Things you should know about repair and cleaning hardwood floors by John Clay

For many families who have solid hardwood floors in their homes, bring about a genuine lifetime investment, and balance some care with a life span of value. At the first sighting of a solid hardwood floor, you sense luxuriance, warmth and natural beauty. Slowly, you adapt its apparent charm ââ,¬â€œ perceptible tranquility, the streaks of history in the timberlands and in your place .
Things to regard and appreciate :

Color and pattern of the floorââ,¬â,,¢s strips, planks or parquetry.

Check out the grains. Oak- is flashy in texture; Maple or cherry-are moderated .

Examine the condition of the unexposed wood and the finish that defends it.

Examine the signs of neglect. Is there a surface that calls for just a imponderous touch to care for it?

The elements of the natural world lets you to develop elegant characteristics with exceptional textures, colors, patterns and styles of solid hardwood flooring .

How do you protect your solid asset

The first step of taking care of your hardwood floors is just simply sustaining them clean. To guard your solid hardwood floorsââ,¬â,,¢ warmth and character, apply the everyday simple cleaning techniques.

There are ways to know how to prevent damage to your solid hardwood floors:

Stay away from having dirt, grit and sand on your hardwood floors. These substances are detrimental to your hardwood floors. They act like abrasive material on the finish, causing scratches, dents and dulling. Place floor mats at entrances to catch dirt and prevent damage.

Stay away from water and other spills. Standing water can deform insufficiently finished hardwood floor and can ruin the finish. Easily rub lightly with a cloth with the cloth all spills as they happen.

Intense Cleaning solvents. Abstain from oil soaps. They can cause a accumulation and initiate the problems when your floor is due for maintenance coating . Apply the suggested neutral pH cleaners made specifically for wood floors.

Furniture. Abstain from having your furniture pulled havily or slowly along the hardwood floors . Make sure to lift up the furniture to move it. Mount self-adhesive sliders under the furniture legs; it will help to avoid scratches.

Dents. In order to prevent tears use the vacuum with a brush attachment. Abstain from the use of vacuums with beater bars.

Sun exposure . Direct sun can blot your hardwood floor. Keep you window treatments and blinds closed. Or add special sun block shades to protect from the sunââ,¬â,,¢s intense UV rays.

General care for your hardwood floors:

Sweeping. Use the dusters with fine, exploded tips to capture all the dust and grit effectively.

Vacuuming. Use the specially designed canister vacuums with special bare floor attachments. They are the surest way eliminate all the dirt and dust.

Dusting Mop. Use a good dust mop. The dust mop should have 12ââ,¬ï¿½ to 18ââ,¬ï¿½ inch cotton head and a special dust mop application. Spray the treatment onto the mop head 12 to 24 hours before dust mopping.

There are several kinds of hardwood flooring

Oak and maple are the most popular hardwoods used in flooring.

Ash, beech,birch, cherry, hickory and walnut are more luxurious hardwoods that are used for floors and decorative accents.

Follow these steps to evaluate the condition of your hardwood floor and its finish

Finish Condition. Check closely if the finish been dinged or is it just unclean. Check if the finish is having very little depth of color, cracked off, scraped or gouged. In order to examine if the finish is obsolete, start in a high-traffic area and pour one to two tablespoons of water onto the floor. If the water soaks in immediately and leaves a darkened spot, the finish is obsolete and water can destroy the wood. If the water soaks in after a few minutes and darkens the wood only slightly, the finish is halfway worn. If the water blobs on top, the surface is densed. Duplicate this test in low- and medium-traffic areas.

Wood Condition. Check to see if the finish is obsolete, the wood may have been dinged. Inspect the areas for stains, burns, cuts, gouges, holes, cracks or deflected boards. If the wood is dinged repair or replacement may be required.

There are several types of finishes available

The same care and maintenance techniques are required for all finishes in superb condition, neverless when it comes to removing stains or restoring the finish, methods alter. If you don't know what kind of finish your floor has, ask your contractor or real estate specialist.

There are also incomplex tests available for your convenience:

Surface Finishes----pre-finished floors, polyurethane, water-based urethane and catalyzed. Nearly all floors installed today have surface finishes, commonly it is a polyurethane. They are often glossy and may look like a coat of clear plastic on top of the wood. A small amount of paint remover in a subtle area of the floor will cause the surface finish to bubble (unless it is a water-based urethane, in which case there will be no reaction). Surface finishes safeguard the floors from any harm by forming a protective a coat on the surface of the wood.

Penetrating Seals: acrylics, oils and waxes.

Oils and waxes commonly have a satin or matte finish. To recognize the penetrating seal, run your hands across the surface of the hardwood floor; If you can encounter the wood grain it's most likely a penetrating seal. Usage of the paint remover will have no effect on a penetrating seal; however wax stripper or ammonia will tender and blanch the surface. Oils and waxes penetrate the surface of the floor protecting the wood from within.



About the Author
John Clay is the writer of wood flooring, flooring cost which includes flooring costs, Hardwood Long Beach, floor installation, floor repair, floor finishing, hardwood floor repair etc.

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