Here’s what you should know about wood floor care

When you have solid wood floors, there will come a time when you’ll need the services of hardwood flooring cleaning and recoating. However, many homeowners are uncertain about these procedures and what they mean for your floors. They purchase products at the local stores and try to polish their own floors. These products only cause more problems and add to the expense to restore the wood floors.

Hardwood cleaning with the right cleaner is essential. Using the wrong product can cause problems early on. Any product that says that it will bring back the shine or make a floor look new again is going to cause problems. Wood floor polish is not what needs to be put on the floor either. Recoating a wood floor is not polishing it. In this article, we hope to answer your most pressing questions and help you to better understand these processes, which can be so valuable to you as a homeowner with hardwood floors.

A good hardwood flooring cleaning should always happen before the material is recoated. Recoating is often considered to be the same thing as refinishing, but unlike refinishing, recoating removes no wood layers in the process.

The original finish is left in place, but you can change the texture, finish color, or simply reapply what you already have in place for a fresh, new look. Over time, wear and tear can cause a loss of finish that leaves you with dull flooring that appears uneven and dingy. Recoating helps bring them back to life.

You don’t have to have your entire floors recoated for this process to work. In some cases, this procedure is necessary to correct areas of high traffic, or to recoat the wood after repairs have been made.

Professionally cleaning a wood floor usually is a two step process. Using Intensive Floor Treatment, hard to clean oils and dirt is removed from the surface of the wood floor. Squeaky Cleaner is then used to neutralize any residual I.F.T. and prep it for any refinisher or recoating products. This process does not remove any of the original clear coat or texture of the wood floor.

Once a floor is cleaned, you can either freshen up the clear coat with Refinisher to remove fine surface wear or recoat the floor. Recoating helps remove heavy wear scratches to the finish and allows the client to choose what sheen they want to go back with as well as durability quality. As the quality of the finish is increased, the level of durability goes up as well to provide longer and lasting finish.

Refinisher is a quick drying product that does not have to be applied to the entire floor. When you recoat, the whole floor must be available. Furniture must be removed for 24 hours and rugs for at least 2 weeks. For large homes, this process allows us to do the home is sections so that all the furniture may not have to be moved at once.

Hardwood flooring recoating is much more practicable many times than refinishing. It allows engineered hardwoods, hand scraped, wire brushed, and other special types of finishes to be recoated and not damaged by a screening and recoating done by so many companies. So if you’re not trying to repair abuse and wear, this simpler procedure can save you a lot of time and money. To find out exactly which service you need for your wood floors, be sure to contact us at your convenience.