Hardwood floors are well-liked because of their classic appearance and longevity. The hardwood floors in your house may endure a lot, but they are not unbreakable. Your floors may become damaged, scuffed, and stripped as a result of certain cleaning agents, furniture, and maintenance errors.
You can maintain your wood floors and guarantee a perfect finish underfoot by following a few easy steps. Experts in flooring and cleaning describe typical behaviors and errors people make with wood floors and provide advice on how to take better care of them so you can continue to enjoy spotless floors for many years to come.
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Habits That Are Damaging Your Hardwood Floors
Frequently Cleaning Floors with Vinegar
Due to its availability and non-toxicity, vinegar is a common household cleaning solution. But regularly using vinegar or a vinegar solution to clean wood floors can seriously harm them.
The most popular kind of floor finish, polyurethane, is too acidic for vinegar, which gradually erodes the finish. When you first clean your floors with vinegar, this won’t be noticeable, but the harm is happening gradually and can surprise you.
Use a pH-neutral floor cleaner, diluted dish soap, or an all-purpose cleaner designed for wood floors in place of vinegar-based floor cleaning solutions.
Soaking Floors
A typical error that leads to issues like warping and swelling is soaking hardwood floors. Use a damp cloth to moisten your mop rather than soaking it. You may believe that the best method to clean is with a wet mop, but wood and too much water don’t mix. When water seeps into the planks, it can lead to warping, swelling, or even the growth of mold. To clean the surface without soaking the wood, use a damp microfiber mop that is just slightly moist—not dripping. Less is more when using a spray mop. All you need is a gentle mist.
Putting on Shoes at Home
Both the shoes themselves and the items they bring into your house might harm your wood flooring when you wear them indoors. The debris from your shoes might cause issues for wood floors, even if you wear relatively soft shoes.
Not adhering to the no-shoes guideline is a frequent error. If you drag furniture or other heavy items over the floor, even a tiny bit of grit or sand can harm the finish. If a shoe-free policy isn’t practical for your way of life, make sure each entrance has rugs to catch dirt.
Refusing to Place Pads Under Furniture
Wood floors might get dented and scuffed due to people’s frequent failure to place padding underneath heavy furniture. Your wood floors will be much better protected with high-quality felt furniture pads, which form a gentle barrier to keep objects from coming into direct contact with them.
Furniture scrapes the floor every time you sit down or move slightly, creating scuffs and scratches. Believe me, you can save hundreds of dollars on floor refinishing later by investing a few dollars in felt pads today.
Using Cleaners with Enzymes
Enzyme cleansers are a common method used by pet owners to remove stains and mishaps from their animals. However, if your wood floors have oil-based coatings, these can harm the finish.
Oil-based wood floor coatings can be broken down by enzyme cleaners, such as those used to clean up pet feces, pet vomit, or human accidents. These will harm the wood, discoloring it and deteriorating the polish. This is what I’ve done.
Therefore, it is recommended to try to find the cans, ask the previous owner, or have an expert look at your wood floors to find out what kind of finish they are.
Leaving Heavy Furniture in the Same Spot
Leaving large, heavy furniture in one place for years is another common error. Dents in your wood floors can be avoided by rotating or even simply shifting your furniture.
“I understand that once you’ve located the ideal location for your dresser or couch, you won’t feel the need to move it every few months. However, years of heavy furniture staying in one spot compress the wood, causing significant dents that don’t simply go away!
“I’m not saying you need to rearrange your whole house every week.” To distribute the weight, move your furniture even a few inches every few months.
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