Caring For Hardwood Floors - 5 Tips For Your Home

Caring for hardwood floors does not have to be difficult.

Here are some tips for how to keep your hardwood floors in tip top shape.

1. Prevent Dust And Dirt From Accumulating

You should prevent dirt, dust and other abrasive materials from staying on your hardwood floors as much as possible.

The reason is that abrasives, such as these, can quickly scratch and dull the finish on your floors.

When caring for hardwood floors, some easy ways to get rid of abrasives are:

• Place mats and area rugs at all doorways so people have a place to wipe their shoes before entering.
• Sweep with a soft bristle broom, or use a dust mop often.
• Vacuum with a soft floor attachment.

How often you need to sweep and vacuum will depend on the amount of traffic in your home.

If you have several children you may want to sweep or dust mop daily, or every few days.

2. Clean Up Wet Spills Quickly

Wipe up spills quickly because standing water left on hardwood floors can damage and discolor them.

If you have hardwood in your kitchen, place a mat on the floor in front of the sink in case of splashes and spills to catch the majority of the water.

3. Hardwood Is Not As Hard As You Think - Be Careful With Furniture And High Heels

Hardwood floors, although hard, are not completely scratch and dent resistant.

One of the quickest ways to make dents in your hardwood floors is to walk on them with high heels, or cleats.

Ban these types of shoes from being worn while walking on your hardwood. Instead, place them by the door and only put them on before leaving the house.

Similarly, moving furniture is a prime time to accidentally scratch and scuff hardwoood floors.

Put pads, such as fabric, or those plastic furniture glides, under the legs of the furniture to prevent this.

4. Wash Hardwood Floors Only Every Couple Of Months

If you follow the other tips above you will only need to wash your hardwood floors every couple of months.

Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule such as large spills, large crowds, etc.

5. Don't Let Your Hardwood Floors Get Dried Out

A final tip for caring for hardwood floors is that in the winter time, when the air in your home does not have much humidity, the dry air can cause wood shrinkage.

Whenever the air in your home gets dry, use a humidifier to prevent shrinkage and splitting.

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