So you got yourself a wooden floor. Great! Now you’ve got to take care of it. But doesn’t everyone say just how robust and strong wooden flooring is compared to carpets? Yes, it’s true, compared to carpets, wooden floors certainly stand the test of time, but much like the feeling of dread you feel as you see pigeons hovering around your recently washed car, a wooden floor seems unfortunately prone to slight scratches and scuffs which, depending on the style of your room, can diminish the quality of that style.
So, as with everything, it is important that you take good care of your wooden floor – they will last a long time, but they’ll last even longer, and look even better if you take care of it.
Shoes
It is one thing to try and take care of your flooring after something has happened to it, but it is another thing entirely to attempt prevention – to eliminate any risk of damage occurring. What could I mean?
Shoes, people. Make sure your guests, your kids, your significant other, take off their shoes before marching into the room and sit their kicking their feet back and forth. Shoes carry stones, glass and other detritus on the bottom of them. They scuff and scratch and slowly, but surely, tear away at the wood, no matter how hard it is.
Vacuum
It is also important to vacuum the floor perhaps once a week. Little bits of dust and dirt inevitably get into the house anyway, so you just want to try and avoid any potential marks that they might leave.
Drinks
Wine. Tea. Drinks in general. Wooden flooring is great for spillages, there is no doubt about it. That is why so many people opt for wooden flooring. It is easier to clean than carpet, less tacky than linoleum. But that doesn’t mean that spillages don’t cause damage at all. What is important here is recognising where a spill could occur and stopping it before it does. Keeping glasses and cups by your feet is a disaster waiting to happen.
Proper Care
There is a particular way to clean a wooden floor properly, and, depending on the type of wood you opted for when you bought the flooring, probably a particular way to treat that type of wood. Regular household products are probably not the best option for wooden floors – whilst these may be your go to tools when cleaning, you actually run the risk of doing more damage than good when you clean with these items.
Hard wood, robust as it is, deserves a special kind of treatment – after all, if you’ve spent out a lot of money on a nice floor, it is important that you keep it nice, right? I mean who takes their Lamborghini down to the local carwash?
Scratches
Prevent scratching. This happens for a number of reasons – animals whose claws aren’t clipped, children’s toys, shoes (again), dragging furniture. All these things can scratch and dig into the floor causing damage. You will unlikely notice it at the time, but as time passes you’ll realise that your floor is beginning to dull, and nobody wants that.
Stephen MacVicar is the Founder of flooring specialists and established flooring supplier – Mojo Flooring. Stephen has a wealth of knowledge in the flooring industry and is always more than happy to advice on how to care for your new wooden floor.