With their natural beauty and timeless style, wood floors are an asset you’ll want to protect all year round. That becomes a bit trickier in winter, when the extra rainfall sees a lot more wet and muddy feet coming into your home.
Instead of telling everyone to stay away for a few months, the best thing to do is protect your wood floors. Read on as we discuss how…
Do wood floors need protecting?
Wood floors are highly durable and obviously much better than carpets are at coping with dirt and moisture. That said, you don’t want them to become overly dirty because it will make them much harder to clean.
Constantly letting wet or muddy shoes onto your wood floors will cause dirt to build up which will be harder to get off. It could also damage your floors over time, with mud, gravel and shoe treads causing small scratches.
A few simple measures can make sure your wood floors stay at their best long into the future…
1. Shoes off
Without a doubt the best way to protect a wooden floor is to avoid the mud and water getting on them in the first place. This means getting visitors to take off or at least wipe their shoes on a doormat before walking on your wood floors.
A boot room or porch is the ideal solution for this. But if you don’t have one, you can always get a matt well built into the floor. This provides somewhere for people to take off their shoes or wipe their feet before walking on the floor.
2. Cleaning
From enthusiastic kids and excited pets to an unknowing tradesperson walking straight in without realising, sometimes there’s no avoiding muddy shoes on your wood floors. When it gets there, the most important thing is to get it off.
Wiping your wood floor with a Bona spray mop will remove the mud without too much hassle. If you can do it straight away – great. If not, try not to leave it longer than a day as it will simply become harder to get off. Cleaning your entranceway daily is a good way to stay on top of things.
3. Protective coatings
Finally, it’s best to keep your wood floors protected from anything that does get on them. A coat of oil or lacquer will stop moisture soaking into the wood as well as protecting it from scratching. That will make muddy footprints easier to clean off and ensure your wood floors still look great after cleaning.
Make sure your wood floors have a protective finish applied when they’re installed and be sure to sand down and reapply if they ever start to look worn.
Wood floor specialists
From flawless installation to ongoing aftercare, Greyspace Flooring covers all bases when it comes to wood floors. That includes a selection of the finest wood flooring products for you to choose from.
If you’re looking to find the perfect wood floors for your home, don’t hesitate to visit our showroom in Sheffield or contact us online.