A Guide To Hardwood Floor Protection By Niv Orlian At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Before you can initiate some hardwood floor protection measures, you first need to know what could potentially damage your floor. Basically, your hardwood floor has 5 big enemies: dirt, dust, spills, water and sunlight. We'll cover each of these in this article:

- Dirt

Foot traffic is how dirt typically gets on and in your hardwood floor. When you, other members of the households and visitors come in from the outside, your shoes carry dirt with them. Not only does dirt make your floor look bad, it can also damage your floor.

Dirt is pretty tough to clean. You'll either have to mop the dirt off or scratch it off using a tool. Both methods can damage your floor. If you use too much water in your mop, water will get absorbed and cause the floor boards to expand. If you use a tool to scratch off the dirt, you could potentially scratch the floor.

Best thing to do in order to avoid it is to regularly sweep the floor, preventing the dirt from settling on the floor and in between the grooves and solidifying. This way the dirt won't harden and won't be hard to remove later on.

- Dust

It is not possible to prevent your hardwood floor from getting dusty. What you can do is to make sure your floor is protected from the effects of dust. Sweeping, vacuuming and occasionally mopping are some of the hardwood floor protection measures you can take. These measures prevent dust from settling on the floor and causing your floor to corrode and age.

- Spills

Spills are inevitable. Spills in all manners can take their toll on hardwood floors. You can protect your hardwood floors from spills by placing mats or rugs around those places that are likely to get spills. These areas are typically around tables, counters and desks. Should a spill occur, don't go for a sweeper right away. Get an absorbent cloth and try to absorb as much of the liquid as possible.

- Water

Like other liquids, water can cause damage on hardwood floors. Water can cause the boards on your floor to swell and contract. This swelling and contraction are what pushes the floor into the side walls, resulting in cracks.

Save for regular spills, water can get on your hardwood floor in two ways: a mop that uses too much water or water that seeps from the outside (e.g., rain or flood). Best is to ensure that you don't allow water to remain on your floor longer than a few minutes. If you clean your floor with a wet mop, make sure you finish off your mopping by wiping off the floor with a dry cloth.

- Sunlight

If parts of your hardwood floor are constantly exposed to sunlight, they would become discolored. Depending on the type of wood used, these exposed areas of your floor would either become lighter or darker. Whatever the case, your hardwood floor is going to look old and nasty. To protect your hardwood floor from sunlight, use drapes on your windows. You can also cover up areas of your floor that get exposed to sunlight with rugs, mats or even furniture.

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