Wood Floor Care and Maintenance

Taking Care of your hardwood floor

Beauty and convenience aside, wood floors certainly take a beating over time. High heels, foot traffic and pet accidents all threaten and damage polished flooring. We have solutions for all of the scuffs, scratches, indentations and wear that life throws at your beloved wood floors.

Do you have hardwood floors in your home and not know how to maintain or clean them? You're not alone. Many people are left asking the question, "How do I keep my floors looking their best?" The answer is simple, although not necessarily obvious to most. While maintaining a wood floor may be a little more laborious than a vinyl or composite floor, the key is upkeep, namely cleaning your floor often and thoroughly - but not too thoroughly.

Avoid using rubber-backed or non-ventilated mats or rugs as they can damage your floor. Instead, use mats or rugs made especially for hardwood floors and shake them out often.

Many make the beginner’s mistake of cleaning their floor with agents that are too harsh, which can mar or damage a floor's finish. The result can be a nightmare. Use of harsh chemicals and abrasives can scuff, scratch or even remove your floor's finish and gloss. When this occurs, the typical solution is to strip the floor of its remaining finish and resurface it, a process which is timely and somewhat costly. Instead, let's focus on some not-so-drastic cleaning and maintenance procedures, things you can do on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis to insure the luster and beauty of your home's hardwood flooring surfaces.

Regular Cleaning

Through your daily traffic in the house, you may notice that your flooring surfaces may begin to dull slightly. This is most likely as a result of residual dirt tracked into the house by your family or your pets. A good procedure to clean your floors in an efficient and proper manner is to initially sweep the area with a soft bristle broom. It is important to examine the broom's bristles before starting, as some brooms are not appropriate for some surface areas and can also scratch or mar the finish. It is best to try the broom on a small area of the floor first to insure that it's not damaging the floor in any way.

Next, mix a solution of mild soap and water, preferably on the lighter side of the soap to insure a non-slip surface is maintained. Using a soft sponge mop, evenly mop the entire surface area until clean, and then let the area air dry. If this procedure is maintained on a regular basis, you will certainly prolong the beauty of your floors for a very long time. Beyond this, there are other steps that can be taken less frequently that can add life and beauty to your floors, such as floor treatments.

Abrasive particles like dirt, sand or gravel gather on the surface of your wood floors, making them look dull and causing scratches. Mats, runners or area rugs placed near entryways help catch dirt where it enters. In fact, doormats can eliminate 80 percent of the dirt tracked inside a home. To start, clean up food and water spills immediately. Then make sure to mop and vacuum frequently. Mop the floor with a cleaner especially made for the type of hardwood floors that you have installed. If you use the wrong cleaner, it won't adhere to the finish as well and could cause the floor to peel." Looking for a chemical-free approach? Invest in a steam cleaner. Or kick it up a notch with a combination vacuum/steam mop.

Monthly Floor Treatment

Floor treatments are widely available cleaning products specifically designed to add luster and shine, all while conditioning your hardwood floors. While these products are excessive to use on a weekly basis, it is certainly reasonable to treat your floor to this process every month or so, depending on traffic, and the simple steps needed to do so are well worth the effort. Be sure to verify the contents and application procedures for your specific product, and should any questions arise, refer to your local home products retailer for further advice. Sometimes mixtures/concentrates can vary from brand to brand, so be sure to check the label for mixture directions.

To protect the finish, never use silicone-based polish, cleaners that contain oil, wax or ammonia, or vinegar solutions to clean the floor, Swindoll advises. Vinegar may be the worst offender, as it contains acid that will dull out floors.

REMOVING STAINS FROM WOOD FLOORS

- Water spots: Water can cause white spots to form on a wood floor's finish. Apply a small amount of mineral spirits to an extra-fine steel wool pad and rub the spotted area in a circular motion.
- Food stains: Wipe the area with a damp cloth, then rub dry and wax.

PREVENT SCRATCHES

Place glides or pads on the bottom of furniture legs to prevent scratches, dents and other forms of damage on the floor finish. To keep wood floors looking their best, put down rugs and runners in high-traffic areas. Take care when moving heavy objects to avoid scuffing.

For an inexpensive, easy solution: slide socks onto chair and table legs so that they don't scratch the floor when moving furniture around. If you have pets, trim their nails or claws regularly so they don't damage the floor over time.

Use a soft-haired broom when sweeping floors to prevent scratching. If vacuuming, make sure to turn on the switch intended for flooring.

RUB OUT SCUFF MARKS

Scuff marks clean right up. Use a little water and rub the scuffed area. For stubborn marks, you can spray a cloth with hardwood floor cleaner and lightly rub clean. Or gently stroke with an extra-fine steel wool pad.

REMOVE HEEL DENTS, SCRATCHES AND OTHER GOUGES

A beautiful stiletto heel can turn heads, but destroy your hardwood floors. To fix the pockmarks that pointy heels create -- as well as gouges left by furniture -- you may need to sand the floor down to the raw wood and refinish it. Follow these steps to refinish wood floors.

If your floor is the victim of scratches that don't penetrate all the way through the wood, you can repair it in a few hours. Known as a "pad and recoat," use a buffer to scuff-sand floors and apply a coat or two of wood finish. This process is easier and less expensive than sanding and refinishing.

You can rent a buffer from your local home center. After buffing and roughing up the surface, apply a polyurethane stain. Follow directions for recoat time. Generally, water-based stains need to be recoated in 3 hours; oil-based in 8 or more hours.

For minor scratches, there are a variety of ways to conceal scratches in wood floors. Here are a few quick and easy fixes:
- Grab a marker. Hide surface scratches by touching them up with a stain-filled marker.
- Rub the scratch with the edge of a quarter. If this doesn't conceal the scratch enough, rub a small amount of paste wax and buff it with a soft cloth.
- Walnuts are more than just a snack. Repair shallow scratches by rubbing shelled nuts on the surface. The natural oils in nuts help conceal the flaws.
- Spot sand it. Use extra-fine sandpaper or steel wool to gently buff scratched or chipped areas, then use a cotton swab or small paintbrush to restain wood.

SILENCE SQUEAKY FLOORS

Squeaky floors make it hard for someone to sneak up behind you, but so ends their list of benefits. To silence squeaks, turn your attention to the subfloor, which acts as backing to hold the flooring in place. Secure the subfloor to wood flooring from below by driving screws at a slight angle. Use screws short enough not to break the surface of the face of the wood.

Another easy solution is a Counter-Snap Kit that utilizes a screwdriver bit, depth-control fixture and breakaway screws. When drilling, the screwhead automatically breaks off when you drive the screw to a certain depth. This will leave you with non-squeaky floors and undetectable screws.

Also, sprinkling talcum powder, baking soda or candle wax on floorboards can help quiet squeaky floors.

FIX GAPS BETWEEN FLOORBOARDS

Wood naturally expands. Gaps in between hardwood floorboards often occur due to the moisture levels in the wood and the air temperature in your home. Dry winter air and heating sucks out moisture, causing boards to shrink and gaps to form in the floor. Fix this problem by using a humidifier to control the air inside your home. "During the wintertime use a humidifier to add moisture to the wood," advises Swindoll. In the spring and summer, higher humidity levels will cause the wood to expand, closing the gaps.

Generally temperatures between 60 degrees and 80 degrees and a humidity level in the range of 35 to 55 percent is optimal for wood floors. These levels will help retain the proper moisture in the floor's wood fibers.

Another option for repair is to apply wood filler in the gaps. However, when the floor contracts and expands, the filler can easily pop out or fall into the gap. Thus wood filler is only a temporary fix and not an ideal option. If you find that a humidifier is not minimizing the gaps, it's best to call a professional for a lasting repair.

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