Hardwood floors look beautiful in any room of your home, but you have to make sure that you take good care of them in order to get the most use out of them and to make sure that they will retain their original appearance. Another reason for being so diligent about taking good care of your hardwood flooring is that doing so will make sure that you retain the full value of your home.
Research
One of the very first things that you’ll want to do is find out what kind of flooring and finishing your hardwood floors have so that you can know exactly what kind of products you need to use to effectively clean your floors. For example, you’ll want to make sure that you never use paste wax on hardwood floors that have a polyurethane finish.
Proper Cleaning
You’ll want to make sure that you use a soft broom to sweep your floors to not only keep them clean and naturally buff them, but also to keep them from getting scratched later on. If you should ever have to clean up any kind of spill or mess on your hardwood floor, use a dry towel whenever you can. You should also take care that you clean up all solid material, such as sand, grit and dirt as soon as possible in order to keep their abrasive textures from wearing away and scratching the finish on your floor.
Whenever you’re cleaning your floors, try not to use any more water than you absolutely have to, and make sure that you clean up any wet spots on your hardwood and laminate flooring.
Protect Your Floors
If it’s possible, have everyone in your household leave their shoes outside if they can stand it in order to keep from tracking in dirt and grime on your hardwood floors. Another option is to place rugs in hallways, entrances and any other high traffic areas throughout your house.
You’ll also want to take care that you don’t use any kind of oil soap as you’re cleaning hardwood floors since they tend to create a build up over time that can tarnish the look of your floors and can also make things difficult if you ever decide to refinish your floors.
Should you ever put furniture down in rooms with hardwood floors, put on special felt feet on the bottom of them to keep scratches at a minimum. There are also vacuum cleaners that have special attachments on them that can be used on hardwood floors in order to effectively get rid of all dirt and dust. Steer clear of vacuum cleaners with hard heads or beater bars as they’re sure to ruin your floor.
Taking Care of Abrasions and Scratches
For small scratches, use a touch-up kit or a special hardwood restoring finish. For deeper gouges, you can replace individual strips and planks if necessary. There are also special hardwood floor products that you can use to refurbish your floors.
Hardwood floors are some of the best looking floors that you can have in your home, but you have to make sure that you do everything that you can to take care of them to make sure that they last.
Ella Gray is a keeps a happy home and happy pets and is always interested in blogging about her domestic adventures. Please feel free to email her at Ella.l.Gray@gmail.com.
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