"How to keep your hardwood floors beautiful for a lifetime"

Congratulations on having made hardwood floors a part of your decorative environment. They are one of the best investments you have ever made because, with proper care, they will stay beautiful and last for a lifetime.

So how do you keep your floors as beautiful as the day they were installed or refinished? This simple online procedure is intended to help you. Follow these easy steps and you will have beautiful floors on which your furnishings and oriental or modern are rugs will always look their best.

Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is a term more common to industry than to residential or office floor care, but it's importance cannot be over emphasized. Listed below are some basic rules that apply to all types of finishes.

• Use dirt-trapping, walk-off mats at all exterior doors to help prevent dirt, grit and sand from getting inside the building. Throw rugs or small sections of carpet just inside the entrances are also helpful. Dirt and grit are any flooring's worst enemy and that includes carpets and vinyl's as well as hardwoods.
• Certain chemicals in wood oxidize in strong light causing the wood to change color (weather or age), i.e.; develop patina. To avoid uneven appearance, move are rugs occasionally and drape or shade large west-facing windows.
• Put fabric-faced glides on the legs of your furniture. They allow furniture to be moved easily without scuffing the floor. Clean the glides regularly since grit can become embedded in them. Some furniture may require barrel type roller casters as ball type casters may cause damage. Gray, non-marking rubber casters are the best. Avoid any type of plastic caster.
• Vacuum regularly, as often as you vacuum carpets, a brush attachment works beautifully; sweep or use a microfiber mop daily or as needed, but do not use a household dust treatment as this may cause your floor to become slick or dull the finish.
• Never damp mop a wax finished wood floor. There are some finishes which will be explain under Surface Finishes, but in all cases, use minimum water because water causes deterioration of the wood itself as well as the finish.
• Wipe up food and other spills immediately, using a dampened - not wet - cloth if necessary. Then wipe the flooring dry with another cloth or paper towel.
• Waxing is NOT required for some finishes, so be sure to read the portion of this brochure related to the type of finish used on your floors before you apply wax.
• Keep high heels in good repair. Heels that have worn down or lost their protective cap, exposing the steel support rod in the heel, will dent any floor surface, even concrete.

By observing these simple suggestions you'll go a long way toward keeping your hardwood floors beautiful and making their care easier.

For wax finished floors, follow the procedures for cleaning and waxing described under Section A, Wax Finish, thus maintaining a protective wax coating, and blot up any spilled liquid immediately.

Here are some 'first aid' suggestions for common accidents when the floor has been WAXED. (These Procedures Should Never Be Used On Surface Finishes.) When removing a stain, always begin at the outer edge and work toward the middle to prevent it from spreading.

1. Dried Milk or food stains: Gently rub spot with damp cloth. Rub dry and re-wax.
2. Stains caused by standing water: rub spot with #000 steel wool and re-wax.
3. Dark spots: (a) clean spot and surrounding area with #000 (or, if necessary, the coarser #00 steel wool and a wood floor cleaner or odorless mineral spirits; (b) thoroughly wash spotted area with household vinegar and allow it to remain for three or four minutes; (c) if spot remains, sand with fine sandpaper, feathering out 3 to 4 inches into surrounding area. Stain, rewax and polish. (Deep, black stains may go through the board. In such cases the affected board is best replaced by a professional floor man.)
4. Heel marks, caster marks, etc.: rub with fine steel wool dampened with the wax your normally use, then buff to a shine.
5. Ink stains: Follow same procedure as for other dark spots.
6. Animal and diaper stains: spots that are not too old may sometimes be removed in the sample manner as other dark spots. If spots resist cleaning efforts, the affected flooring can be refinished. (See No. 3)
7. Mold: Can usually be removed with a good cleaning fluid.
8. Chewing gum, crayon, candle wax: apply ice until the deposit is brittle enough to crumble off. Solvent - based wax poured around the area (not on it) soaks under the deposit and loosens it.
9. Cigarette burns: If not too deep, steel wool will often remove them. Moisten steel wool with solvent-based wax to increase effectiveness.
10. Alcohol spot: rub with solvent - based or paste wax, silver polish, boiled linseed oil, or cloth barely dampened in ammonia and place over the first: Repeat until the stain is removed.
11. Oil and grease stains: rub on a kitchen soap having a high lye content, or saturate cotton with hydrogen peroxide and place over stain; then saturate a second layer of cotton with ammonia and place over the first. Repeat until the stain is removed.
12. Wax buildup: strip all the old wax away with odorless mineral spirits or one of the available commercial products formulated to strip old wax from hardwood. Use cloths and fine steel wool to remove all the residue before applying new wax.
    

    What type of finish does your floor have?
    There are many types of finishes used on hardwood floors today and sometimes different finishes are used in different rooms, so the type of care required may vary. It is important for you to know how your floors were finished so you can apply the proper floor care product. Your builder, Realtor, or flooring installer/finisher should be able to tell you what type of finish you have.
    
    It would also be helpful to know the brand names of the stain and other finish products; if your floors were prefinished at the flooring manufacture plant, note the name of the manufacturer . Keep that information in your household data file to help you determine the proper floor care products. What follows now are things you need to know about the various types of floor finishes.
    
    Additionally, when you have one room of wood flooring or more, it is a good idea to invest in a residential electric medium weight buffer.

A. Surface Finish
This includes polyurethane finishes and water based finishes.

Keep grit off the floor. Dust mop or vacuum regularly. Keep doormats cleans.

Wipe up spills promptly with dry cloth or dry paper towel. Use slightly dampened cloth for sticky spills.

For general cleaning, add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to 1gallon of warm water. Dip a clean cloth or sponge mop and wring nearly dry. Clean floor and wipe dry with a towel as you go. Buff to restore luster.

When luster does not return in traffic areas such as doorways, kitchen wink, stove area, or hallways, the floor may require recoating. Consult your wood floor contractor about this.

Never wax a surface finish. Wax will, in most cases, be slippery and once waxed, the floor will not be able to be merely recoated to rejuvenate it, but will have to be completely sanded down to raw wood to restore the floor

B. Acrylic Impregnated

This finish has been combined with wood throughout the entire thickness of the wear layer. A spray and buff system requiring commercial buffers is recommended for commercial applications.
Care of residential installations, where no commercial buffers are available, can be done with the manufacturer's recommended products.

C. Varnish, Shellac and Lacqer Finishes
These are all surface finishes that are rarely used today and do not have the moisture - resistant characteristics of Surface Finishes, So you should never damp mop varnish, Shellac or Lacquer finishes. All should be cleaned and waxed periodically.

A Final Note
If in doubt concerning the care of your wood floor, contact a professional hardwood floor man. He can tell you how best to proceed. Call NDHF at
541-345-6664.

Maintenance
The key to lasting beauty of your wood flooring investment is proper maintenance for the life of your floor.

Being educated on the proper maintenance procedures for their floor is an important part of any sale, whether it's a new installation or refinish. Customer expectations play an important role in determining satisfaction. A properly maintained floor significantly increases the likelihood of a satisfied customer.

All Hardwood Floors
Regardless of how the floor has been finished, there are certain steps that must be taken to maintain the beauty of the hardwood floor.

Every floor must be dust mopped, vacuumed or swept with a soft bristle broom daily, or as often as necessary, to remove grit and dust from the surface. Walking on a dusty or dirty floor is the fastest way to damage a finish.

Place walk-off mats at all exterior entrances. This will capture much of the harmful dirt before it even reaches the hardwood floor. Shake out, wash or vacuum mats and area rugs frequently.

Floor protectors must be kept clean of grit and periodically replaced.

Keep high heels in good repair. An unprotected tip will dent any hardwood floor.

Kitchen floors experience the most traffic in a home. To prevent premature wear of the floor, place an area rug in front of the sink and stove area. Shake out or vacuum the rugs frequently.

Finally, using a humidifier in conjunction with a furnace or air conditioning system to maintain relative humidity in the home at 40 -50% will maintain the moisture in the wood and minimize cracks between the boards.

Urethane Finishes
Routine Cleaning - Use the finish manufacturer's or the prefinished floor manufacture's recommended cleaning system. If the manufacturer is not known or has no recommendation, use a cleaner that will not leave a residue that would inhibit bonding and recoating. Never wax a urethane finish. Do not generally wet a wood floor with water. When using any wood floor cleaner which requires mixing with water, follow mixing directions precisely. A microfiber mop with water and squeezed dry may be used to wipe up foodstuffs and other spills, provided the area is buffed dry immediately. Heel, scuff marks or stubborn stains may be removed by lightly rubbing with a cloth and a wood floor cleaner.