Hardwood Flooring Care and Maintenance

Some hardwood flooring maintenance information and care tips from Mohawk Flooring.

Basic Hardwood Flooring Care.

Vacuum or sweep your floor regularly with a soft-bristled attachment or broom, especially in high-traffic areas. This prevents gritty dirt and particle buildup that can scratch the wood’s surface. Don’t use vacuums with a beater bar or power rotary brush head.

Use protective window coverings to block fade-causing UV rays and excessive heat from direct sunlight. Most wood types will gradually age when not covered, so it’s a good idea to rearrange rugs and furniture periodically to help it age evenly. 

Damage prevention for your hardwood floor.

• Keep pets’ nails trimmed and their paws clean. Pets can track in substances that cause scratching and stains.
• Use a humidifier during heating seasons to help reduce wood shrinkage and keep humidity between 35% and 55%.
• Wipe up spills and spots immediately with Mohawk FloorCare Essentials Hardwood & Laminate Flooring Cleaner applied directly to a clean white cloth.
• Use ice to harden tough substances like wax or chewing gum, and then gently scrape with a plastic scraper or a credit card. Be careful not to scratch the surface and wipe the area clean with a soft, slightly damp cloth.

Some Do's for hardwood flooring.

Invest in high quality floor mats and protective pads on heavy furniture for an extra layer of protection on your hardwood floors. Place floor mats at entrances and exits—they collect and trap corrosive substances that can be tracked in, like dirt, sand, oil, grit, asphalt, or even driveway sealer. Placing mats in high-traffic areas—in front of vanities, kitchen sinks, and stoves—is an effective way to reduce wear.  

Things to avoid with hardwood floors.

• Avoid walking on your hardwood floors with spiked or damage-heeled shoes.
• Resist wet-mop, damp-mop, or cleaning your hardwood with water or other liquids.
• Don’t use oil soaps, liquid or paste wax, or other household products containing lemon, citrus, or tung oil, or silicon to clean floors.
• Stay away from harsh cleaning aids like steel wool pads, any scouring pads containing metal, or scouring powders.
• Don’t use 2-in-1 cleaners that contain acrylics or urethane polish to restore gloss.

Keep your hardwood flooring looking great for years to come. Your hardwood floors will love you for it. 

 

Jeff Dean 

Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

A Little Something Different From Beaulieu.....

With all of the new products out there in the floating floor space, here's a new one. Beaulieu has entered into the hard surface market with some offerings in the luxury vinyl plank flooring space and now has introduced a new product called Core Tec One.

The evolution of floating floors has gone like this (this list mainly includes mainstream products not niche products): laminate floors that you would glue together at the seams but would still float, then laminate floors that would click together.

Another hard surface flooring segment includs luxury vinyl plank flooring. These are solid vinyl "plank" flooring that would be glued down like any other tile. The difference was the makeup of the vinyl flooring itself. Instead of being hard like VCT, vinyl plank flooring was pliable. Not stiff at all. Then came luxury vinyl plank flooring that would click together and wasn't glued down (I still have some serious concerns about this style of flooring. More on that later).

Each of these styles of hard surface flooring had their strong points and weak points. For instance: If there were some moisture concerns in the area being covered with the new flooring then you really couldn't glue down the new hard surface flooring (because the adhesive will fail in areas where there is too much moisture and hence the flooring could start to peel up, buckle or curl at the corners). A click together floor may be the best bet for these areas. I do say "may". There are other concerns with areas that have moisture than just will the floor stay down (such as mildew issues...).

So, with all that being said, Beaulieu comes out with a new product that we mentioned above. Core Tec One. This is a hybrid type flooring in that it is constructed like a laminate floor but has a top layer of luxury vinyl tile.

The advantages of this type of flooring are many:

1. Core Tec One is thick like a laminate. It has a locking system so it installs like a laminate floor. It's core is not made like laminate floor so it won't absorb water. It is considered a "waterproof" engineered floor. So you can install it in wet areas and you won't get any cupping, curling or buckling.
2. Since it is a floating floor you won't have to worry about adhesion failure (it can be installed in very wet areas)
3. With the core being thick and waterproof you don't have to worry about planks pulling apart (which is my main concern with floating, click together luxury vinyl plank flooring. The mills will tell you that the luxury vinyl plank click together floor is fine but I've seen too many vinyl click together flooring where the seams are pulling apart. Vinyl naturally expands and contracts. Just ask any vinyl siding man. They will tell you that when they install vinyl siding on a house that they can't nail it on tight because the siding needs room to expand and contract. In general, vinyl moves around so the same principal applies to solid vinyl plank flooring....). This is not a concern with Core Tec One.

So, to sum up, Core Tec One is a great floor for applications that you may normally install vinyl plank flooring. It works in areas with moisture concerns. It floats and won't pull apart. You don't need a moisture barrier with this floor. It can be installed over most any other hard surface flooring including wood floors, ceramic tile, vct, vinyl flooring, cement floors and any other structurally sound substrate.

Core Tec One. Something different. Check it out......



Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com