Hardwood flooring is a favourite among many homeowners, because it looks great and requires minimal effort. Unlike engineered or laminated wood, you can sand and refinish hardwood many times. This task could replenish the diminished warmth and beauty of your hardwood flooring. You can do this to speed up the resale value of your house. You need to perform regular floor care to ensure that your hardwood flooring continues to look at its best. It is important for you to regularly clean your hardwood flooring. For many houses, the bane of hardwood flooring is grit and dirt. Hardwood isn’t the hardest material, so marks and scratches will appear on the surface. Dust is also more visible on the hardwood flooring, compared to on carpet or linoleum, so at least a daily cleaning is needed.
Regular dusting and sweeping will produce fine scratches on the well polished hardwood flooring, so it will look quite dull after some time. Worse, as scratches get deeper and more numerous, they will trap grit and dirt; making your floor looks even more imperfect. It is a good idea for you to vacuum the hardwood surface, instead of sweeping it. However, you should choose the bare floor attachment, to minimize damaged on the wood. You should know about the type of finish used on your hardwood flooring. If it has a glossy finish, then it is probably water-based urethane or polyurethane. If the surface appears to have a matte finish, it could be protected with a seal of wax or oil. The floor cleaning product should have neutral pH value, because acidity and alkaline values can really be quite damaging.
When cleaning the hardwood floor, you should avoid using ammonia, household cleaners and regular floor cleaners. If your floor has glossy finish or urethane-based finish, it is not recommended to use wax. Whatever, you should never wash the hardwood and it is best to use only a damp mop that’s not dripping water. If you have a hardwood flooring, you should have enough supply to re-oil or re-wax. In high traffic areas, you will start to notice dull surface more quickly than on low- or no-traffic area. Damages are often visible near the front door, so you may need to re-wax the area more frequently.
Eventually water mark will appear on your hardwood flooring. For this reason, you need to use fine grade steel wool to rub and remove the outer protective finish. You need to sand it with the finest wood sandpaper and refinish the area. When you have burn marks, you should wipe it with damp cloth to remove carbon deposits. After you specify the damaged area, you can use medium or fine sandpaper, depending on the depth of the fire damage. Deep gouges may be inflicted by heavy, metal objects that fall to the surface. You need to use a bit of wood putty with matching color, sandpaper it and the refinish the surface. Recapturing the original beauty of your hardwood flooring is easy.
