How To Protect Your Beautiful New Oak Floor
There are a variety of easy, inexpensive ways for protecting your oak floor, and because every floor is an investment that can last a lifetime, it’s always worth making the effort to do so.
Here are some basic protection tips;
- Wipe up spillages immediately and never allow water, moisture spills, or cleaning products to remain for any length of time on the floor.
- Use area rugs in places like kitchens and door entries where spills or heavy traffic are most likely to occur. Ensure that damp rugs are not left on your floor.
- Use Felt Pads on the legs of chairs and all other furniture to prevent hardwood floor scratches. Keep the pads free of grit and replace as often as needed. Not only will furniture pads protect your floor but it also makes moving your furniture a lot easier for cleaning!
- When moving appliances or other heavy items, always place a blanket under the item to protect your floors from scratches and dents. Ensure that service personnel and delivery people do the same.
- UV sunlight and direct lighting will change the colour of oak over time, so occasionally rearrange area rugs and furniture that block sunlight to the floor beneath, so you don’t create a ‘patchy’ floor.
- Try to avoid walking on the floor while wearing high heel shoes, or other footwear that may cause indentations or scratches.
- It’s worth using a humidifier throughout the winter months to keep wood movement and shrinkage to a minimum, especially when you have installed solid oak.
- Take care of your floor and recoat it as needed, depending on wear and tear. If the finish on any part of your floor gets worn down to exposed wood, and it gets even slightly damp, it will require deep sanding to restore to its former glory.
How To Clean Your Beautiful New Oak Floor
Cleaning hardwood floors is a simple process when the right products are used.
Always try to use a recommended Wood Floor Cleaner and don’t just rely on a mop that will be forever splashing moisture onto a natural product that loves to soak up water!
Some companies supply Wood Floor Maintenance Kits or Wood Floor Cleaners for their floors, so it’s always worthwhile ordering one from them when you first buy your new floor. When you invest in such a beautiful and natural product, a few extra pounds to keep it in pristine condition has to be a good investment surely?
Using A Vacuum Cleaner
You can use a brush for regular cleaning but you can also use the vacuum for your rugs and for your efficient thorough cleanings. Make sure it has a padded attachment (or pad the head yourself so as not to scratch your floor) and then use it as normal. If you’re familiar with carpets in your home, when you first have your new wood floor installed, you’ll be amazed at how much dust appears on your floor (usually hidden in your carpet), thus emphasizing the extra health benefits of a natural oak floor.
Mops and Brooms
There’s lots of so-called "special" wood floor mop or brushes but the key is to find a soft-bristle brush that's shaped in such a way that you can get into those nooks and crannies in between good vacuum sessions.
Simple Cleaning of Hardwood Floors
- First, give the floor a good brushing to collect the dust, dirt, crumbs and other particles into one area of the floor.
- Then use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of these ‘dust patches’, and keep the vacuum available - you'll notice that the dust gathers mostly around the perimiter of the room, so pay special attention to these areas.
- Then, spot clean your floor with a soft cloth, dampened with Wood Floor Cleaner (simply spray onto the area and use the cloth to wipe off).
- From time to time (depending on your own personal situation and traffic), you should clean the entire floor using a proper Wood Floor Cleaner. Simply spray the cleaner onto an area of the floor in an "S" pattern, and wipe over. Continue like this until the whole floor is cleaned.
NOTE: Our advice is to invest in a pair of Gel Knee Pads for cleaning purposes because there’s nothing quite like getting down on your knees for that perfect finish floor appearance after cleaning.
Removing Stubborn Stains
Some areas will be more stubborn than others but usually the specialised Wood Floor Cleaner will do the trick. If not however, to clean tough stains such as black shoe marks, crayon, tar or lipstick use a non-abrasive hand cleaner. You can also use a cautionary amount of paint thinner for really difficult to remove marks but always be very careful with this method because it can make the patch that you’ve cleaned appear differently to the surrounding floor. When you're finished, always wipe with a slightly damp cloth (dampened with specialist Wood Floor Cleaner and not water) to remove any oil residue.
Wood Floors and Water
Wood is a hygroscopic, natural product and is desperate to soak up any moisture it can find. Likewise, it will 'give off' moisture if the conditions surrounding the flooring are dryer than the flooring itself.
Please always remember – You’re not cleaning the oak boards themselves (unless they are damaged and exposed, in which case you should be re-covering them) ... you’re cleaning the finish that’s upon them, which is the coating on top of the floor board that’s meant to protect it.
Regardless of the protective coating it may have, and no matter how thick and durable it’s supposed to be, there’s no such thing as a waterproof wood floor.
Water and other liquids can seep into the boards, especially as they shrink and expand due to varying conditions and seasons of the year.
Even when a new floor is installed, it must not be considered to be water-resistant and in areas like kitchens and bathrooms we advise, where an oiled floor is used, applying another 1 or 2 coats of oil to protect and 'seal' the floor. Any spillages or droplets of liquid, no matter how small, should be cleaned up and dried immediately to avoid water marks from appearing afterwards.
It's important to NEVER use soaking wet cleaning tools or leave standing water on the floor.
If you do have some marks that appear from spillages, depending on what the spillages are (water, wine, spirits, coffee etc...), they can be removed from an oiled floor without re-surfacing the whole floor.
If it's just clear water that has been spilled, sometimes it will dry out after a few days and disappear. However, if a waterline remains after the spillage has comepletely dried out, the only way to remove this is to sand the floor and re-apply more finish to the area.
Drying the area can sometimes be speeded up by using an iron set to medium and running this over the area with a clean towel in between.
Other liquids can prove much more troublesome to remove though, so the answer is to prevent spillages or clean them up immediately.
Unfinished Oak Flooring 
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