It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Everyone’s jingle belling and visiting and throwing parties. The season is ripe with joy and merrymaking. But what can all that fun do to your hardwood floors?
Hardwood floors are among the most durable of flooring, far outlasting the life of carpet or sheet vinyl. However, they still require maintenance and TLC to keep them looking great.
When you think about the water, melted snow, ice, salt, and sand that will get tramped across your hardwood floor this season, it can really wreak havoc on your floors. Follow our tips to keep your hardwood floors looking good throughout the season.
What dulls your hardwood floors?
Oh the weather outside is frightful
Outdoor elements like rock salt, snow, rain, mud, leaves, etc. are not kind to your floors. As people come in and out of your home this December, they bring the outdoors in with them. Walking in your house with shoes on in the winter can be detrimental to your floors. The dirt and debris acts like sandpaper on the bottom of your shoes.
How to protect your floors: Purchase both indoor and outdoor mats for all of the entrances of your home. These walk off rugs allow the gravel, dirt and grit on the bottom of your shoes to slough off allowing for cleaner shoes by the time they reach your floor. For potentially muddy areas, you can also have a mud scraper by your outside door mat.
Place waterproof mats inside by your doors to give shoes a place to dry. You can have guest slippers or socks if you implement a no-shoe rule. Vacuum or dry mop your high traffic areas daily to cut down on the damage to your floors.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree
How lovely are your branches? (When your needles don’t fall on my hardwood floors.) Water spills from watering your tree can cause unsightly stains on your flooring and water damage. Be careful not to miss spills or sloshes that are hidden by the tree’s branches. Not to mention, sap and falling needles can dull and scratch your floors.
How to protect your floors: You don’t have to give up your real tree or sacrifice your floors. Instead use a, clear chair mat (like you would use for an office chair) and place it under your tree skirt where it can hide —You might need to cut it to size. Alternately, you can also lay down clear plastic sheeting to catch any water spills and errant sap. Recommend you use a rug pad between your floor the plastic mat to protect the floor.
Again, daily vacuuming or dry mopping to clean up any excess needles will keep your floors from scratching.
Baby, it’s cold outside
During the cold months, we crank up the heat to protect ourselves from the weather. With the furnace going and the cold air, this significantly reduces the humidity in the home, and this impacts your hardwood floors. Small cracks can appear in your floors.
How to protect your floors: Place a humidifier in the rooms that have hardwood floors to help put some moisture into the air and in your hardwoods! You can also consider using a furnace humidifier to keep your hardwoods looking brand new.
A jingle bell time is a swell time
… until that glass of red wine spills on your floors, and you don’t find it until long after your party ends. Parties and high numbers of people in and out of your home during the holiday season impacts your floors and can lead to dulling and scratching and staining.
How to protect your floors: Wipe up spills as soon as possible and always use a dry mop or rag with proper hardwood floor cleaner, if necessary. You never want to use a wet cleaning tools on your floors. The moisture from the water has a dulling effect on your hardwoods.
Vacuum or dry mop right after your party so any leftover debris that could scratch your floors is swept away.
Our 4 legged family members get excited during the holidays too
Don’t skip Bailey’s pedicure – especially during the holidays.
How to protect your floors: Visit your groomer before the holidays to trim your dog’s nails. This is the best way to avoid those scratches to your hardwood floor as our pets can get a little excited when visitors come to our home.
Keep the good times rolling and your floors looking brand new!
