Simple Tips to Prevent Damage to Hardwood Floors

Hardwood floors are beautiful, durable and usually fairly easy to maintain. But they're not invincible. If you love your hardwood floors - and want to protect your investment, keep them looking their best by incorporating the following tips as part of your maintenance:

• Use furniture pads. Rubber discs under the legs of your sofa, loveseat and coffee table can prevent wear that occurs over time from repeated tiny movements - such as when the dog bumps into the coffee table, or when the kids plop down on the couch.

• Follow cleaning instructions. Some hardwood floors may be easily damaged by chemicals, vinegar - even water - so always follow manufacturer or installer instructions about how to clean the floor.

• Avoid using double-sided tape. Yes, you want area rugs to stay in place, but you don't want the sticky residue that gripper tape leaves behind – it can be so difficult to remove that you may end up damaging the floor in the process, or you may be unable to fully remove it. Rubber matting that can be cut to match the size of area rugs is a better choice. It's more expensive than sticky tape, but it's gentler on floors.

• Trim your dog's nails. If you have a dog - and especially if it's excitable and prone to galloping through the house - its nails can wreak havoc on your hardwood floors. Trim your dog's nails regularly and use a buffer or nail file to smooth any sharp edges.

• Don't drag furniture. Sometimes the urge to rearrange is powerful - so powerful, that you can't wait for someone to help you move that piece of furniture to the other side of the room. There's really no way to lightly drag furniture across a floor. Even if you can manage to get a piece of furniture on top of a soft moving pad, you still have to drag it slightly to make that happen. Wait for a helper instead.

• Make a shoe-changing area. Shoes track in mud, water, and in the winter, ice melt, which can stain or damage hardwood finishes. If you don't already have an area for changing out of dirty boots into clean slippers, make one – you'll save your wood floors from a lot of wear-and-tear.

Taking care of wood floors doesn't require much effort. As long as you know how to clean your floor and how to protect it from damage, it should retain its beauty for years to come.

The post Simple Tips to Prevent Damage to Hardwood Floors appeared first on ProSand Flooring.