Maintenance of hardwood flooring

In order to maintain your floor in a good condition you need to clean it regularly.

 

1. Remove sand and stones, which if pressed against the wooden surface can significantly deteriorate it. Sweep and hoover the floor regularly and put doormats, outside and inside your home. They will collect bigger stones and sand left on your shoes.

 

 

2. Dry wet areas. Water is the biggest enemy of wood. If water is left on the surface of the flooring, it soaks into the wood and increases its moisture content, regardless of a protective varnish applied. This can result in local deformation of your floor, so you need to immediately dry wet areas from the wooden surface.

 

 

3. Mop your floor regularly and do not leave dirt for too long on your flooring as it will be absorbed by the wood. You should mop your parquets or floorboards with the use of adequate hardwood floor maintenance products suitable for your varnish coat and type of wood. It is the only way to make your floor look good for years. It is important not to use too much water when mopping your floor!

 

 

4. Deep clean your floor. Remove major dirt that cannot be removed with the use of standard hardwood floor cleaning products. Use special cleaners for deep cleaning that contain substances for removing dirt and residues of old cleaning products. Remember to put a new protective layer on your flooring after each time you deep-clean it.

Coats of varnish, i.e. lacquer, oil or hard wax oil, create a durable protection of hardwood flooring against mechanical and chemical damages.


It is important to remember to give your parquets and floorboards even better protection. You can do it by applying different hardwood flooring maintenance products creating an anti-scratch coating. If you use these protective products regularly your flooring will look fresh and free from minor damages.

Thanks to it, it is a product and not the floor itself that is affected by the every-day use of your flooring. Depending on the intensity of use, the floor maintenance should be carried out:

• twice a year in the rooms where the flooring is least used  (e.g. bedrooms),
• 6-times a year in the rooms of average use (e.g. lounge or kitchens etc.),
• 12-times a year in the rooms where flooring is used most (e.g. halls, public utility rooms).

It is important to take good care of your parquets or hardwood boards from the moment after their installation. You should also remember to remove old layers of maintenance products, usually after the application of the third layer. 

Everyday usage of your floor will cause some minor damages like scratches or dents resulting from, for example, dropping something heavy on the floor.


You can get rid of minor scratches by applying a paste wax on them, giving you floor a fresh look.  In the case of bigger dents the methods of restoration differ depending on the applied varnish, i.e.:

• Hard wax oil/oil – the damaged place can be repaired with the use of hard wax oil which is absorbed by the floor surface. The best result is obtained on flooring with distinctive patterns as such a repair blends into it.
   
• Lacquer – bigger damages can only be repaired with sanding. The lacquer provides a consistent coating therefore there are not any products that would repair the floor only in one place. Remember that matt or semi-matt lacquers make the damages to the flooring less visible.