general cleaning with the help of machine, and after that, you should cover the parquet with a new layer of oil.
In the kitchens and corridors, where there is always a risk to spill the water, you can cover the parquet with additional protection.
In the weakest places, for example under the table, the perfect decision will be to cover the parquet with a small rug. Put the protective sticks on the furniture in order to avoid unnecessary spots and scratches.
Don’t put the metallic legs on the parquet, which is covered with oil, they leave the tracks on the surface. The cover of the parquet protects it from the accidentally spilled liquid, but the most important thing is that you should wipe it quick and careful.
The parquet, made of birch, is very sensitive to water, that is why you should take care of it more attentively. You should always cover the birch parquet with a layer of lacquer (oil) in those places, where there is always a risk to spill water.
Are there some scratches on the parquet? Cover the parquet with a layer of lacquer or oil and they won’t be seen.

How can you remove the dirt?

If it happened that there appeared some spots from shoes, heels, wine, chocolate, ink or even lipstick — don’t worry. To solve the problems connected with the dirtied parquet, you should use the detergents, gas, alcohol or cold water, depends upon the type of dirt.

The detergents can be used for cleaning parquet from:

Wine;
The tracks of fruits and fruits juices;
Beer;
Coffee;
Tea;
Soft drinks;

Gas is used for cleaning the parquet from:

Shoe polish;
Marks left from shoes;
Tar;
Fat;
Chocolate;

Alcohol is used for cleaning the parquet from:

Ink;
Lipstick;
Ball-point pen;
Ink ribbon;

The cold water is used to remove the blood spots.