Guide to Wood Flooring in Denver

Flooring is essential to your home, but heavy foot traffic and other elements make it especially vulnerable to damage. A+ Hardwood flooring provides the explanations, tips, and tricks to maintain optimal hardwood flooring in Denver, CO and surrounding areas. You’ll learn how to care for your floor correctly, extend its lifespan, and, most importantly, what to avoid and prevent during the maintenance process. With the proper care and attention to detail, you can have beautiful, durable wood flooring that lasts for years. We’ve helped homeowners with their flooring needs for over 25 years, and we’d love to give you the tools and knowledge necessary to elevate your flooring experience.

What Things Lead to Damaged Hardwood Floors?

Houses are meant to be lived in and be a place where you, your family, and your friends make memories. However, the amount of movement in your home and the kind of activities you do can hurt your floors. Though we want you to be able to move freely within your home without worry, we recommend doing the following carefully to prevent scratches, dents, and gouges from costing you time, money, and energy in the future. The five most common culprits of flooring damage include:

Household Moving: Moving household items from one place to the next will always pose a risk to your floor. Whether you’ve just moved into a new home or you’re doing some rearranging as part of your spring-cleaning tasks, we recommend taking time to move carefully to avoid denting, scratching, or breaking your floors. If possible, we suggest hiring professional movers who are trained and comfortable with moving large objects easily. If you’re going to move items yourself, take safety precautions, such as lifting the items completely off the ground and setting them down gently. Being careful from start to finish will reduce the risks of creating large dents or cracks in your floor.
High-Heels and Foot Traffic: You may live in a carefree household where everyone is welcome, but if you allow your family and guests to wear outdoor footwear in your home, the risks of damaging your floor increase significantly. High heels are especially dangerous on floors because their points can scratch, scuff, and crack hard flooring with ease. We recommend only wearing slippers and socks around the house and requesting that guests take their shoes off at the door. You can’t avoid foot traffic, but you can ensure that people walking around your home don’t damage your floor.
Furniture: Even stationary furniture like sofas, couches, and chairs can damage your floors without your knowledge. Sitting down harshly or with impact can move your furniture’s legs, which scratches the floor. It would be best if you placed furniture padding under the legs to prevent them from scratching. Make sure to replace old or worn padding after they’ve endured lots of use and check on it to see if it stayed securely in place. Replacing padding regularly is recommended to maintain optimal condition.
Pet’s Feet and Nails: Your furry friends are cherished members of your family, but they can wreak havoc on your flooring. As pets play and paw around the house, their sharp nails and lumbering walks can scratch your floors and deteriorate them over time. We recommend routinely trimming your pets’ claws to a comfortable and safe length. Regular trimming allows you to genuinely enjoy time spent petting and playing with your furry friend without worrying about what they’re doing to your floors.
Dirt, Debris, Stains, and Messes: As you live, work, and play in your home, dirt and debris will naturally occur. However, excessive debris can degrade your flooring. Rough gravel and dirt grind on your floor’s surface and dry if they meet liquids. Spilled drinks and other liquids can absorb into your flooring and cause severe mold and warped floors. Direct sunlight gradually fades floor colors over time. Make sure you are sweeping and cleaning your floors regularly and picking up your dishes after use to prevent accidents. Clean floors generally stay safer than messy floors.

Things to Always Avoid with Hardwood Flooring

Many homeowners choose a hardwood flooring installation over other types of floors for their unmatched durability and quality. A well-maintained hardwood floor can last hundreds of years, and many historic properties’ hardwood flooring is either partially or entirely original. Hardwood flooring is naturally heavy-duty and looks beautiful in various housing styles. When it comes to quality, hardwood flooring can rarely be beaten. But if you want to maintain and enhance your hardwood floor’s quality, we suggest avoiding these three significant risks. Lots of homeowners use and do these things without even realizing the immense damage that they can do to hardwood floors:

Harsh Cleaning Products: Ensuring your floors are properly clean is crucial to maintain their quality but using the wrong cleaning agents does more harm than good. Ensure you use the recommended cleaning products and never pour them directly onto the floor because the moisture can seep into the floor and cause mold growth. We suggest applying a tiny amount of cleaning agent onto your cleaning pads and gently wiping or sweeping your floor with them. There are natural products out there as well that are recommended for hardwood flooring. We also suggest you never steam clean your floors because it can cause warping.
Stationary Furniture and Chairs with Wheels: If you’re one of the many employees who work from home now, then you most likely sit in a comfortable chair with wheels daily. However, most chair wheels are made from hard plastic that scratches wood flooring. If possible, replace the wheels with padding and cushion that’s gentler on your floors. Contrary to popular belief, keeping your furniture in the same place can hurt your floors by discoloring them. Make sure you are rotating and moving your furniture somewhat regularly to keep the color of your floor even and intact.
Unfinished Floors: Even the most well-kept and maintained floors will experience some damage over time. Between living, working, and playing in your home, keeping your flooring constantly immaculate is nearly impossible. However, refinishing hardwood floors is essential to overall flooring health. We recommend that you routinely retouch your floors with finishing when you start to see minor scratches or denting. A protective finish will make your floors smoother and even out any imperfections. Plus, excellent finishing adds an endlessly beautiful shimmer and shine, sure to make your floors the envy of the neighborhood.

How Do I Extend My Hardwood Floor’s Lifespan?

Hardwood floors naturally last longer than other, cheaper forms of flooring, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee your hardwood is on track to living its entire lifespan. Make sure to do the following to ensure that your wood floor lasts for years to come:

Routinely Clean, Sweep, and Mop: Hardwood flooring must be cared for regularly to stay in top condition. Letting moisture or spills linger for too long will give your floors a dull, discolored appearance and lead to scratches. Wipe up spills immediately to prevent moisture from absorbing into the floors. We recommend sweeping and mopping your hardwood a few times per week with soft-ended bristles and recommended cleaning products. Cleaning the right way is just as crucial as cleaning regularly and using the correct products and methods will save your floor from further damage and degradation in the future.
Get Protection from Sun and UV Light: Many homeowners don’t consider the risks sunlight poses to their hardwood flooring. Consistent and intense streams of UV light fade out floors and make their color uneven. Darker-colored wood tends to lighten after excessive sun exposure, while light-colored wood darkens. Preventative measures such as keeping your blinds closed and installing tinted windows reduce the amount of sun streaming through and its impact. We also recommend strategically placing mats and rugs on sensitive areas of your floor and washing them routinely to prevent dirt and dust buildup.
Prepare Your Hardwood Flooring for Winter: Environmental and temperature changes make wood flooring expand and contract. We recommend that all homeowners winterize their floors and install adequate protection for the colder, snowy months. Humidifiers keep moisture levels at even levels, and there are cleaners specially designed to clean salt tracked from driveways and walkways from wood floors. As a general rule, ensure that your windows and doors are shut tightly during the winter to prevent the outdoor elements from damaging your floors.

Is Your Hardwood Floor Damaged? Contact Us

Do you properly clean your floors as often as you should? Are you sure you use the right cleaning products and agents and deploy the correct methods? Are you gentle with your floors? If you’re uncertain, then there are most likely a few habits that you can change to revive your hardwood floor’s former beauty, durability, and overall quality. Though hardwood floors are meant to last years, they won’t last forever, and sometimes a new hardwood floor installation is needed. Whatever your needs, contact the professionals at A+ Hardwood Floors for help. Our team will comprehensively and honestly inspect your floors and determine which service best suits your pre-finished or engineered wood flooring. From hardwood floor refinishing to replacement and beyond, our mission is to bring floors back to life.