App Cleaner

What type of automatic cleaner should be used to clean floor tiles?

I'm more interested in the dry cleaning part of it (sweeping etc.), as dust is my main concern. I was thinking of buying a vacuum cleaner. But people keep telling me that vacuum cleaners are only meant to be used on carpeted floors; and mine isn't?

Public Comments

1. There are vacuums for hard floors - just do not have the beater bar on.
2. An automatic mop or dust mop
3. There are two different "styles" of vacuum cleaners; uprights (the most popular) and canister. A canister vacuum has a long hose that all attachments attach to. This hose attaches to the power unit which houses the motor, the filters and the dust collection system. Used to be nearly all sweepers were canister vacs because the technology didn't exist to make the motors small enough and still powerfull enough to get the job done like modern uprights do. The attachments usually consisted of a bare floor brush, a powered head with the beater bars in it for carpet and the usual upholstery/dust brush and crevice tool. If you have an upright vacuum; there is a way to make it do bare floors much better and it's an easy thing to do. Sears sells a generic bare floor brush that with the adapter that comes with it will fit right on your extension wand (and hose) of your upright cleaner. Cost is about $13.00 plus tax. I have two Bissell upright vacuums and it fits on both of those. Now you can sweep bare floors much more efficiently and easier! And it's true that modern vacuums are more designed to perform well on carpets as many households have carpeting through out. However, with the movement towards hard surface flooring, it does present some challenges that the vacuum manufacturers have not addressed. This bare floor brush works great and is a cheap, easy fix.
4. In my house, I have a lot of hardwood flooring and linoleum. But the dust seems to be a major problem. I found if I dampen the broom BEFORE I sweep, it does a MUCH better job of cleaning and getting the dust and little debris up. Then I damp mop with either the steam mop or a slightly damp regular mop. I use the vac hose to pick up things like rice, crackers, cheerios and the like sometimes, but mostly a broom with a spritz or two of water on the end does the trick! I have even taken one of those micro fiber cloths and rubber banded them on the end of the broom where I have wet the cloth and wrung it out first, them rubber banded it onto the broom and swept. Works really good and doesn't require as much effort as actual mopping with the same results as sweeping and mopping together. Hope this helps you!