How to Take Care of Your Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood flooring is the characteristic of a beautiful home.

Just imagine walking through a home with rich and beautiful dark tones that radiate from the hardwood flooring. The family happily sitting in the dining room with the chandelier illuminating above the dinner table. This is just a short glimpse of the American Dream, and if you are lucky to have hardwood flooring in your home, you’re one step closer to that. But how do you maintain your floors? Here’s some tips and tricks to help preserve the beautiful hardwood floors in your home.

Maintaining the Quality of your Floors

Of course we want you to take good care of your hardwood flooring, but let’s start with what you should avoid doing. So let’s get some things straight. Try to avoid high heels on your floors. This can be tricky because you can’t control what guests wear to your home, but high heels have a tendency to leave dents. That is because the “spikes” in the heels have a high force per inch. It is like striking your hardwood floors with tiny, but strong, hammers every time the fashionista takes a step. Sometimes we get the urge to change up the feeling of our home. That is why you might spontaneously move your furniture around. When you do feel the need to fix the feng shui, try not to drag the furniture across your floors. Besides wearing down the quality of the hardwood flooring, it can also scratch and leave marks. So what’s the solution to doing a little rearranging? Cover the bottom of the legs of your furniture. Purchasing felt pads make moving furniture easier and safer on your floors. In desperate times you could slide a towel under the legs, but we would rather be safe than sorry and use the felt pads. This next tip is aimed at your four legged companions. If you have dogs or cats, take a look at their nails. Properly grooming and trimming their nails will prevent your pets from scratching the hardwood floors.

Your Maintenance Routine

The downside about hardwood floors is that they show dirt easily. But you can also look at this as a good thing. It lets you know when you need to do a quick cleaning of your home. A five minute chore can go a long way for the maintenance and quality of your hardwood floors. Sweeping daily can prevent build up of dust and debris around your home. Weekly maintenance is not so different. Once a week use a vacuum on its hardwood setting to pick up loose and hard to see dirt that you might have missed while sweeping. Then use a damp mop with hardwood flooring cleaning liquids after. Do not use a “wet” mop, and try to clean excess liquids left behind.