Care and Maintenance of Your Hardwood Floors

Hardwood floors bring richness and hospitality to your home.  Known for its durability, hardwood flooring enhances a wide variety of design styles—from the serene and simplistic Scandinavian styles to the warmth and depth of Traditional interior design. Properly caring for your floors will not only keep them looking beautiful for years to come, it also extends their life, staving off costly maintenance for years to come.

A Simple Sweep
The first step to hardwood care is the easiest of all, regular sweeping. Dust and dirt is not only unsightly, it’s also abrasive and damages the top coat of your floor as it gets tracked through your home. Soft brooms with flagged bristles or microfiber dust mops are great for picking up dust, dirt, and pet hair, without scratching your floors.

FuzClean Wood is our official floor cleaning solution, specifically designed for hardwood. After a dry sweep to ensure dirt and grit is removed, simply spray over the area and wipe away with a micro-fiber mop! For more difficult spots or spills, you can spray FuzClean directly onto the area, then, after a few moments, just wipe away with a cloth or cleaning pad. No matter which cleaning product you use, check with your flooring supplier or installer first to ensure you are using the right product for your floors.

Keep Water Away
Always ensure any spills are cleaned up immediately. Given enough time, water will work its way into even the tightest seams. Extended exposure to water can cause discolouration, swelling, and mold.  While all our floors are designed for an incredibly tight fit, it’s best to get any amount of water, juice, or any other liquids cleaned up as soon as possible. Also, avoid using large amounts of water when cleaning. A damp mop is sufficient.

Lift, Don’t Drag
Furniture can be especially hard on your floors. It’s heavy and usually has hard feet with sharp edges. As furniture is moved around it wears away at your floors, leaving scrapes and indentations. Often the damage isn’t visible immediately but becomes evident over time. Simple furniture pads can be a lifesaver for your floors. Felt pads are most common, but they are available in cork and rubber as well. Apply pads to your tables, chairs, and any other furniture that tends to get moved around. Even with protective pads, it’s better never to drag furniture across your floors.

Changing Seasons
In the fall, when your heater starts to kick in, we recommend using a humidifier. Maintaining the proper relative humidity in your home keeps your floors from shrinking, which may cause gaps to form. Dirt and moisture love finding their way into gaps.

Another environmental threat to flooring is sunlight. All our flooring is UV cured to resist fading and discolouration, however lighter colours can still be affected by direct sun exposure. Use light filtering window coverings to help prevent any sun-bleaching on your floors. You should also rearrange floor coverings periodically to help maintain a more balanced exposure to light around your room.

Finally, one of the best ways to maintain your floors is by instituting a “No Footwear Indoors” policy. Wearing shoes or boots indoors tracks in dirt, debris, and water that will cause premature wear on your floors. That’s in addition to germs and bacteria that find their way onto our soles each day! Footwear should come off at the front door where there are floor mats to collect grit and moisture.

Keeping your floors clean and well maintained is actually quite easy. By following a few simple guidelines your floors will give you years of joy with their warmth and natural beauty. Visit our care and maintenance page (https://homeowner.fuzionflooring.com/support/care-maintenance/) for more information.