Protecting Your Investment from the Ground Up

There are few purchases that you will make during your lifetime that are more valuable than your house. Whether it’s a starter residence or your forever home, you want to make sure you protect and maintain it properly.

Our home warranty explains that regular homeowner maintenance is essential to protecting your home. A warranty doesn’t cover issues caused by neglect—so if small problems are left to grow into bigger ones, the responsibility falls on the homeowner. Staying on top of upkeep now can help avoid costly repairs later that won’t be covered.

While some aspects of home maintenance can be almost instinctual and performed without much fuss, there are tasks that may require a bit more research and implementation. A crucial component of your home requires you to, quite literally, start from the ground up - your hardwood flooring. Homeowners are more frequently turning to hardwood over carpeting as it can be both more aesthetically pleasing as well as a wise investment in the long run. Put in hardwoods, and if you take care of them, you’ll never have to install new flooring in your home again. But caring for your hardwood flooring is a multifaceted task, and one which a large number of homeowners may not properly understand. Below, we outline a basic maintenance schedule then delve into a few more specific aspects of care.

Hardwood Floor Cleaning Maintenance Schedule

Sweep or dust mop: Daily
Vacuum (using the bare floor setting): Weekly
Clean with wood flooring cleaner: Monthly
Apply a new coat of finish or maintenance coat: Every 3 to 5 years
Sand and refinish: Every few decades

Do’s & Don’ts for Cleaning Hardwood Floors

Do:

• Clean any spills immediately and ensure the floors are dry. Water can damage hardwoods.
• Consider a shoe-free policy. Even a small amount of sand or grit can cause damage to the finish.
• Use only cleaning solutions specifically made for hardwood floors.
• Maintain a consistent indoor temperature and humidity level in your home to avoid hardwood damage.
• Clean up pet accidents promptly.
• Consider rearranging rugs and furniture occasionally or using light blocking curtains, especially in sun-drenched rooms. Hardwoods will change color based on exposure to the sun.
• Use throw rugs at all entryways and protective felt pads on the feet of chair and furniture legs to prevent scratching the floors.

Don’t:

• Allow dirt to accumulate on your floors; it can act like sandpaper and wear down the finish.
• Let standing water sit. Even a stray ice cube can cause floors to warp or become discolored.
• Steam clean your hardwoods. The excessive heat and moisture can damage the flooring.
• Use harsh chemicals like ammonia, bleach, oil soaps, and vinegar on your floors.
• Wax or polish your hardwoods. It can build up and create a cloudy film over your floors.
• Use plastic or nonporous mats, like for underneath dog bowls or those waffle-like pads for under rugs. These surfaces hold the water against the floor, causing discoloration and staining.

Ways to Ace Hardwood Floor Cleaning
Flooring experts recommend taking special care when doing these three activities to clean hardwood floors:

1. Sweeping and Vacuuming
   Regular sweeping or vacuuming can keep hardwoods clean, but avoid using standard vacuums with beater bars, or brushrolls, on hardwood surfaces. Some vacuums allow you to turn off the brushroll setting. Another option is to choose a vacuum specifically made for hardwood floors.
2. Mopping
   There’s a right way and a wrong way to mop your wood flooring. Because water can damage hardwoods, using a wet mop and leaving water residue behind is not a good strategy. Also, avoid steam mops, which apply pressure that forces moisture into the wood. That can lead to swelling and warping over time. Instead, “dry mop,” using a microfiber mop, along with a spray cleaner that is specifically made for hardwood floors.
3. Using Cleaning Solutions
   Be selective about the cleaning solutions you use on your hardwood flooring. For example, vinegar — a favorite in house cleaning — is acidic and can penetrate the wood and leave streaks. Instead, opt for mild, pH-neutral cleaners that are designed specifically for hardwood flooring. Look for the words “hardwood cleaner” on the bottle or ask professional flooring companies for suggestions. Always test new products in small, hidden areas of the floor before spreading it elsewhere.

Treating Damage on Hardwood Floors
Minor scratches may occur on just the top-layer finish rather than in the wood itself. In that case, the scratches can often be repaired with touch-up markers, stain pens, and furniture repair kits. You can also rub the natural oils from a walnut or pecan over the scuff marks to help darken the wood and disguise the scratches. A tennis ball or a little baking soda on a damp cloth may help remove scuff marks. For deeper scratches, you may need a wood filler that matches the color of your floor. As an alternative, you can have your floors restained or refinished.

When to Refinish Your Hardwood Floors
If your floors are looking dull, you may be tempted to reach for polish as a fix. That can be a big mistake. In general, avoid using any products on your hardwoods with words like “polish,” “shine,” or “rejuvenate;” it’s a short-lived reward. It can dull very quickly and then leave a cloudy film on your floors. The only way to revive dull-looking floors is to have them lightly buffed and then apply a fresh coat of polyurethane wood finish on top.

For deeper scratches, dents, or damage to your hardwoods, you may need to have the floors completely sanded back to the raw wood and refinished. The cost to refinish hardwoods averages nearly $2,000, but the price can vary greatly. If you want a new look, refinishing also allows you to change the stain color of your hardwood.

Keep in mind, wood types vary in how often they can be refinished or how prone they are to scratching. For example, hardwood flooring’s durability and hardness are measured on a Janka scale, a rating of how susceptible the wood is to denting or showing wear. The higher the rating, the more resistant the wood will be to dents and wear and tear. In general, softwoods like pine tend to have lower Janka scales; hardwoods like hickory and Brazilian teak or walnut usually resist scratches and damage.

The number of times hardwoods can be refinished varies. For example, engineered wood flooring — a popular type of wood flooring — often can be refinished only one to three times, since the top layer is wood but underneath it is plywood. Hardwoods that have a wear layer that’s thinner than 2 millimeters, for example, may not be ideal for sanding. You may be able to refinish solid hardwood flooring 10 or more times, depending on the floor’s thickness.

Hardwood Floor Cleaning Affects Lifespan
The lifespan of hardwood flooring is one of the longest of any household material, possibly extending to 100 years or more. The lifespan greatly depends on you, however, and how well you care for the flooring. The importance of maintenance cannot be overstated.