Wooden Floors by Malcolm

Where Refinishing is All We Do

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Care and Maintenance of Your New Wood Floor

After Wooden Floors by Malcolm refinishes your floors, you can enjoy them indefinitely if you follow our low maintenance care instructions.

Moving back into your house or room -
The urethane finish on your floor will continue to harden, or cure, for approximately 10 days after it is applied.  Usually just one day after the last coat of urethane is applied, you can move back into your spaces.   

It is how you move back in rather than when which matters.  It is important to not roll, slide or drag furnishings back into place.  Instead, use a "pick up and place" method when putting your furnishings back. Wait 2 days before replacing rugs.

 

An ounce of prevention -
Wearing shoes may track in grit that will scuff or scrape your floor. Bare feet can pose problems as well, as the oil on our skin can soften the finish over time. In addition, to ensure that your furnishings do not damage your floor use felt protectors or coasters on all furniture legs. Protectors that fasten on to the leg are preferable to those with adhesive. Furniture coasters are ideal for bigger pieces like couches or bed frames and adhesive felts can be cut for odd or wide legged furnishings. Take inventory of what kind of bases your furnishings have and ask us for what you need. 

Cleaning -
Cleaning with a soft broom or vacuum will remove abrasive grit tracked into your home.  From time-to-time damp mop (not wet!) with a 15 or 20 to 1 diluted mix of vinegar and water or Murphy's Oil soap and water.  Make sure the mop itself is clean before you start. Do not use other cleaners, soaps or waxes, as these can cause a variety of problems.  Every six (6) months to two (2) years you may shift furnishings and rugs to avoid sunlight shadowing (although this has never been a problem with the high quality of finishes we use).

Scratches -
If you scratch your floor, take the bottle of touch up finish we provided you and a torn off paper match and wet the scratch with finish using the match like a tiny paint brush. Then wipe the surface completely clean of finish leaving a trace of finish within the scratch itself to take its white appearance away.

Scuffs -
Do you want your floors to last indefinitely? They can! Here's how.

First, do not ever wax or soap the floors except as per these instructions. If you do, a residue of soap or wax may contaminate the surface. This can prevent successful recoating maintenance (every 5 to 20 years). The single coat may not bond to the existing finish if there is wax or soap residue on it. Clean with a broom and damp mop with vinegar and water or Murphy's Oil Soap (dilute 15 to 1).  Do long term  preventative maintenance as described below.

Long Term Preventative Maintenance for optimum durability -
Do not let wear of the finish progress to the point that the wood itself becomes exposed. Watch the highest traffic spots.

After 5 to 20 years (depending on use and maintenance) these high traffic areas will show significant wear. Now is the time to apply two 2 patch coats of urethane to these traffic spots. Then schedule to recoat the entire surface at your convenience to refresh and rejuvenate the wood beauty and to renew the protective finish.  Always do a test patch to confirm intercoat adhesion and compatability.  Avoid water based finishes

Call woodenfloorsbymalcolm.com. This is a quick, low cost way to make your floors last indefinitely!

Climactic Buffering -
Buffer the extremes of dryness and humidity by using humidifiers, air conditioners, or dehumidifiers as needed. Allowing prolonged periods of seasonal humidity (or dampness) the time to deeply penetrate the wooden structure of your home is like not having a roof on your home.

A wood floor is often an unbroken slab of wood spanning 30 feet or more If humidity or dampness is allowed to penetrate for a month of two (sometimes less) without any climate control, the wood will expand just 1 to 2 percent expansion is 3 to 7 inches, of extra hardwood over a 30 foot span. The expansion force is tremendous and can crush the wood fibre itself or loosen fastenings. Then when the heating season arrives the floor dries out a little and cracks appear. 

So your floor has been scratched... Now what? -
There are two certainties in having your floors finished by Wooden Floors by Malcolm. The first certainty is that you will have durable wood beauty for years. The second is that very likely your floors will get scuffed. Don't worry about fine scuffs. When you recoat and rejuvenate the surface every 5 to 20 years, scuffs will be fixed.

However, if you have a genuine scratch rather than a scuff here's what to do.

Use a torn off paper match end and the polyurethanes touch up material that we provided to line out the scratch. Then wipe the wood surface perfectly clean so that the polyurethane remains only in the scratch.

If the scratch has cut through a colouring stain to
the wood, apply similar stain to the scratch prior to applying polyurethane as above. Punctures of the finish as from a broken heel should be treated as scratches.
 

Serving: Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Dundas, Ancaster, Stoney Creek, Grimsby, Caledonia, Greater Toronto Region
with Quality Wooden Floor and Stair Refinishing since 1987.

www.WoodenFloorsByMalcolm.com
Phone: 905-570-1804

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