After you install a hardwood floor, you’re dazzled by how amazing it looks. There’s nothing like a brand new, beautiful wood floor to give a home a stunning new look. However, sadly, wood floors need to be properly maintained in order to stay looking great over time. Even if you clean and treat your floors regularly, fading can happen as a simple result of sun exposure or the passage of time. But you don’t have to settle for rapidly dulling hardwood floors. If you want your floors to look as good as new, you can always enlist hardwood floor refinishing services for the task. In the meantime, here are a few ways to prevent your floor from fading in the first place.
Limit Sun Exposure
While natural light is a lovely commodity in a home, it can also do a lot of damage to just about everything in it. Wall hangings, paintings, furnishings, you name it. Luckily, you can prevent sun damage in a number of ways, either by simply closing the curtain during the sunniest point in the day, using a protective casing or shield for your window to filter out UV rays, or by protecting your wood floors with carpeting to minimize fading and dulling. Even if you just take the time to draw the curtains every so often, you’ll be helping to keep your wood floors smooth and shiny.
Use a Stain
If your floors are already looking a bit worse for wear, you can always apply a new wood stain or wood oil to help seal and protect your floors. Getting your floors waxed or re-stained can turn the dullest-looking floors brand new with a minimum of effort. If you really want to go the extra mile, you can get them re-sanded as well. However, if you just want to give them a bit of a sparkle, applying wood stain to a clean floor is a great way to go. You can do this every few years in order to keep your floor protected and smooth.
Vacuum Often and Well
A clean floor is a happy floor. It also happens to be a beautiful floor, as long as you’re vacuuming often and using the right setting. Most homeowners know how important vacuuming is, but they don’t know that in order to get the full benefit of cleaning and to avoid scratching or harming your floors, you need to adjust your vacuum to the proper height setting. Too low, and you could damage your wood floors with scuffs and scratches. Too high, and you won’t be picking up any dirt at all.
Use the Right Carpeting
While carpeting can help protect your floors from sun damage, you also have to be careful about picking the right type of carpet and padding. Anything too rough, scratchy, or heavy could end up doing more harm than good for your floors no matter how clean you keep them. Always clean, wax, and stain your wood floors regularly, and even if you have a large area rug, don’t’ use it as an excuse not to clean the wood underneath.