Hardwood floors are one of the most aesthetically pleasing flooring types you can have in a home. Whether you install them yourself or move into a home with hardwood floors already in place, you need to know how to properly maintain them to ensure you get the most life out of your floors.
Here are a few tips for keeping your hardwood floors looking like new.
1. Vacuum or Sweep Often
Often times, people assume that because they have a hard floor, they don’t have to vacuum as much as they would if they had carpeting. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Unlike carpet, when hardwood floor accrues dirt buildup, walking over that can cause scratches, that can eventually degrade and devalue your floors.
If you’re not the type to do any cleaning task daily, you can use a robot vacuum cleaner like you can find here: https://modernliving101.com/best-robot-vacuums-hardwood/.
If you opt for a robot vacuum cleaner rather than hauling out the traditional clunky upright-style vacuum, you’re going to save yourself a world of headaches.
Robot vacuums can be programmed to run daily, or even multiple times a day if you have an extra dirty home with kids or pets.
Now that your floors are free of dirt let’s keep on down the list.
2. Don’t Use a Wet Mop
You should definitely mop your hardwood floors, but putting too much water on the surface of the wood can cause them to warp or bow. This kind of damage cannot be repaired, and you’ll have to replace planks if they get water damage.
Instead, you can either use something like a Swiffer or a dry mop to clean your floors instead. This will still sanitize your floors and give them a nice shine without risking potential water damage.
3. Get The Professionally Resurfaced
Every 5-10 years you should plan on getting your hardwood floors resurfaced. This will drastically extend their lifespan. By resurfacing your floors rather than waiting to replace them, you can almost double how long they will last.
If you’re not experienced with resurfacing hardwood floors, this job is best left to the professionals. Do some research for quality contractors in your area who knows how to handle hardwood floor resurfacing. Doing a bad job on the resurfacing can ruin your floors for good.
4. No Shoes!
If you have kids, one simple thing you can do to help extend the life of your hardwood floors is to implement a “no shoes” policy. Not only do shoes bring in extra dirt from outside, but the bottoms of the shoes can actually scratch your floors themselves. Since tennis shoes are meant to grip the ground, they tend to hold on to the surfaces you’re walking on. If this happens to be your hardwood floors, this means deep scratches that can’t be buffed out.
5. Clean Messes Quickly
The last thing you can do to increase the life of your hardwood floors is to be diligent about cleaning messes as soon as you find them. This is especially important for water spills or pet pee.
If you can manage to clean up a mess within a few minutes, it will be like it never happened. On the flip side, if you wait or miss the mess and it sits on your floors for hours, this can lead to long-term damage.
Bringing It All Together
When it comes to maintaining hardwood floors, you need to take a few extra steps to make sure your floors don’t get damaged. In some ways, hardwood floors are easier to care for than other flooring materials like tile or carpet. In other ways, it can be more tricky.
With these tips, you can drastically extend the life of your hardwood floors and keep them looking great for decades to come.
