Any recommendations for a vacuum to replace broom for hardwood floors?
ilikefriday
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I would like a vacuum to replace my broom, if possible, for my downstairs area which consists of a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and living room. The space has all hardwood floors. I also want something that is light weight to use on carpeted stairs. After doing some research and watching Youtube reviews, I am leaning towards a Shark DuoClean nv803 but might lso consider a Shark Apex. Do any of you have either of these vacuums? I prefer a vacuum that plugs in. I dont want to have to deal with charging a battery on a cordless.
Any other vacuums that you think might be better?
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ilikefriday
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Vacuum cleaner for hardwood floors
Comments (13)Oooh! I've been trying to find a good hard floor vacuum for years and I've finally found one! I use the healthy home by bisell and you can turn off the rolling brush for hard floors so it doesn't scratch or kick around bigger pieces of dirt or small objects! It has nice big rubber wheels on it that won't scratch (especially pergo/laminate) floors. I had a home in Cali with dark walnut colored pergo flooring and my old vacuum ganged up with a little rock one day and made a long scratch right by the doorway. Not even furniture pens or polish was absorbed to hide it. Really sad when that happened. So I was determined never to vacuum a hardwood floor again after that. Until now. I love this vacuum and it has all the attachments with a hand held rotating brush handle (great for pet hair on furniture and the car-golden retrievers grow 10 new hairs for every 1 they shed). I'm also obsessed with having a clean vacuum so I can literally take apart the canister and wash it! After every use, I go out to the garage and vacuum my vacuum with the shopvac! It's a bit on the pricey side and it comes with some chemicals for dust mites and germs but I would never use or recommend using chemicals in the home or out. I do however, clean my carpets about every other month with an organic cleaner that kills germs and has a light scent. Carpet cleaners are full of very harmful chemicals and I have two asthmatics at home and a lovely dog(remember the hairy beast I mentioned?) So this works great. I love having a clean house. It's one of my favorite pastimes! That's my story and I'm sticking to it! JoAnn...See MoreBest Vacuum/Sweeper for hardwood Floors
Comments (16)We have over 2500 s.f. of hardwood in our home. I can't imagine the amount of Swiffer sheets I would need to use to clean my floor. For light dusting, I use a wide dust mop (sold in janitorial stores) -- it's probably about 3 feet wide and breezes through my floors. For more through cleaning, I use my central vac with the hardwood floor brush. Since we have a dog that loves to get little pawprints or water drips from her bowl all over the place, I periodically use a damp mop with only a couple drops of dish detergent in the bucket. I do a small area, then immediately dry thoroughly with large towel. I never use Murphy's. I would be very hesitant to use a vacuum because dirt gets embedded on the wheels and the weight of the vacuum along with that dirt may scratch the surface....See More100+ year old hardwoods need replacing--engineered vs hardwood
Comments (4)Wood vs. Engineered Wood? No contest in this case. If the home was built in 1905, put real hardwood in. This preserves the integrity of the home's building materials. Plus, as you can see from the age of these floors, higher grades (i.e. thicker) hardwood can be sanded several times; you usually don't get even one chance to sand engineered wood. The hardwood layer at the top of this multilayered product is simply too thin. Level Floors and Subfloors There are ways to level a subfloor, ranging from replacing parts of the subfloor with thicker or thinner sheets of plywood (or planks, see below), to pour-on leveling compounds that harden to make the entire floor level. What you use to level uneven areas depends on what the subflooring is. If it is plywood or concrete, the compound works. But more likely with this home, on floors at or above grade, there will be wood planks laid at a diagonal across the floor joists. So in your home, the layers were probably joists first, then subfloor planks of wood, then hardwood with tongue & groove joints. You cannot effectively use a pour-on leveling compound on a plank subfloor, as there are cracks between the planks. However, you can lay a new hardwood floor directly on a wood plank subfloor as long as those planks are sound and relatively level. Replace individual planks that have been damaged by water or insects, are otherwise compromised, or even missing (it happens!), with either new planks of lumber, or with plywood of the same thickness as the planks. Any lumber you install, for either the subfloor or finished flooring, should be brought in to your home several days prior to installation, so the materials acclimatize to your typical interior temperature and humidity. Unlike for ceramic or porcelain tile, the subfloor does not have to be perfectly level. And unlike vinyl sheeting, planks or tiles, the hardwood won't "telegraph" minor differences in height, and minor surface irregularities, so the subfloor doesn't have to be absolutely perfect; it should be sound, strong, uniform and essentially level. Your flooring contractor can give you specifics on what upgrades your subfloor may need once the original hardwood is removed. Joists If the floor is significantly not level in parts, or if certain areas feel spongy when you walk on them, I recommend you have your flooring contractor, a home inspector, or structural engineer inspect the subflooring and especially the floor joists. You don't want to invest in a new floor, only to have it become damaged because some joists weren't attended to. Transitions Transitions (a.k.a. thresholds or molding) between existing rooms and the new floor ought to be made of the same wood and same finish (stain, polyurethane, etc.) as the new flooring you are putting down. As wood ages, the finish becomes darker, so trying to make the transitions match the finishes of existing floors is very difficult and not recommended (what will match those floors right now won't match later after your transitions age up a bit). Eventually, the transitions wouldn't match either the new or the old floors! Transitions come in four types: reducer (when the two floors being joined are of different heights), seam binder (when the floors are the same height, and the boards from each are very close to one another), T-mold (when the two floors are the same height, but there is a crack between the two rooms' flooring) and stair nose or stair edger (when the flooring needs to curve around the front of a stair's "tread"--the flat part of a stair upon which you tread!). The transitions for your particular project can be ordered when you order the hardwood, so make sure to include measurements for those doorways/entrances. The contractor can tell you if he/she anticipates there will be a height difference or gap between the floorings, which would require those particular transitions. Dry Air Concerns Consult a local lumber supplier or flooring contractor familiar with your local climate conditions to discuss finishes or other tips for keeping your wood floors healthy in the dry winters. Sounds wonderful! Have fun!...See MorePre-finished Hardwood/Eng Hardwood recommendation
Comments (8)Ok...first things first. Janka hardness ratings only apply to solid hardwood. Engineered planks do not work with Janka because the plied layers underneath are often 'soft woods'. Considering Janka measures how much force it takes to imbed a metal ball into the wood, it isn't possible to offer Janka scores for engineered. They just don't compute. The next thing I'm going to point out is the oddity of trying to match the ENTIRE HOUSE to a single room of existing hardwood. You have a small amount of hardwood that is dictating the rest of the house. It's not impossible but it is HIGHLY unusual. In other words, you are trying to put down more than a thousand square feet of flooring by trying to match 150 - 250sf of dining room (I don't know the size of your dining room so I'm only guessing here). That's a little like putting the cart before the horse. Usually we see this the other way around. Usually we have a house full of hardwood (big amount) but the bedrooms have carpet (small amount). The homeowners then agonize over getting a match for the smaller area. That is normal. As for your price range that you are looking at, they are too low and a little thin. The gold standard is 3/4" thickness (solid or engineered). An engineered product with 3mm or more of wear layer is the base level. The thicker the wear layer the more times a floor can be refinished. The Gold standard is 6mm wear layer (usually in the $10/sf range). If you are having a hard time finding floors that you like, you might want to think about replacing the dining room at the same time. This takes away all the pressure to work with low-grade hardwoods just to get a match to a small amount of hardwood. Solid or engineered should be more than what you are looking at for price. Prefinished wood flooring should be in the $7/sf just to start and they go up from there....See Moreilikefriday
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoilikefriday
5 years agoilikefriday
5 years ago
Cheryl Smith
5 years agoDyson stick but make sure you get one with the "fluffy brush" breaks down to a handheld. Have had a dyson animal for years and still use it for carpet but this is so easy. Even my husband loves it.
ilikefriday thanked Cheryl Smithilikefriday
5 years agoilikefriday
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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