Tips for Maintaining your Hardwood Floors

Hardwood flooring is versatile, durable, and attractive. It should come as no surprise that hardwood is one of the most popular flooring materials in homes and has been for a very long time. When properly maintained, hardwood floors retain their lustre and last a lifetime. As seasons change, they bring new demands for your floors – rain, snow, dirt, salt, and debris are just a few of the elements that can damage your floors. With that in mind, our team at Floor Coverings International provides some of our top tips for maintaining your hardwood floors so they never lose their wow factor.

Manage Moisture

As moisture causes wood to expand and shrink, you want to avoid too much moisture around your hardwood floors to prevent cupping, splitting, and warping of planks. Always clean spills on your hardwood floors immediately. Using a dry cloth or mop, wipe up the spill as soon as you can. Avoid wet mops and steam mops as these can damage your floors over their lifetime. Additionally, remember that humidity can expose your floors to excess moisture.

Try to keep your inside temperatures between 18°C and 25°C with the humidity between 30 and 50 per cent. If you live in an especially humid environment, you may want to consider using a dehumidifier.

Maintaining your Hardwood Floors

Tips for Maintaining your Hardwood Floors

Prevent Scratches

Sharp or hard objects (especially when they are dragged across hardwood floors) can cause nicks, gouges, and scratches in your hardwood floors. Ultimately, scratches in your hardwood floors are a fact of life, but often they can be prevented. Use furniture pads under chairs and tables, use mats at entryways to your home, and ensure you use a vacuum that is suitable for hardwood floors. You can even consider using rugs to protect your floors in high-traffic areas.

If you do develop scratches, there are commercially available liquid scratch concealers that permanently seal to your floor and hide the appearance of scratches. Make sure to pick a concealer that matches the colour of your floor.

Regular Cleaning

Regularly cleaning your hardwood floors can also make a huge difference in their appearance and lifespan. Our experts at Floor Coverings International recommend daily sweeping or dusting to prevent dust and debris from damaging flooring surfaces and collecting between floorboards. This is especially important if you have pets. In addition, we recommend weekly vacuuming (with your vacuum on the “hardwood” setting) to pick up dust and debris that may not easily be cleared using a broom. You can also use a slightly damp mop to clean your floors a couple times a month. Finally, using an approved wood floor cleaner to thoroughly clean your floors every month will help them maintain their sheen.

Refinishing

No matter how committed you are to keeping your hardwood floors looking like new, over time signs of wear and tear are normal. Real hardwood floors are great because they can be refinished which you’ll probably want to do every 5 years or so. If your floors are looking dull, they can be sanded and refinished to restore their original glow.

For more information on caring for your hardwood floors, you can contact our team at Floor Coverings International for expert tips and advice.