6 Thing That Are Ruining Your Floors

We invest so much into our homes to make them beautiful but often forget to maintain them. Some of the things we put our floors through on a day to day basis may seem harmless but gradually result in devastating damage. Let's go over the top six things that you may be doing that are ruining your floors and how to prevent them from happening.

Stop Ruining your Floors

We invest so much into our homes to make them beautiful but often forget to maintain them.

Some of the things we put our floors through on a day to day basis may seem harmless but gradually result in devastating damage. Let's go over the top six things that you may be doing that are ruining your floors and how to prevent them from happening.

Sticky Adhesive

You know that annoying rug that keeps sliding all over the place? Why don’t you just put some double sided adhesive onto the bottom of it and solve the problem. That, is a recipe for disaster. If you haven’t done this yet but were planning on it, please don’t. The sticky adhesive which seems like a great easy fix to your problem is just the beginning of another. If you have hardwood floors the adhesive will stick to the hardwood and will be impossible to get off resulting in difficult to repair damage.

Here’s an easy alternative: you can invest in some of these Gorilla Grip pads that are relatively inexpensive but will do the job better than any sticky adhesive you may decide to use.

Pets Nails

This is easily one of the most damaging thing to all types of floors (except for maybe tile). Pets nails dig into hardwood surfaces easily, they catch on loose carpet fibers, they pierce low quality vinyl or linoleum causing scratches, tears, and disaster. Keeping your pets nails trimmed is the best way to prevent the above damage. Millions of people are able to be proud pet owners as well as maintain beautiful homes and so can you.

We recently published an article on Pets and Hardwood floors, take a look at it for further insight on the subject.

Furniture

As much as you may hate moving your furniture around we actually recommend it. Periodically moving your dinning room table, couch, or heavy entertainment center to a new location will prevent your floors from developing deep ruts that are irreparable. Not only will moving your furniture around result in longer lasting floors it will also always keep your home always feeling fresh.

The Outdoors

Be careful what you track inside, often we don’t think twice before coming right into our homes with damaging particles. This goes for pets and kids especially. After a hot day out kids will run right inside after splashing around in the water or rolling around in the dirt. By the time you realize what happened the damage has already been done.

Which is why absolutely ever home must have a welcome/entry mat at all doorways. The mat prevents you from bringing in particles that would otherwise stain or even worse scratch your floors. All those little pieces of rocks, dirt, and sand result in a nasty scratch pattern on your floor. Do the right thing use a welcome mat.

Spills

Super simple, as soon as a spill happens (and it will) wipe it up ASAP and you should be good to go. Pet urine will seep into your hardwood, so will juice, and even plain water. Any type of spill colored or not if not wiped up right away will be devastating.

Actually any type of moisture can result in lasting damage. Most flooring material are not very water resistant and will not survive prolonged periods of exposure. Hardwood & carpet demand extra careful attention in wet areas. Make sure to place a mat underneath pet water and food bowls to catch spillage as well as simply pay attention to high risk areas and find ways to prevent damage.

Ignorance to Maintenance

Most manufacturers have recommended upkeep intervals, keeping up with those recommendations and performing all of the necessary maintenance is a fool proof way of getting the longest possible life from your floors. As an example carpet must be deep cleaned at least once every 12 months, and hardwood should be refinished every 10 years. Don’t forget all of the things that you must do on a weekly basis as well. Such as vacuuming, mopping, and sweeping.

For carpet maintenance read: How to keep your carpets looking new? Go check it out for more detailed tips on carpet upkeep.