Selecting a wood floor is without a doubt a great purchase and one which you will want to preserve. In order to guarantee its longevity and life expectancy it is most important to make sure it is regularly cleaned and maintained. The way in which you clean and take care of your floor will change based on whether you have opted for solid wood or one of the alternatives of laminate or engineered flooring.
Picking the correct cleaning product for your wooden floor is essential. Picking the wrong products can result in your floor looking lifeless and smeared or even cause damage! Be wary of “all in one” cleaners as they are possibly not tailored to your floors needs
Hardwood floors
Hardwood flooring should only require a gentle daily sweeping, dust mopping or vacuum-cleaning to reduce dirt and grit from being ground in to the flooring. This should certainly be followed by a weekly gentle clean with a moist mop in order to make sure all the grime is cleaned. One a month it is worth using a specific wood floor cleanser diluted in water and apply lightly with a moist mop; this will both protect and enhance your wood floor giving it a all-natural shine.
Over a long period (every 5-10 years) your wood floor can be refinished using a sander, sealant and buffer. This is not a particularly easy job for a non expert so it is probably worth finding an expert person to take on this task.
Laminate floors and engineered floors
Laminate and engineered flooring are similar in their cleansing requirements. All that is really required is a hoover, a dry mop and a moist small cloth for the more tough marks. Dust mopping or vacuuming really should be completed on a weekly basis and a moist mop should only be used when truly necessary. It is very important when damp mopping to make certain you don’t saturate the floor and clean up any surplus water quickly.
A good wet mopping technique is to run the mop in the direction the wood flooring is laid. The solution should evaporate rapidly, leaving a thoroughly clean, streak free finish.
Once a month use a special wood laminate cleaner to remove stubborn stains such as scuff marks and spills. Some laminate floor cleaning solutions tend not to need rinsing which is an advantage as the less water you have on laminate flooring the better.
Wood flooring preservation
Preserving a wood floor is a simple job if you understand what to look out for. There are various basic suggestions which apply to all wood floors and will help keep your floor looking amazing for a longer period:
- To prevent scratching happening from furniture, fit table and couch legs with felt floor protector pads. These pads will need to be checked on a regular basis and replaced to make certain they are totally free from dirt. Never roll or slide furniture around the floor, make sure you lift it to reduce the likelihood of scrapes appearing.
- Buy the correct broom. Straw brooms are far too tough and coarse and could possibly cause scuff marks so stick to a gentler nylon broom when sweeping.
- When cleaning your wood floors, keep the quantity of water used to a minimum. Clean up any excess water immediately using a small towel or wash cloth. The less water you have on the floor the better.
- Where possible, keep pets nails clipped short and try not to let them run around too much on your floor. Use absorbent mats at the entrance door to reduce the amount of water and grit that your pet brings into the room.
Floor repairs
Fixing wood floors may well require a small touch up, the substitution of a whole plank, replacing a strip of wood flooring or even a whole section of the wood flooring.
Typically, insignificant dings and scratches can be fairly easily mended by using a touch up kit using an identical colour as your flooring. These can be picked up for both hardwood and laminate/engineered wood flooring and are available from most DIY retailers. Where the damage exceeds the capability of a touch up set, you may need to have a look at replacing a whole board or more, dependent upon the extent and cause of the damage. The very first thing to do when changing a section of flooring is to make sure you can get new planks that are the same thickness, kind and colour of your existing wood flooring. It may well be that you have some boards left over from when you first purchased the flooring.
It is feasible to repair staining, but it can take a bit of elbow grease to get rid of them and get the job done correctly. If working with engineered wood floors the area may require sanding, sometimes bleaching and then refinishing the plank to match the rest of the floor is possible. Matching the floor colour is probably the hardest part of this job and it might be worth looking for a specialists help if you not confident in this area.
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