How To Take Care of Beautiful Hardwood Floors
by Bill Primavera
The Home Guru
As Published in The Examiner, The Putnam Examiner and The Yorktown Examiner
Today’s homebuyer always asks whether a home has hardwood flooring and is particular pleased if we realtors can respond, “hardwood floors throughout.” While most folks today like hardwood floors exposed, oddly enough, they went through a long period of cover-up.
When I was a little boy in grade school, I remember coming home one day and finding my mother speaking in hushed tones with two of her friends. “Al and I are having ‘wall-to-wall’ installed next week,” she said. “Ohhhhh, how nice,” chimed in her friends.
I didn’t know what “wall-to-wall” was, but I was proud that my mom seemed to be the envy of the neighborhood because she was getting it. In short order, the “wall-to-wall” arrived in one enormous roll and was laid out seamlessly in the living room (we didn’t have a dining room).
The texture as I recall was a short shag, and it was chartreuse. No kidding. Mother justified the relatively expensive upgrade by telling my dad, who thought it was an extravagance, that it “warmed up” the living room and made it easier for her to keep the place clean. But this is not about carpeting, it’s about hardwood floors, the beautiful, gleaming surface that my mother buried with her up and coming lifestyles choice.
Today, we no longer want warming up. We want clean gleaming surfaces of natural wood that conveys open space, perhaps punctuated by smaller area rugs. If you’re lucky enough to have a quality hardwood floor, here’s the best way to take care of it.
Always use a soft broom when sweeping floors. Hard bristle brooms can scratch the surface. Vacuum the floor at least once a week to remove dirt. It’s better to buy a lighter vacuum for hardwood floors because the wheels of heavier vacuums may scratch. It’s best to use the soft brush attachment.
You won’t like the way it looks, but there should always be non-slip rugs near all entrances so that family members and visitors can brush off dirt and gravel from the bottoms of their shoes. These small carpets should also be vacuumed regularly to prevent dirt and other debris from making its way to the floor.
Are you annoyed when some hosts ask you to remove your shoes at the door? Actually, it’s not a bad rule for your own household if you really prize your floors. Or, second best, you can place carpet runners in heavy trafficked areas. Women don’t wear spiked heels any more (except maybe in re-runs of “Sex and the City”), but even regular heels can be murder in denting the wood.
Furniture needs little booties too in the form of rubber or plastic pads below table and chair legs. And, never drag furniture across a hardwood floor.
Liquid spills obviously should be cleaned up immediately. Most new floors come with a scratch and dent repair kit that should be kept in a place where you’ll remember to find it. And keep the manufacturer’s instructions on how to use them.
Keeping wood floors clean is a very simple matter. Use only a damp mop. Any excess water can run between the seams and cause damage.
Years ago, it was common practice to use a lot of wax on hardwood floors, but today, most are sealed well with polyurethane and should require only the damp mop process.
In fact, hardwood floors are easier to maintain than that “wall-to-wall” that my mother thought would be easier to keep clean. I remember how disgusted I was when I recently had carpeting pulled up and found that it was a safe harbor for years of dirt below.
A few years ago I visited my boyhood home on a nostalgic trip to Virginia and, amazingly, the couple who bought it from my parents still lived there.
When I was escorted into the living room, the hardwood floors my mother had concealed almost a half century earlier gleamed in the streaming sunlight from the windows with southern exposure. “We were so surprised when we pulled up the carpeting and found these gorgeous floors,” the homeowner said. “There was this green carpeting that I knew just had to go….”
Bill Primavera is a Westchester, NY-based realtor ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and marketing practitioner ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) who can be reached for questions or comment directly at 914-522-2076.
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