The majority of floor damage is not caused by dramatic events, but rather accumulates over time: grit brought in from outside, a spill that wasn’t cleaned up immediately, furniture being moved slightly. The habits that prevent most of this damage are easily-formed, once you know what your floors are going through.
The following is an overview of how three common types of flooring; hardwood, laminate, and tile are installed and what happens to them when they’re mistreated.
The Real Cost of High-Traffic Wear
The maintenance of floors in hallways, kitchens, and living rooms is more difficult than that of any other floor in the house. The continuous effect of people passing by, changing humidity levels, and exposure to sunlight doesn’t compromise the aesthetic appeal but, above all, it also compromises the integrity of the material.
A well-maintained wood floor, reports the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), has a lifespan that can exceed 100 years, while disused floors with a lot of traffic will lead to renovation works in 10-15 years. The difference is not a matter of luck, but rather of maintenance.
The wear layer, the surface layer of engineered wood and solid wood floors, is quantifiable. Every scratch, every excess moisture and every area exposed to sunlight without protection reduces the life of this layer. Getting maintenance work for what it is, that is, repairs for damage and not protection from damage, is the most expensive mistake that owners can make.
Choosing Materials That Work With High-Traffic Conditions
Solid hardwood looks amazing, but it’s also prone to expanding and contracting when exposed to extreme temperature and humidity changes. This means that hallways, one of the busiest and most fluctuating-temperature places in the home, aren’t the best spot for a solid product.
Engineered wood flooring is constructed in such a way that makes it more stable, making it less likely to expand, contract or shift when compared to solid wood. So, if your hallway is near your front door (which it most likely is!) and you have two pairs of shoes for every type of weather, engineered is the way to go.
Building a Two-Tier Entryway Defence
Most of the damage floors sustain starts right at the entry point. Sand, fine gravel, and dried salt might not seem dangerous, but over time, they act just like sandpaper. It’s these abrasive particles that bond to shoe soles and get tracked across your beautiful floors with every step you take. A single well-placed outdoor mat can capture up to 80% of the larger debris that would otherwise get ground in, abrading your finish.
The absorbent indoor mat just inside the door, remember this second tier is the one actually doing the heavy-lifting work of protecting your floors, captures far more fine grit and moisture and protects your investment by absorbing the worst of the mess.
Most damage attributable to foot traffic on wood flooring starts and ends right at this 2-mat system. It intercepts the sandpaper-like particles that circumvented the first barrier and absorbs the damaging moisture that would otherwise find its way into joints, causing swelling. Replace or clean your mats regularly. A sodden, grit-laden mat just grinds away at your investment.
Daily and Weekly Cleaning – The Distinction That Matters
Surface cleaning is not the same as maintenance cleaning. And if you treat it as such, you are going to have a bad time.
Your floor should see nothing but a dry microfiber mop every day. This is not unreasonable. The most precious investment on Earth does not need to be “cleaned” more often than you take a shower. You just want to wash the day’s worth of abrasive grit off the ground before you go grinding it in over the finish with your nightly dance party.
Micro-scratches build up at such a small rate initially that you won’t notice them. Ten years later, you’ll be wondering why your expensive beautiful floor looks so bad, until some expert slides you over not a buffing pad, but an electron microscope.
The mop should be lightly damp, not sopping, and used once per week max. Too much water runs down into the gaps between your beautiful floorboards and, especially in the case of your beautiful natural wood, causes them to swell up. When you do anything but dry mop, use a pH-neutral cleaning liquid, because acids and bases break down the oils and lacquers protecting your precious floor.
Managing Sunlight and Furniture Contact
Rooms in a home that receive a lot of traffic are the most vulnerable because of the constant exposure to wear and tear, moisture and frequently other damaging elements. However, many homeowners simply don’t notice that it’s fading until the damage is already done.
Uneven UV exposure, i.e. a strip of sunlight hitting the same section of the floor for hours every day, creates visible discoloration that then leaks into more lightly used neighboring rooms.
Thin, sheer curtains are a simple way to reduce direct UV exposure without limiting ambient light. Also, finishes including UV inhibitors are like “sunscreen for your floors” and furnish an added layer of protection for rooms facing south or with lots of large windows.
Furniture is the other piece of the equation. Felt protectors on all chair and table legs are next to free and eliminate the damage furniture does in unfair spots refinishing might not be able to fix. However, they should be checked every couple of months as they compress, shift and fall off. A bare metal foot doing repeated micro-damage is easy to overlook. Floors that work good as new for generations are shielded as part of a system, not just a product of occasional heroic efforts.
