Caring for your wood floors can be daunting especially if you have an oiled wood floor and feel that it will require maintenance. This isn’t the case, if you are caring for your wood floors properly they will last for generations.
You went to our showroom, picked your favourite wood floor, got it fitted quickly and it transformed your home. You are more than pleased with our service – what next? What is there left to do for YOU?
The first step in caring for wood floors is to protect your new wooden floor from any dirt, by using doormats on all external entrances to your house.
Sand and grit under your feet work like sandpaper and will damage the oil finish of your wooden floor. Water dripping from shoes can make your wooden floor slippery and cause damage the oiled surface.
Put Felt Protectors under chairs and furniture to prevent your wooden floor from scratches.
Adapt castors of your swivel chair according to your floor (hard castors for soft floors such as carpets, and soft rubber castors for hard floors such as parquet) and put a floor protector under your desk – we sell felt pads and coasters so pop into the showroom to purchase these.
All wooden floors need some maintaining to keep their beauty long lasting. Oiled floors need a little extra care and should be oiled at regular intervals.
Regularly vacuum or sweep your wooden floor first to collect rough dirt and dust. Use soft fabrics when sweep or a felt or soft brush head attachment when vacuum.
At First Floors in Giffnock we sell the maintenance kits that can help you in caring for wood floors, and especially oiled. We have two kits – one for oiled and one for lacquered.
Use a soft mop or cloth and two buckets of hand-warm water, one with plain water and one with cleaner/oil care. Rinse the mop in the water bucket and use cleaner mix for mopping, as dirty water can leave an unsightly residue on the surface. For cleaning a normal mop is sufficient and no special devices are needed.
Wipe your floor with a damp and well wrung-out mop or cloth and avoid heavy mopping. Too much moisture can damage the oiled surface. Your floor should dry within only a few minutes. Any spillages should be swept up immediately as that can cause stains on your floor.
Steam cleaners are not to be used, due to the amount of moisture which can cause damage to the oiled surface and the floor to expand/shrink leaving cracks between the boards.
The intervals for maintenance vary to several factors. Intervals are shorter if the floor is cleaned with a damp mop or cloth on a regular basis, because this has an abrasive effect on the oil coating.
If you frequently walk on your floor with outdoor shoes the intervals will be shorter as well. You realise that your floor becomes harder to clean and know it’s time to carry out maintenance. Usually maintenance twice a year should be sufficient.
After cleaning the floor as usual you wipe the floor with the maintenance oil (according to the instructions of the product).
As we provide a wide range of different oiled finishes at First Floors, please feel free to ask us for the ideal care products for your wooden floor as we have the maintenance kits as well as a fantastic mop by Bona.