Simple Ways to Care for Your Hardwood Floors

One of the most exciting features of a brand new home are the finely-crafted hardwood floors. The visual appeal of this type of flooring is unparalleled, allowing owners to build their home decor theme upon uniquely warm, organic tones.

Although floors get used more than any other surface, a few simple practices can maintain a sleek, new finish. The experts at Hallmark Homes Group have put together a few extremely simple to follow tips for maintaining gorgeous, long-lasting hardwood floors.

Caring for Your Floors Starts Outside The Home

Dust and grime that gets tracked into the house everyday on the bottom of your shoes can quickly diminish the most splendid floor. While this is a simple fact of life, you can reduce the damaging aspects with a series of doormats. First, use an outside mat with a coarse texture for an initial wiping away of mud, water and dirt. Next, as you and your guests step inside there should be at least one or two more with increasingly fine fibers for getting rid of the rest of the debris. You can even instill a “no shoes” policy by providing seats and shelves right inside the front door for removing and storing footwear. 

Try to Reduce Your Floors Exposure to Elements

There are many elements which, in excess, can harm your hardwood floors. Many types of snow-melting products for outdoor walkways contain calcium chloride — a type of salt. Even when there is no precipitation, dirt gets into the house in the form of tiny dust particles which, when accumulated, can harm a floor. 

Tiny food particles and pet hair can also cause harm over time. Also, summer afternoons can, at times, be mildly humid in Bucks County, so your new home should be temperature controlled via the internal HVAC system to avoid moisture build-up. Just as moisture on a hardwood floor can cause warping, so can too much direct sunlight. Attempting to keep your floors from constant direct sunlight is a great idea as well. You can assure your floor’s longevity by being aware of these factors and making sure they are not present in large amounts at any given time.  

Stick to a Cleaning Routine Specifically for Your Floors

A great way to reduce exposure is to spot-sweep or dust the high traffic areas daily. This can quickly eliminate build up of abrasive debris while reducing the need for a deep cleaning to once or twice a month. This regular level of light cleaning should be done with a dry mop that has been treated with a dusting agent or a microfiber cleaning tool. Every week or so, you can vacuum the floors with a brush attachment and get to those hard-to-reach areas such as baseboards and corners with a hose attachment. Then, monthly or whenever needed, a full wet mopping with a microfiber head will restore the original hardwood shine. Your Hallmark agent can tell you the exact kind of wood your floor is made of, which will determine the type of cleaner and polish you choose. 

Find a New Home That Has The Floors You’ve Always Wanted

The vibrant glow of a well-maintained floor is one of the joys of new home living. Contact us to explore an array of magnificent new construction homes that feature gorgeous, freshly-installed hardwood floors.