Simple Hardwood Flooring Preventative Maintenance Tips

Preventative maintenance isn’t just for your car, your home needs it too. Many homeowners know to have regular maintenance performed on their HVAC system and often perform preventative maintenance to their roof, but what about hardwood flooring? Do you know that by following these simple preventative maintenance tips you can extend the time between refinishing by years?

5 Things You Can do to Protect Your Wood Floor’s Finish

  1. Sweep and vacuum – the dirt and sand we track into our homes, not to mention the accidental crumbs that drop from the piece of toast we eat on our way out the door, act like sand paper when you walk on it. The more often you sweep or vacuum your hardwood flooring, the less grit damage is done to your floors every day.
  2. Floor protectors on all furniture – this bit of preventative maintenance helps prevent unsightly scratches and divots. Purchase quality floor protectors that firmly attach to all areas of the furniture that are in contact with the flooring. There are many size and shape options. Some nail or screw into legs of chairs and barstools that are often lifted and loose the stick on one.
  3. Use quality rug pads – many homeowners buy rubber based rug pads for their area rugs or worse yet the sticky backed carpet slide protectors. These are both bad for the finish on your hardwood flooring. Depending upon the type you have, your rug pads may leave marks in the flooring or react with the finish you’ve chosen. The best options are all natural wool or natural rubber pads.
  4. Consider plant stands – we can’t even begin to count how many homeowners had plants in plastic “waterproof” container directly on their hardwood flooring only to find that condensation somehow created warped or stained flooring. By putting your plans on plant stands even just an inch off the floor, you will allow air to circulate and help prevent water damage.
  5. Heels and nails – take off your high heels and keep your pet’s toenails trimmed. Depending upon the weight of the woman and the profile of the heel, a high heel may put 200 pounds per square inch or more of pressure onto the flooring which is bound to dent it. Pet’s nails are much the same as a heel if the animal puts weight on their nails.

What if You Already Have Wear?

One last bit of advice if you’ve consistently done all this but still are seeing a bit of wear in the most heavily trafficked area is to talk about refinishing the floors using a screening process. Once one area begins to lose it’s finish, other areas will soon follow. It’s better to refinish before damage is done to the bare wood. Seer Flooring can provide you with a no obligation estimate to bring back the sheen your floors once had with minimal inconvenience. Call today for your appointment – (727) 785-1930.