Hardwood Flooring Maintenance Allen, TX

Hardwood Flooring Maintenance in Allen

A big part of proudly owning hardwood flooring in Allen, TX is protecting your investment. You probably spent quite a bit on the hardwood flooring itself, plus more on the installation. Every manufacturer can give you an idea as to the anticipated lifetime of a hardwood product, but in all honesty, homeowners themselves have a lot of say in how long their hardwood flooring lasts. To protect and increase your flooring’s lifetime, consider the following about hardwood flooring maintenance.

For starters, you’ll need to consider the threats to hardwood flooring.

You’ll discover that most hardwood flooring maintenance tips are centered around moisture prevention. Moisture is quite harmful to hardwood. If water or other liquids seep through the surface and down to the core, cupping and/or crowning may result. Planks might curl on the edges or even expand within the middle.

Hardwood knowledge has definitely improved over time and it’s safe to say that the flooring type is generally stronger against moisture than ever before. But even so, moisture remains a threat, and you definitely don’t want to ruin your hardwood flooring.

Scratching is another threat. Some hardwood flooring types get scratched more easily than others; regardless, preventative measures must still be taken to avoid scratching. Here are some of those preventative measures:

Preventative Suggestions

Place rugs in areas that see a lot of foot traffic

The more foot traffic a hardwood floor experiences, the more it will wear down—simple logic. Due to this, it’s a good idea to protect areas with excessive foot traffic. You can even use area rugs as protection. Area rugs are perfect for larger spaces such as living rooms. You should also consider putting a mat in front of your kitchen sink (if hardwood flooring is in your kitchen). Basically, any areas where you or others continuously walk through should be protected by rugs.

Clean up any spills as soon as possible

Once again, you don’t want moisture to reach the core of a hardwood plank. So, don’t leave any spills on the surface. Something as simple and harmless as spilling a glass of water shouldn’t result in a damaged hardwood floor.

Don’t slide furniture

To avoid scratching, make sure you lift and put down furniture when moving it. Sliding furniture can and will scratch the flooring. Sure, scratches under your sofa aren’t going to be as noticeable, but what if you decide to rearrange the room sometime? Those hidden scratches you forgot about will come into view.

Place pads under all furniture legs

To prevent scratching caused by moving furniture, apply protective pads under all furniture legs. These include couches, chairs, tables and TV stands.

Use a sealant

Sealing hardwood flooring is quite useful. A sealant will protect against moisture and scratching. It will be an added expense post-installation, bu the added value will aid in stopping it from putting on wear and tear 2-3 years at a time.

Use rugs outside of all doorways

Try your best to keep dirt, grass and dust outside. Have guests wipe their shoes on a door mat before they walk into your Allen home. Another idea is to ask guests to remove their shoes at the front door, but that depends on whether or not or not you want to implement such a rule.

Cleaning Suggestions

Try your best to sweep daily

Sweeping every day is among the top hardwood flooring maintenance suggestions. It will keep your flooring clean and help you avoid having to deep clean later. Every day might be too much, but sweeping a couple of times every week is a good habit to get into.

Vacuum/mop as often as every week

Vacuuming and mopping will keep your hardwood flooring free from dirt and other particles. Make sure that your vacuum is set to the proper hardwood setting—most times, the bristles can cause scratching. Also, be careful when mopping. You just want to watch the amount of water that gets onto your flooring. Wet-mopping is dangerous.

Consider cleaning monthly

Polishing your hardwood flooring is a really efficient cleaning method. Polish cleans the wood completely, not just the surface.

Don’t forget to sand & refinish every few years

Perhaps the biggest plus to having hardwood flooring installed is the fact that it can be sanded and refinished. You’ll basically have brand new flooring every time you refinish it. Essentially, the top layer is sanded off, creating a new top layer, free of scratches.

Use manufacturer-specific cleaning agents

Certain cleaning solutions will be harmful to hardwood. To be safe, use cleaners that are recommended by the hardwood manufacturer or by hardwood flooring experts.

Don’t steam clean!

Just like water can damage hardwood, so does steam. Steam cleaning is harmful because the steam covers the entire floor and is left to soak into the floor. Overexposure will most definitely cause damage over time.

Floors Blvd

We hope these hardwood flooring maintenance tips help increase the lifetime of your hardwood floor. None of them require that much effort; you just need to be disciplined and get into a cleaning routine. If you have any questions on hardwood flooring, or if you’re contemplating getting a hardwood floor, give Floors Blvd a call. Please visit our website—https://www.floorsblvd.com—to find out about our providers and for additional flooring and remodeling ideas.