Owning a great home complete with beautiful hardwood floors is every homeowner’s dream. While this is exciting, homeowners must work hard to keep their hardwood floors looking good long into the future. Through both routine cleaning and preventative care, homeowners can make sure that their hardwood floors look good even for their grandchildren. This article will explain how to upkeep hardwood floors to keep them looking new and shiny.
Prevent Floor Wear with Rugs
One of the best ways to prevent the wearing of your hardwood floor is to simply prevent potentially-damaging items from touching the floor’s surface directly. Of course, the easiest way to do this is to simply use a rug to cover certain parts of your floor. Generally, a rug should be used in areas where people are likely to walk around the home in shoes. Additionally, highly-trafficked areas of the house can be well-served by rugs due to the extreme abuse they can be subjected to over the years. Areas in front of doors, in hallways, and in front of cooking appliances should all be covered to prevent them from getting worn out.
Prevent Floor Wear by Taking Precautions
While covering hardwood floors with rugs is a certain way of preventing damage, they also cover your beautiful floors from being enjoyed by your family and guests. Rather than covering them, homeowners can simply take reasonable precautions to prevent their hardwood floors from being damaged. Homeowners with families should implement rules to prevent young children from using toys on the floor. Felt pads should be placed on the bottom of all furniture to prevent it from scratching the floor. When moving furniture, always place it on a cloth blanket to prevent it from touching the floor.
Make Hardwood Floors Look Cleaner
Through routine maintenance, homeowners can keep their hardwood floors looking shiny. Routine maintenance can also protect floors from damage brought on by scratches, sun damage, and permanent stains. Taking a few minutes out of your day to gently sweep or mop high-traffic areas will greatly reduce the need to use harsh chemicals and lower the amount of unwanted dust buildup. Homeowners should avoid cleaning their floors with plain water, ammonia, vinegar, or generic soaps. Rather, they should clean their floors with the appropriate cleaner made for and recommended by the wood’s manufacturer. Using unapproved or unofficial cleaning products may actually decrease the quality and longevity of your floors, since wood tends to absorb water and swell up. If homeowners don’t know who made the wood or a recommendation does not exist, they can go to a local hardware store and look at the available options. For best results, look for a floor cleaner that isn’t acid-based and is designed to keep floors healthy.
Treating Dings and Scratches
Even with the best prevention, accidental damage to hardwood floors is bound to happen. Most hardwood floor cleaners can take care of routine scratches without much effort from the homeowner. If you’re feeling adventurous, rub a walnut on any chips or scratches to quickly conceal any imperfections. However, the normal alternative would be to use a touch-up paint to fill in dings that are created on the floor.
For Extremely Worn Floors
Sometimes floors can be damaged from continued long-term neglect or through the natural passage of time. To really do the job right, homeowners experiencing these problems really need to hire a professional to do a sand and finish job. While DIY jobs can save a bit of money in the short-term, they can actually cost far more in the long-run. Homeowners looking for a fresh start to make their floors look like new again should get in touch with a professional that knows how to get the job done right.
If you have any wood floor preservation tips of your own, please share in the comments below. And, in the event that you have an present issue with your hardwood floors that isn’t covered in this article, reach out and we are happy to walk you through how to address the problem.