It’s hard to put your finger on it, but there’s something about a real wood floor that just brings a room together.
All the beautiful things which make up your home are somehow even more so. And surprisingly, your not-so-beautiful furnishings are transformed as well. (And let’s face it, we don’t all have decorator-perfect homes.) Maybe it’s the old sofa which suddenly takes on a relaxed charm. The inherited end table which is now quaint, not clunky. Or the favourite arm chair, surprisingly now endowed with extraordinary character.
In a sense, the power of wood floors extends well beyond the realm of decor. If you believe that beauty holds sway over the mind, it’s not hard to imagine a wood floor as the foundation of your personal sanctuary – a calming influence far away from such worldly concerns as early-morning meetings, traffic jams and obsessive bosses.
While we can’t claim to be a remedy for everything life brings, there is one thing we can say with certainty. A real wood floor can make your home look good.
Real Wood Maintenance Advice
A good rule of thumb is to vacuum and/or dust mop weekly. A damp mop can be used for spills, and when necessary general cleanup on floors which have non-waxed polyurethane or a similar surface finish. When traffic areas of surface finishes begin to show significant wear, screening, scuff sanding the finish surface and re-coating an entire floor is the least involved choice for maintenance. If a floor is waxed, occasional buffing helps renew the shine and remove scuff marks that may appear in the wax coating. If the shine cannot be renewed in heavily used lanes, occasionally re-waxing these areas may be necessary. Intervals for completely re-waxing a floor may extend to a year or longer when attention has been paid to proper care.
Wood and water don’t mix. No matter what finish your wood floor has, we recommend never pouring water on the floor. While a damp mop may be used on polyurethane and other surface finishes in good condition, excessive amounts of water seep between the boards and into small scratches causing deterioration of finishes. A damp mop should only be damp to the touch. It should be thoroughly wrung and not dripping. Wax-coated finishes should NEVER be cleaned or maintained with water, not even a damp mop. Water can cause a wax finish to be dull or leave water spots.
