Care Tips for Your New Floor

Hardwood Floor Care

The best daily care for your hardwood floor is to use a vacuum or dust mop to remove dirt and dust. In lightly traveled areas, this may be the only care the floor needs beyond a periodic waxing and buffing or careful washing with a specially formulated wood cleaner. How you clean your floor depends on whether your floor is finished with a penetrating seal or a surface seal. For either surface, follow your manufacturer’s recommendations on which type of cleaning supplies to use, so as to avoid damaging your floor, voiding your warranty, or making the job of refinishing the floor difficult. Be sure to never use an ammonia based cleaner on any wood floor.

To keep your investment looking new for years, focus on preventive care and invest in cleaning supplies specifically made for hardwood floors. The two worst enemies of hardwood floors are water and gritty dirt. Water and other liquids should not be allowed to stand on the floor, but should be immediately mopped up with a towel. Standing water can warp the wood or cause water spots in the finish. Even moderately wet cleaning rags and mops should also be avoided. If it is necessary to wipe up a sticky area, use a barely DAMP, not wet, mop or towel, and buff the floor completely dry when you are finished. Protect the floor from accidental water spills in areas like the kitchen by using soft, easy to wash area rugs like those made of cotton in front of sinks, stoves and refrigerators. Avoid any rugs with rubber or vinyl backings, as these coatings might trap moisture on top of the wood floor.

Keep the grit and dirt outside where it belongs. Once a week, vacuum your wood floors with a canister vacuum that has a brush-type floor attachment - or use a treated dust mop and dustpan. Also, attach felt pads to the bottoms of furniture legs to protect the floor, and remember to pick up a piece of furniture if it is necessary to move it. Scooting furniture across the floor can scratch the floor. Be sure to keep high-heeled shoes in repair, as these heels can dent the floor if the rubber tips are worn off. Also, keep your pets’ nails trimmed.

Ceramic and Slate Tile Floor Care

The proper care of your tile floor will prevent damage, keep it looking beautiful and extend its life. Dirt and grime is your floor's number one enemy. Invest in good floor mats and always remove your shoes. This will go very far at keeping out dirt, dust, sand and debris.

Your should always vacuum, sweep and dust mop your tile floors prior to mopping, otherwise the dirt will mix with the water and end up in the cracks and crevasses.

Clean tile floors and slate tile floors with warm water only. Cleanliness and keeping the dirt off them is essential with these types of floor surfaces as they become scratched and dull easily. You should also apply a liquid sealant found in hardware stores to slate and ceramic tile floors and also to the grout. Clean up spills promptly to avoid staining.

Cleaning the stains out of grout can be a big job. Old grout may need cleaning with a wax stripper or heavy-duty cleaner plus a grout brush. Use a bleaching cleanser on tough spots. Once the grout is as clean as you can get it, rinse it well. When it's thoroughly dry, apply a coat of masonry sealer so that it doesn't absorb dirt in the future.

Clean colored grout with a heavy-duty cleaner and a grout brush, but don't use bleach because this may remove the color from the grout. Be sure never to use a bleaching solution on colored grout. A masonry sealer can be applied to clean, colored grout to ward off future stains.

Marble, Granite and Terrazzo Floor Care

Marble, terrazzo, and granite require special cleaning and periodic sealing to maintain their beauty. The problem, however, is that there are different procedures for different stones. No one procedure is safe for all stone products.

Don't clean natural stone products with vinegar, ammonia, or kitchen cleansers. Marble, granite, & other stone products must be cleaned with neutral pH cleaners. Vinegar is actually an acid. Ammonia is a base. Cleansers can scratch stone products. The surface of marble can be damaged and stained by acids, even very diluted acids. Many common foods and beverages are acidic - citrus juices, alcohol, vinegar, and other common items can etch the surface of marble. Spills should be cleaned up immediately to keep your floor in top shape.

Natural stone products need to be sealed to minimize staining possibilities. However, you must use a breathable sealant. Do not apply certain waxes. Some waxes do not breathe and they can discolor over time.

Marble, because it is a softer stone, should be maintained at least once a year. Remember that stone is very similar to wood. It is porous and can and will absorb liquids. Just as wood requires periodic recoating, so does marble, terrazzo, and granite. Marble and terrazzo, however, tend to require more maintenance than granite. Granite, because it is much harder, requires less attention.

Laminate Floor Care

To get the most life out of your laminate floor, it will pay to regularly carry out some routine cleaning such as dry mopping, vacuuming and sweeping.

Wet mopping should be avoided, as should the use of soap and abrasive cleaners. Instead, cleaning agents that have been specially formulated for laminate floors should be used. Typically, they are of the 'spray-on' variety and use of them will entail spraying the cleaning solution on to a suitable soft cloth or dry mop which is then used to wipe the laminate surface clean. Both, the manufacturers own brands as well as generic types are available from flooring stores and supermarkets. Usually there will be no harm in using a quality generic brand for cleaning your floor but be sure to first check that your warranty will not be invalidated by doing so.

A tough coating is applied to all laminate floors and it is this that provides long lasting protection against scratching and gouging. However this doesn't mean that it will be impossible to damage your floors surface! Steps should be taken to eliminate the possibility of damage causing objects coming in to contact with your floor in the first place. Dirt brought in on the underneath of footwear is one of the biggest causes of scratches and an effective way of keeping it at bay is to place wipe mats at your entrances, or even enforce a 'no shoes' rule if its in a household.

The best and easiest way to protect your laminate floor from this problem is to use felt protector pads under the feet of furniture items. Fabric backed caster cups placed under items with casters will also help in this regard. Furniture items should never be dragged across laminate flooring for this may cause deep gouging, which again is likely to be cause for premature repair or replacement. Always be sure to lift heavy items when repositioning them. If a piece of furniture is just to big and heavy to lift and the only option is to slide it it across the floor then try placing some rolled up or folded blankets beneath it first.

Be sure to clean up liquid spills as soon as they occur otherwise they may seep into joints causing them to become weakened or damaged. Delamination can also occur in severe cases. Minor damage, such as small gouge marks or scratches, can be repaired by using touch up kits that consist of silicon filler and colored wax sticks, that are much like crayons.

Carpeting Care Tips

Your new carpet represents a substantial investment and, like other fine furnishings, requires proper care to keep it attractive over years to come. Carpet rarely wears out in terms of fiber wearing away, but its appearance deteriorates over time and becomes less attractive. You can protect your investment, prolong the life of your carpet, and improve the quality of the indoor environment by establishing a regular maintenance schedule.

The most important step in the care of your carpet is vacuuming. Vacuum thoroughly and frequently, particularly in high-traffic areas, to remove the dry soil. As particles of dry soil work down into the pile, they are more difficult to remove and can scratch the fibers leading to premature wear of the carpet. High-traffic areas might need to be vacuumed daily. The whole house should be vacuumed once a week. Change the vacuuming direction occasionally to help stand the pile upright and prevent matting.

Even though vacuuming can remove most of the dry soil, it is also necessary to clean your carpet on a regular basis to remove the more oily or sticky soil which builds up in the pile. When cleaned regularly, it is much easier to remove this material. The carpet in a typical household should be cleaned every 12 to 18 months depending upon the number and age of the residents and presence of pets. A cleaning system should clean the carpet without leaving detergent residue. The hot water extraction system, also called "steam cleaning," is recommended.