How to Maintain Your Hardwood Floors
If you have chosen to add hardwood floors to your home renovations you have made a great decision if you are planning to maintain the hardwood floors. Hardwood flooring is made from mature trees, and is treated when it is finished. But hardwood will absorb moisture and also scratch if something is dragged across it.
It is not a good idea to leave a pool of water on your hardwood floors. The moisture will go into the cracks in between the slates and they will swell as they absorb the water. If this happens in even a little spot it will still be noticeable. If there happens to be any liquid at all spilt on the hardwood floor you need to clean it up immediately. When you clean your hardwood floor you can use a damp mop but only damp. There are also floor cleaners that are specially formulted for hardwood floors that you could use, like new floors usually. Either way only a damp mop should be used.
Dents and aslo scratches happen to hardwood floors often. Women wearing high heels are one of the worse things that your hardwood floors can endure. Over a long perios of time furniture legs cause dents and scratches also. You can choose to put area rugs under the furniture to protect the floors or you can put felts on the bottoms of the furniture legs. This can be the same as new floors to many people. Also you could add some area rugs to the highly traveled areas in your home such as kitchens, hallways, in front of the couch.
There are some people that feel that the scratches and the dents give their hardwood floors character. But when you feel that you are in fact sick of them you can get your hardwood flooring refinished. You may need to have your hardwood floors refinished every ten years or so, this will also add a protective top coat to your hardwood floors, just like new floors usually. Moving anything across your hardwood floors to letting your dog run in the house can cause scratches and dents.