The holidays are well on their way and with the holidays comes all the parties. Are you planning on having family and friends over for the holidays? Perhaps you just had an excellent hardwood flooring installation job done and you're just dying to show everyone how great it looks. Having beautiful hardwood flooring to show is great, but be wary because with all the holiday parties you plan on hosting comes the dirty floor and potential for damage to your hardwood flooring. Here are few tips from Chicagoland Pro on how to keep your hardwood floors safe during the holiday celebrations:
Protecting Your Hardwood Flooring-- Christmas Tree
1- Use of felt appliques: If part of your decorations include having a Christmas tree there are a few things you need to keep in mind for the well-being of your hardwood flooring. If you have decided to use a real tree then this means you will obviously need to make sure that the stem or base of the tree is being watered. Here's where things can get tricky. If for some reason the base begins leaking water it can cause great damage to your hardwood flooring. No one wants a beautiful hardwood flooring installation job ruined, so save yourself the trouble and make sure the base of the tree is protected. Place a felt applique tightly around the base of the tree. If any water seeps out, it will not be directly on the hardwood flooring.
2- Say no to sap: Here's another tree tip-- If you intend on using a real tree as a part of your holiday directions watch out for the sap that could potentially wind up on your hardwood flooring. If you find a spot where sap has accumulated the best way to remove it is to stick an ice cube on it. This will pop the sap right off. After you pop the sap off clean the floor with a hardwood flooring-safe cleaner.
3- Eliminate tree needles: Protect your hardwood flooring from all of those pesky pine needles that trees can leave behind during the holiday season. Keep a microfiber dust mop or hardwood flooring-safe vacuum handy at all times. Scratches on hardwood floors typically come from any debris left on the flooring that moves across the floor. This will dull the flooring's finish. Try to sweep the floor daily.
Protecting Your Hardwood Flooring-- Guests
4- Polishing: Before holiday guests arrive, consider a quick floor polishing. A quick floor polishing will make your floors look their best just in time for your guests to arrive. Just remember to leave yourself enough time for your handy work to dry. Give yourself a window of 1-2 hours before allowing people to walk on the floors.
5- Shoes off: Make it a point that all guests take off their shoes at the door upon their arrival. This will leave the dirt and debris from outside off of your hardwood flooring preventing any damage from being done.
Looking for more tips on protecting your hardwood flooring from all the holiday commotion? Feel free to leave us a comment below or contact us.