Wooden floors are a wonderful addition to any home. The natural material adds a touch of warmth and rustic charm to a room’s atmosphere. If you’re lucky enough to have chosen wood floors to be installed in your custom home, professionally built by Alair Homes Vancouver, maintaining their appeal involves keeping them clean and beautiful. Below, you will find multiple ways to care for your new floors.
Invest In Area Rugs
One of the best ways to keep your wood floors clean is to protect them with rugs. Some people make the argument that placing rugs over such a beautiful material defeats the purpose of having wood floors. This is a fair point, but constant foot traffic over the same areas can cause substantial damage that will ruin the smooth, polished aesthetic of your floors. It’s better to protect them with a rug than to subject them to years of costly or irrepairable damage.
Remove Scuffs
Scuff marks are easy to control if you’re the only one walking through your home on a daily basis, but the addition of visitors and family members can increase your floor’s likelihood of developing scuff marks exponentially. There are a few simple ways to treat and remove scuff marks. A basic pencil eraser will easily remove small scuff marks. For larger marks, most hardware stores carry scuff erasers. Acetone can be used to remove large, stubborn scuff marks. However, it should only be used as a last resort. This is a very abrasive chemical and will dry out your wood floor. After an application of acetone, always follow up with a generous cleaning with an oil-based polish to help restore the shine and to condition the wood.
Remove Your Shoes
Dirt, germs, and filth of all kinds can end up on your floors. This accumulation of dirt is not only frustrating, it can also lead to an increase in illnesses and allergens. The primary culprits of dirt accumulation on your floors are shoes. Shoes are worn everywhere outside and can pick up rocks, dirt, germs, gum, and decaying organic manner. All of this refuse is then tracked inside your home. An effective way to keep your floors clean is to ask your guests to remove their shoes by the door before stepping inside. This will reduce dirt and germs as well as prolong the cleanliness of your floors in your custom home.
Use A Vacuum
Depending on whether your hardwood floors are limited to your custom kitchen or spread throughout the home, a vacuum cleaner might be the easiest and fastest way to get your floors clean. The one drawback to using a vacuum cleaner over wood floors is the beater bar has the potential to scratch the coating or even damage the wood. The best way to handle using a vacuum cleaner on wooden floors is to purchase a model that allows you to either disable the beater bar or a model that doesn’t use a beater bar.
You’ve made an investment in the floors in your custom home, so be sure to take care of them. Doing this prolongs the life of your floors, keeping them looking beautiful for years to come. More tips are available from your project manager, or contact us with any questions.