Hardwood Flooring 101: Maintenance Checklist For Winter

Hardwood floors need special care and attention during the winter months. But maintaining such floors can prove to be quite challenging in regions that witness extremely cold temperatures. The seasonal shifts bring in a lot of elements, which if not taken care of, will cause scratches and marks on your prized flooring.

But you can prevent this from happening. In this blog, we will share a few easy tips to make floor maintenance simple and easy during the winter season:

1. Tackle rock salt damage

While rock salt proves to be a boon for pedestrians and drivers as it prevents skidding and slipping during heavy snowfall, it can also cause extensive damage to your hardwood floors. To avoid this, make sure that you have a designated area for boots so that people don’t just walk into your home and stain your floors.

For existing rock salt stains, use vinegar. Consider placing mats and rugs in areas that witness traffic to protect your RockWood engineering flooring and hardwood floors against rock salt damage.

2. Don’t overheat

Cranking up the thermostat to make your room warmer might make you feel all comfy and cozy, but it can wreak havoc on your hardwood or RockWood flooring. It depletes your floors of moisture and causes them to dry up. In the long run, this leads to shrinkage of your floorboards.

Don’t worry, avoiding this is pretty easy. Make sure that you invest in a good-quality humidifier to maintain moisture levels. Besides, keep an eye on the temperature levels in your rooms.

3. Clean spill immediately

Wipe down spills immediately to lessen the risk of damage to your hardwood floors. A quick clean up is essential during the winter months as spills tend to dry out faster and leave a stain. Ultimately, you will have to invest a lot of time and money in replacing the damaged floorboards.

If you are going to entertain a gathering of loved ones, we recommend that you have a cleaning rag handy to get rid of inadvertent spills on your hardwood or RockWood engineered flooring right away.

4. Take care of your floor

Start early! If you want your hardwood floors to look impeccable during the winter holidays, take good care of them during the spring and the summer months. Sweep and mop your hardwood floors on a regular basis to begin the unforgiving winter months on a positive note. Also, make sure that you are mindful of basic hardwood floor cleaning rules.

In addition to this, since most of the windows and doors are sealed shut during the cold months, your home’s floor might become a hotbed of dust mites, pet dander, and dirt. If this is not addressed, your hardwood floor will lose its shine and develop scratches. The only antidote to this is deep cleaning every two weeks.

With these tips, your hardwood floors will look spick and span in winter and you will be able to keep season-specific damage at bay. If you are looking for solid wood or RockWood flooring online, check out our collection today.