The winter months can take quite a toll on your hardwood floors. At Smith Bros Floors, we understand the difficulties that many of our customers have when it comes to keeping dirt, water, and mud off their floors during the winter.
While we firmly believe that hardwood floors are much easier to maintain than carpet,the reality is that water damage can still cause significant degradation of your hardwood floors.
Expansion…Contraction
Many of our hardwood floors are finished and sealed to reduce the likelihood of water seeping into your floors and causing significant damage. However, water that remains on your hardwood floors for a long period of time has the potential to seep into your floors. This can result in an expansion and contraction of your hardwood floors that is unhealthy for the longevity of your floors.
If you live in an area that experiences a considerable amount of wet weather during the winter, it benefits you to equip your home with durable hardwood floors. However, with the large amount of dirt and water often tracked into homes, it can be difficult to maintain your hardwood floors in their original state.
Three Simple Steps for Beautiful Hardwood Floors
How can you protect against the accelerated degradation of your hardwood floors?
Here are a few simple tips to help you keep your hardwood floors looking shiny and new:
• Prevention
Stopping dirt and water at the door is the first step in keeping your hardwood floors looking like new. Requiring guests to leave their shoes at the front door goes a long way towards extending the life of your hardwood floors.
Placing mats at the entrances to your home, as well as underneath the kitchen sink, dishwasher, and all kitchen workstations can help prevent unwanted dirt and water from spilling onto your floor.
• Regular Care
It is true that hardwood floors require much less care than carpet. That being said, regular sweeping or vacuuming of your hardwood floors will prevent any abrasive dirt that has collected from scratching your floor’s finish.
• ‘Spill Patrol’
The quicker you can wipe up any spilled liquid from your hardwood floor, the better. Liquid can seep through the cracks of your floor, eventually ruining the seal and causing unsightly ‘crowns’ or ‘cups’ in your floor where liquid has collected.
The simple steps outlined above will help you keep you hardwood floors looking brand new!
Making the Right Choice
At Smith Bros Floors we carry many types of hardwood flooring that are prefinished, making them very consistent and very durable. While many of these hardwoods are backed by extensive warranties, consumers should be careful when purchasing a prefinished hardwood floor.
Using the experienced professionals at Smith Bros can help you sort through hardwoods that might have an inferior finish to find the right choice for your home.
We are dedicated to helping you find and install the perfect hardwood floor for your home so that you don’t end up consistently stressed about maintaining a floor that wasn’t right for your home in the first place!
If you are interested in learning more about our products or suppliers, please give us a call today at 403.255.7791
By Mark Freeland Join me on Google +