Hardwood floors look and feel amazing and can lend a warm, cozy ambiance to your home. However, they can be tricky to maintain and can lose their sheen and spoil easily. How can you care for the hardwood floors in your custom kitchen, living room or dining room to ensure a long life and a good finish?
Avoid footwear indoors
Outside footwear, especially heels, can make dents in the hardwood floor and spoil them dust and dirt from outdoor footwear can also spoil the finish and reduce the life of hardwood floors. Avoid outdoor footwear inside the house as much as possible, and place mats near doorways to clean your feet when you come into the house.
Fix padding on furniture legs
Moving furniture around on a hardwood floor can scrape the wood and damage the flooring. Ensure that you fix felt padding on all furniture legs so when you move them, they do not scrape the hardwood flooring and damage it. Avoid moving furniture around when the floor is wet after mopping. Instead, your floors time to dry first.
Use temperature and humidity controllers
Hardwood floors last longer when maintained at a maximum of 50 percent humidity and a temperature of 26 degrees Celsius. You can vary these number a little based on outside temperature, but try to keep these numbers as your upper limit to increase the life of your hardwood flooring.
Do not use harsh floor cleaners
Harsh floor cleaners and acids can not only scrape away the finishing of hardwood floors but they can damage the wood itself, leading to permanent damage to your flooring. Use mild cleaners when mopping your floor, and keep mopping to a minimum as hardwood does not deal well with high levels of moisture on a regular basis. A good rule of thumb is to vacuum or sweep your floors daily or every day and reserve mopping to no more than once a week unless you’re dealing with a spill.
Taking these simple steps can not only increase the life of hardwood floors in your Alair Homes Victoria custom home but can keep them looking new and shiny for a long time.