Hardwood Maintenance Tips
One of the most important parts of owning hardwood flooring is maintaining it. With both the material and installation costs, you probably spent quite a bit on it. While manufacturers can give you an estimate as to how long your hardwood flooring will last but, ultimately, the lifetime of hardwood flooring depends on how well it’s maintained. To ensure that you get the most value out of your hardwood flooring, follow these maintenance tips:
The most important aspect of maintaining hardwood flooring is knowing what can damage it.
You’ll realize that most hardwood flooring maintenance tips revolve around preventing moisture penetration. Moisture can severely damage hardwood. If liquids penetrate planks, they can end up curling at the edges or even expanding in the center.
Hardwood flooring has advanced quite a bit over the years but moisture still poses a threat to the look of hardwood flooring, so it’s something to be careful of.
Scratching is another threat to hardwood flooring. There are many causes for scratching, so we’ll get into that in a bit.
Preventative Maintenance Tips
Place rugs in areas that typically experience high traffic
The more foot traffic your hardwood flooring experiences, the more it will wear down. Thus, you should protect areas in your home that expeience high foot traffic. One way to protect areas in your home that experience high foot traffic is but placing area rugs in those spaces. Area rugs are perfect for larger spaces, such as living rooms. Other places where you can consider placing rugs are in front of the sink and other areas that are prone to experiencing spills.
Clean up spills as soon as you can
As we mentioned earlier, moisture penetration is one of the biggest threats to hardwood flooring. That’s why, in the event of a spill, it’s important to wipe the spill as soon as possible.
Do not drag furniture
Since scratching is one of the other biggest threats to hardwood flooring, it’s best to avoid any potentional scratching. Instead of dragging funiture across a room, try lifting and placing.
Place pads beneath all furniture legs
Another way to limit scratching is by placing protective pads underneath your furniture.
Use a sealant
Sealing your hardwood flooring is a protective measure that can help prevent both moisture absorption and scratching. Sealants tend to last for 2-3 years, so you won’t have to worry about such issues for a few years.
Place rugs outside of your door
One way that you can prevent dirt from entering your home is by having your guests either wipe their shoes on a mat before entering, or by having them remove their shoes outside your front door.
Cleaning Maintenance Tips
Try to sweep every day
Sweeping every day is a simple yet effective way to keep your hardwood flooring clean. If you can’t sweep every day, try to at least sweep a few times a week.
Vacuum and Mop once a week
Vacuuming and mopping are ways to give your hardwood flooring a bit of a deeper clean. Just make sure that your vacuum is set to the proper hardwood setting—if not, the bristles can end up causing scratching. Additionally, make sure that you do not leave water standing on your floors so that your flooring doesn’t get damaged.
Consider monthly polishing
Polishing your hardwood flooring will clean it in its entirety, not just its surface.
Don’t forget to sand and refinish every few years
One of the biggest benefits of hardwood flooring is that it can be sanded and refinished, freeing it of scratche
Use cleaning solutions specific to your flooring
Some cleaning solutions can damage hardwood flooring, so make sure that the cleaning agent you use is meant for your flooring.
Don’t steam clean hardwood flooring
Since steam cleaning leaves behind water vapor, it can end up damaging hardwood flooring. Due to this, it’s said not to steam clean hardwood flooring.
Floors Touch
These hardwood flooring maintenance tips are simple and aren’t tedious. If you have any other questions regarding hardwood flooring, give Floors Touch a call! Please visit our website—https://floorstouch.com—to learn about our products and services and check out our blog for more flooring and remodeling tips. You can also visit our social media for more details about hardwood flooring maintenance tips.
Do you want to know more about our home flooring solutions? Call Floors Touch of McKinney at (214) 326-0100 for more information.