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Maintenance: 

Besides being a warm, beautiful and durable product wooden flooring is very easy to keep clean and to maintain. Like ceramic tiles wooden flooring is a hard floor covering, any dust or dirt will stay on top of the flooring and will not penetrated in the layers beneath as might happen with a soft floor covering (like carpets). This feature also makes wooden flooring an anti-allergy floor covering.
To make sure that you will keep enjoying the floor in the years to come we want to give you a few practical tips with regard to how to maintain your floor. 

Maintenance can be divided in three categories, namely:

1. Preventive maintenance.
2. Minor, regular maintenance.
3. Major maintenance.
   (If necessary a difference will be made in maintenance per finishing coat.)

1. Preventive maintenance.
Prevention is nothing more than taking measures to prevent scratching, wears, expansion etc. 
Preventive maintenance is the same for solid wood, wood engineered, cork or melamine floors. 
For example:

• Placing mats at the external entrances in the room
• Fitting felt under the legs of the sofa, chairs and tables
• Heavy furniture needs to be lifted not pushed
• Don't place porous flower pots or vases on the floor
• Stiletto's/spiked heels are safe provided that they aren't damaged
• Prevent extreme humidity or dry atmosphere in the room
• Remove spilled liquid immediately (e.g. due to watering the plants or cleaning the windows)
• Remove spilled washing powder immediately with dry cloth or vacuum cleaner (especially for waxed floors)

During icy or snowy winters your wooden floor might need extra protection against salt and grid.

2. Minor, regular maintenance.
With minor, regular maintenance it is important to make a difference between lacquered and waxed/ oiled floors. 
If you are not sure what type of finish is originally used you can try to determine this as follows: in an inconspicuous area, corner or behind a door, apply two drops of water. If, within ten minutes white spots appear under the drops of water, the floor has a wax/oil finish. (To remove the white spots, gently rub the spots with 000 steel wool dampened with wax.) If the finish does not flake from scratching with a coin and white spots do not appear from the drops of water, the floor has a surface (lacquered/varnished) finish.

2.1. Varnished, lacquered floors.

Minor maintenance for lacquered floors

• Remove dirt and dust by vacuum cleaner, sweeping (soft broom) or wiping
• Clean the floor regularly with a damp cloth and possibly with a soft, natural soap
• Remove persistent marks with parquet cleaner or parquet polish (normally contains also a natural detergent)
• Treat the floor, especially the areas of heavy use, approximately 2 times a year with floor polish according to instructions. Sometimes the floor needs to be cleaned with a polish remover (according to instructions) which removes the old layers of floor polish
• Never use steel wool or scourers

2.2. Waxed/ oiled floors.

Minor maintenance for waxed/ oiled floors:

• Remove dirt and dust by vacuum cleaner, sweeping (soft broom) or wiping
• Clean the floor regularly with a damp cloth (only use water)
• Remove persistent marks with parquet cleaner or parquet polish (normally contains also a natural detergent)
• Treat new floors within one-month, half a year and one year with hard wax or wax polish (according to instructions). After that treat the floor with wax or wax polish once or twice a year. The areas of heavy use (and where the floor looks "dry") need to be treated more frequently
• When the floor gets too greasy and/ or the wax too grey the floor can be cleaned with a floor cleaner (according instructions), after which the floor needs to be treated with wax or wax polish. The cleaner dissolves and removes the finish paste

See our range in Maintenance products or our maintenance service available in the East Kent area. Or join our "Easiest Maintenance Program (ever)"
100% guarantee on our genuine cast-iron buffing blocks

3. Major maintenance.
For major maintenance solid wood, wood engineered cork and bamboo floors must be sanded and lacquered (or oiled/sealed). 
Sanding makes an uneven, rough or weathered surface even, smooth and clean again. 

3.1. Varnished, lacquered floors.

• Where the lacquered layer is damaged (dark spots visible after cleaning the floor with a damp cloth) parts of the floor can be sanded lightly and lacquered again
• When needed, e.g. after heavy damages to a large part of the lacquer layer, the whole floor can be sanded and lacquered again. With standard wood engineered floors this is only possible 1 or 2 times, depending on the thickness of the top layer 
• After sanding you can opt for a new finish of HardWax Oil or colour oil instead of lacquer

3.2. Waxed/ oiled floors.

• If minor maintenance of the waxed/-oiled floor is postponed too long, it is possible that the whole floor will have to be sanded and finished again (HardWax Oil or colour oil and hard wax)

Stain-removing

We have many tips on removing stains from wooden flooring: from gum, crayon and candle wax to cigarette burns and water, wine or milk stains. Request our 'Stain-removing' tips.

"Wooden Floor Installation Manual"

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