If you’ve invested in a hardwood floor for your home, then you’re in good company. They’re an extremely popular choice for modern homeowners, thanks to the availability of the materials, and their long-lasting good looks. Given the right care and attention, a wooden floor from a reputable manufacturer like Find me a Floor will be able to last far longer than their carpeted counterparts. But what exactly should this care and attention look like, and how can we perform it in the right way, and thereby ensure that our wooden floors are protected?
Fortunately, a wooden floor is far easier to take care of than a carpeted one; there aren’t any fibres that can become frayed and worn over time, and a little bit of sanding can help to correct any short-term shocks (though you’ll want to limit others, like the damage caused by a set of high-heeled shoes.)
Let’s run through the different levels of cleaning you’ll need to perform. Some of them should be performed regularly, and barely take up any time at all. Others are more of a big deal, but only need to be performed once in a blue moon. Let’s take a look at some of the techniques you’ll need to employ.
Every Day
Part of the joy of owning a hardwood floor is that cleaning takes seconds. Run a dried mop or a brush over the top of your floor to pick up any loose dust that’s fallen there over the course of the day. You’ll want to do this using quite a specific sort of brush: one that isn’t wiry and abrasive, as this will wear your flooring down over time; and once that isn’t wet, as the excess moisture will soak into the flooring and accelerate the onset of rot.
Use a soft brush or a microfibre mop, as these devices will attract dust and help you to pick It up with the absolute minimum of effort.
Every Week
Naturally, you won’t pick up every single particle of dust with your daily clean – some of them will settle into areas that your mop or brush can’t get to, like the cracks between floorboards. This is particularly troublesome in monitors with bevelled edges. In this instance, you’ll need to use a vacuum cleaner to get into the cracks. Be sure to deactivate your cleaner’s beater bar (which is a sort of rotating brush found at the bottom of some cleaners. This will guard your flooring against unnecessary abrasion.
Every Month
Of course, while it’s important to keep on top of the situation with falling dust, there are other substances that’ll make your floor appear dirtier than it really is. Among these is the falling grime that comes from walking around, cooking and breathing. Even in the cleanest interior, unseen particles of dirt will steadily settle onto your flooring, ultimately forming a layer of dirt which must be lifted using a cleaning solution.
Here, you’ll need to be careful that you employ the right product. Some sorts of acrylic wax, for example, are designed to be used on tiles and vinyl flooring, and will actually cause harm to the flooring. Similarly, you don’t want to soak the floor in water, either, as this will damage the wood in the manner we’ve already described.
For obvious reasons, you should avoid steam cleaning your hardwood floor. If you’ve got hardwood installed into your bathroom, then you might notice that the topmost finish is more worn away in areas where moisture is a problem, like just beside the shower. Moisture will erode the finish of your wood and make it necessary to sand and restore the finish more often.
Instead, use a product that’s been specifically designed and marketed as a wooden floor cleaner. You’ll find such products from any reputable timber merchant – and you might even pay for a professional to come around and clean your floor for you.
Sanding and re-finishing
By removing the very top layer of wood and applying a new layer of finish, we can restore it to a perfectly smooth, as-new condition. Of course, there’s a limit to how often you can do this, as repeated sanding will gradually wear away at the wood until there’s nothing left of it. That said, this is a sizeable operation which requires a bit of time and effort to get right, so you won’t be doing it more often than once every few years, in any case.
If you’re unwilling to invest the time in keeping your wooden floors in good condition, then why not consider a wood-effect vinyl floor from a manufacturer like Kardean flooring?
