Hardwood floors are a beautiful addition to any home, but they are particularly susceptible to damage due to their relatively delicate nature. That is why it is important to protect them from common household dangers, and take extra care when moving furniture and appliances.
Learn more about the things that can ruin hardwood floors, and how to protect your floors for years to come.
Pet Accidents
One of the most frustrating things that can happen to any flooring is damage caused by a pet accident. Whether you have hardwood or carpet, a pet accident should be cleaned up immediately because you don’t want the urine to penetrate into the flooring.
Pet Claws
If you have pets at home, you know what damage they can do to your hardwood Floors. Pet claw scratching is the number one cause of damage to hardwood floors. It’s a problem that affects countless homeowners.
In homes with multiple pets or large pets, the damage caused is even more noticeable and extensive. Pet claw scratching on hardwood floors can happen in even the worst cases of unwanted pet scratching. It’s easy to protect your floor against scratching
Shield your floors against the damage that claws can cause with sturdy claw protectors. They are innovative protectors that offer full coverage across the front of your pet’s paws, plus provide protection for furniture legs, skirting boards and under stair edges.
Too Much Liquid Floor Cleaner
Many people use too much liquid floor cleaner when cleaning their hardwood floors. This excess liquid gets on the baseboards and the laminate flooring, which causes wood floors near the area to swell and bubble up.
The excess liquid may also seep into the flooring and saturate it. When this happens, mold and mildew can grow in the floor’s crevices. This unsightly problem can be avoided by never applying more than the recommended amount of liquid floor cleaner to any wood floor.
Dragging Furniture
Furniture is heavy. Furniture is difficult to move. Furniture has sharp corners and legs. All of these attributes spell danger for your hardwood flooring. Every year hundreds of thousands of hardwood flooring are destroyed by a dragging piece of furniture on the floor.
Furniture that is pulled across hardwood floors can easily leave dents or scratches due to the friction generated by the process. The more furniture you drag across your flooring, the more vulnerable it becomes. When you are moving furniture make sure that you lift the legs up and not dragging.
Wrong cleaning or sweeping method
Cleaning the floors of your home is a normal part of your routine, so it’s easy to forget that some methods can cause serious damage. Sweeping and vacuuming with a small attachment can result in dirt and dust particles being pushed beneath the surface of your wood floors, where they can do the most damage. These particles are sediments that contain minerals or chemicals like iron oxide, which can discolour or stain your floor over time. The best way to sweep is by using a broom with a wide head.
Too Much Sunlight
There are many causes of laminate flooring damage, but too much sunlight is amongst the biggest culprits. Excessive exposure to ultraviolet light causes photo degradation, which splits and cracks the material via sunburn. This may not be immediately visible, but over time the process will cause irreparable surface damage. You can keep your floorboards clean and protected from UV rays by using our shimmering range of flooring films.
Also, avoid excessive sunlight in your home by choosing the right window treatments for your windows. Selecting the right amount of shade will save you money, and ensure your hardwood floors last you a lifetime.
Liquid Spills
One of the many things that can do irreparable damage to your hardwood flooring is liquid spills. At some point, all hardwood floors will come into contact with spilled liquid. If that liquid is allowed to sit on the floor for extended periods of time, it can cause permanent damage. Whenever you have a liquid spill in your house, it is going to be a big problem.
Cleaning up liquid spills requires immediate action so that you can keep water damage to the minimum. Whenever there is a liquid spill, it is going to spread across the floor and into the cracks.
The longer that you wait to clean up a liquid spill, the more damage will occur to your hardwood flooring. No matter how your floors are finished, make sure to clean up any spill or leak as soon as possible before the liquid seeps into the wood.
Debris
If you have hardwood floors, you do not want to spill debris on them. Scratch marks and stains can be a disaster for your floors. The debris that is tracked into the home from outside can cause you a lot of problems if left unattended. While this type of dirt and debris can damage your floor, it also tends to soil the ones you value the most in the form of tables, cupboards, window panels and even frames.
Thankfully, there are innovative ways to get rid of them. You can use a feather sweeper that has been designed to help you remove that debris before it causes significant damage.
Vacuuming With the Brush On
Vacuum scrubbing is a common practice for hardwood floor maintenance, but did you know that using your vacuum’s brush feature to clean wood floors can scratch the finish? The right way to clean your hardwood floors is with a solution made specifically for wood finishing.
You can also use a floor attachment. With it, you won’t have to worry about creating those types of marks in your flooring. The floor attachment fits most upright vacuums and cleans up after every use without the danger posed by a vacuum brush.
Using the Wrong Area Rugs
Area rugs can protect your hardwood flooring. They can bring vibrant colour and personality to your space, hiding stains on your floor, or making your entry feel warm and welcoming. But what if you’re using the wrong rug? Hardwood floors are durable, but they are very sensitive to moisture, fluid, stains and damage caused by improper home maintenance practices.
Area rugs can be used to cover worn spots in the floor or as areas where people congregate, like under a dining room table or next to a sofa. Knowing the best location for your area rug will help you keep your hardwood floors free of scratches and scuffs caused by furniture and foot traffic.
Using the wrong area rug can damage your hardwood flooring in several ways. It all begins with cushioning and padding underneath the area rug.
Wearing High Heels Indoors
Wearing high heels inside your home is a sure way to damage or destroy your hardwood flooring.
You might have some beautiful floors, but you shouldn’t wear high heels inside. If you want to damage your floors and spend money on repairs, then go ahead and wear those high heels into the house, but if you care about your investment in hardwood floors, don’t let this happen to you. With just a little bit of forethought, or a simple reminder about high heels and floors, you can avoid this situation and save the cost of repairs.
High Foot Traffic
Wood flooring adds a natural ambiance and warmth to any room in your home. However, hardwood floors are more susceptible than other types of floors to high traffic. They can be easily scratched by the bottoms of shoes when not protected or maintained properly. Foot traffic can be the most destructive force to your hardwood floors. Scuffmarks, scraped corners and worn edges are just a few of the signs you see from regular foot traffic.
In fact, if not refinished once a while, hardwood floors will lose their luster. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to protect your hardwood flooring with the right equipment.
Going Too Long Without Refinishing
Wood floor specialists recommend refinishing your hardwood floors every 2-3 years to maintain their beauty, but many homeowners wait until the floor begins to show signs of wear.
The accumulation of dirt and debris over time will result in dulling and potentially damaging your wood floors. The solution, of course, is a good pouncing and cleaning. But if you wait too long, or don’t keep up with the maintenance, then there is another option: refinishing. As long as you have decent, solid wood floors, refinishing can bring them out to new-floor shine again.
Conclusion
Hardwood floors home, and can strengthen the comfort level of your wood home by creating a sense of security, peace, and calm.
But despite all these benefits and beautiful features that hardwood floors come with, they are also prime targets for destruction. You can use the guide above to understand certain things that destroy your hardwood floors and many ways you can protect them.
