Tim Huffadine shares tips on how to maintain wood floors and prevent damage.

When you’ve invested in beautiful wood flooring for your home, the last thing you want is to see is signs of wear and damage appearing before you’ve even finished showing off your home renovations to all family and friends. So, it’s important that from day one you put in place a routine of regular maintenance and a few simple precautions to keep it looking as it should and ensure it stands the test of time.

While a high-quality hardwood floor is a durable surface, life in a busy family home can take its toll sooner than you might think. Thankfully, once you know how, it’s relatively simple to keep it looking its best when you put in place a routine of regular cleaning and maintenance that works for you and your floor’s needs.

Preventing damage to your wood flooring
It’s vital to keep an eye out for any signs of wear and tear on your wood flooring; prevention is always better than a cure. Pay special attention to any areas where there are higher levels of foot traffic.

Avoiding scratches
Installing barrier mats such as coir matting inside and outside all external doorways is an easy and effective way to prevent damage from dirt and grit that can be trodden in from the great outdoors. It’s also a good idea to stick felt pads under the legs of all furniture that might mark the floor. And always lift and avoid dragging when moving your furniture.

Deal with liquid spills quickly
It’s vital to wipe up any spilt liquids with a cloth as soon as you can. If left, the wood will absorb liquids, causing it to stain and possibly expand, which may affect the stability of the floor.

Your wood flooring maintenance routine
A routine of regular cleaning and preventative maintenance should keep your wood flooring looking beautiful and will maximise its life. If your busy lifestyle doesn’t allow you the time to look after your floor as you’d like, see if your wood flooring supplier offers on-site maintenance services. That way, with the help of flooring professionals doing scheduled upkeep, you’ll be sure to keep it in good condition.

Regularly sweep your wood flooring
Sweeping your wood flooring on a regular basis is the best way to prevent scratches. To avoid the build-up of dust and hard particles that cause excessive wear and tear, dry sweep your wood flooring as often as you can. Use a soft broom, a non-abrasive lint-free mop, or a vacuum with a soft attachment.

Cleaning wooden floors
For regular cleaning, we recommend using a well-wrung mop with a suitable wood flooring cleaner, such as our Eco Wash Care, for example. Putting in place a care routine will ensure your flooring remains gently yet thoroughly cleaned and dirt repellent.

We always recommend using tried and tested maintenance products that are PH-neutral and specifically designed for use on wood flooring. Avoid the use of any household cleaners. These can be aggressive and will likely damage or dull the surface and can leave a dangerous slippery film.

Don’t use steel wool or other abrasive cleaning devices, and never use a steam cleaner on wood flooring.

Care products to regenerate oiled wood flooring
In addition to your regular cleaning routine, we recommend applying specialised wood care products to revive your oiled flooring every three months or so (or more regularly if required). This will keep your floor looking fresh and will ensure its surface remains fully protected.

We advise our customers to use products such as our Eco Wax Care for example, to regenerate dull, worn oak floor surfaces, improving wear protection. This can simply be rubbed into a clean floor with a non-abrasive lint-free cloth. For larger areas, it can be applied via a slowly rotating floor buffing machine.

More intensive wood flooring cleaning products
In areas where there’s more wear and tear, such as entranceways, hallways, kitchens and living rooms, and where maintenance and floorcare efforts have been too little too late, there may be areas where the floor surface is heavily worn or stained. In these situations, specialist wood flooring care products such as our Eco Magic Cleaner for example, can be used for more intensive cleaning, to remove surface stains and to clean up heavily worn oak floors. Once treated, a new protective coat such as hardwax oil should be applied.

Refreshing lacquered wood flooring
As well as regular cleaning, lacquered wood flooring occasionally needs some extra care too, and there are slightly different products available that are designed specifically to regenerate lacquered wood floors. You’ll need to choose something like our Eco Refresher for example, which is formulated to freshen up worn lacquered surfaces and improve their wear protection.
0117 9713131
info@chauncey.co.uk
www.chauncey.co.uk
Tim Huffadine is marketing executive at Chaunceys Timber Flooring