Website design By BotEap.comIn many Houston homes, hardwood floors are one of the most beautiful focal points in the home. They come from a wide variety of woods and can be finished in just about any color and finish you can imagine. While hardwood floors are highly durable and resistant to traffic, proper care and maintenance are essential to keeping them beautiful for many, many years.

Website design By BotEap.comThe key to keeping hardwood floors beautiful is keeping them as clean and dry as possible. Dust and other debris on the surface of hardwood floors grinds into the finish, causing floors to tarnish over time. The longer this surface contamination is left on the floor, the deeper the debris embeds itself, causing more damage to the finish. If left unattended, this can strip the finish and expose raw wood. Maintaining a good coat of wax on your floors will prevent accidental spills from absorbing into the wood if you act quickly to clean them up. The good news is that keeping your floors clean is a simple matter of sweeping them a few times a day with a faster mop (use a microfiber pad) and a product like Orange-Glo.

Website design By BotEap.comThe biggest problem with laminate flooring it is scratching them because of the demands that the simple fact of living off of them causes them. She must be careful when moving things on wooden floors. When you live on hardwood floors, don’t drag anything across them when you move furniture or other heavy objects. Use large rugs under heavy furniture, and keep pads under furniture legs, as they will shift when sat on or rubbed against. These will dig into the wood if not protected. Large dogs with toenails that snap while walking can do a lot of damage to hardwoods. Even small dogs and cats can damage hardwood floors. If your toenails are clicking into your hardwoods, it’s time to trim them. Have a doormat so people can clean the soles of their shoes before walking on the parquet.

Website design By BotEap.comIn my house, I put a ceramic tile “recess” inside the front door so someone walking in with sand on their soles can remove it without damaging the hardwoods.

Website design By BotEap.comPets can also have an accident on your floors, and these need to be attended to as soon as they are found. The beauty of the soil and the health of your family are at stake. Bacteria in animal urine or feces are a health hazard, and when animal fluids come in contact with hardwood floors, the acids in the fluid will attack the floor. It is important to use something like Orange Glo which will remove the acids. Keeping your floors properly waxed will help prevent these stains from soaking into the wood as quickly.

Website design By BotEap.comWhile scratches are the most common wear and tear problem hardwood floors have to deal with, hardwood flooring’s biggest enemy by far is water damage.

Website design By BotEap.comHouston hardwood floors are often subjected to high humidity, tropical storms, and even hurricanes. Local flooding is always a possibility when living along the Gulf Coast. In addition to weather-related flooding, normal hazards like plumbing leaks, roof leaks, and more can wreak havoc on hardwood floors. Water will destroy the finish on your hardwood floors, and in severe cases, such as urban flooding, individual wood slats will absorb so much water that they begin to swell and warp.

Website design By BotEap.comMost Houston handyman services can wax or refinish your hardwood floors, but refinishing flooded hardwood floors is a job best left to IICRC-certified professionals. Always bring a professional in when this happens, because improper drying will result in mold growth in the areas that were not dried. Make sure your technician is certified in water damage restoration with the IICRC, the national certification organization for floor care professionals. If called in time, these professionals can take steps to save your hardwood floors from total destruction. You can visit the IICRC online at http://www.iicrc.com.

Website design By BotEap.comIn the event of major urban flooding, these steps can save your floors while you wait for a professional to arrive.

Website design By BotEap.comCall your insurance adjuster and take any photos you need for insurance before beginning the cleanup process.

• Website design By BotEap.com Remove anything on the hardwood floors as quickly as possible. This means carpets, rugs, and furniture.
• Website design By BotEap.com If it is safe to do so, use electric blowers to blow air over the hardwood.
• Website design By BotEap.com If possible, direct the flow of these fans downward. Just lean them slightly to the side.
• Website design By BotEap.com When you get a big dry place, please move the fan and dry another place
• Website design By BotEap.com You will notice that your previously dry area will start to look wet. This is due to absorption. Just keep moving the fans until there are no more wet areas.
• Website design By BotEap.com Angle fans along the cracks in the walls to force air into these places to aid the drying process.
• Website design By BotEap.com The humidity in a flooded house is incredible, open the windows and put fans on one side of the house to push out humid air and bring in dry air. This will do more to dry out your floors than in-floor fans. You need to get the moisture out of the house or it will simply be absorbed back into the wood.

Website design By BotEap.comThe key factor in saving floors that have been flooded is to dry them out as quickly as possible. As soon as possible after the flood, you MUST remove everything on your hardwood floors, not just carpets and rugs, but furniture as well. Get as many fans and blowers as you can find and aim them down so they dry out the hardwood. As soon as you see a dry place, move the fan. Make sure you open the house to the outside so that all this water vapor you are creating can escape from inside the house. If your relative humidity is 50% or less, you can dry your floors much faster by using fans to blow this hot, dry air into the house along with floor blowers. (don’t do this on very humid days, it’s not as effective). You will need to blow the floors dry, which can take many hours, even days.

Website design By BotEap.comBecause wood absorbs water, as soon as you create a dry spot, the dry spot will begin to absorb moisture from the surrounding wet wood. This greatly increases the drying rate of the floor by not moving the fans. Many hardwood floors are installed in a “bed” that creates an air space under the wood slats. If this is the case with your floors, try creating a funnel out of a piece of plastic or tarp and force air under the floors along any cracks you can find. Use masking tape to tape the funnel to the fan and an office stapler to staple it over the crack you want to dry. Take your time, if you don’t let the floors dry completely you will create the conditions for mold to grow.

Website design By BotEap.comWhile hardwood floors can almost always be restored or replaced, or simply refinished to restore their beauty. this is very expensive compared to doing proper maintenance in the first place.

Website design By BotEap.comYou can’t do anything about flooding, but you can avoid dragging that recliner across the room to set up in front of the TV for the big game.

Website design By BotEap.comRemember, keep them clean, wax as needed, remove water as quickly as possible, treat pet stains (and toenails!), properly.