Hardwood Flooring Lifespan: How Can You Extend It?

Solid hardwood flooring is still a classic and common flooring option when it comes to selecting a flooring for a home. It is known for its beauty, durability, and ability to enhance any home’s value, and why shouldn’t it be? Solid hardwood floors can easily last 50 to 100 years, but only when they are properly cared for.

Many homeowners commonly underestimate that everyday habits, seasonal changes, and sometimes cleaning routines can also affect the lifespan of their floor. But with the right approach, professional insight, and regular parquet floor polishing, your floor can stay beautiful and strong for decades. 

Let’s continue with the article and understand what steps you can follow to extend the lifespan of your hardwood flooring. 

Know the Maintenance Schedule 

Different flooring materials require different maintenance needs, and caring for them can be done either daily, weekly, monthly or seasonally.

• Routine cleaning that suits every house includes dusting, a quick sweep or vacuum, and prompt spot and spills. Ensure getting this done daily and thoroughly to prevent dust, dirt and grime from accumulating and digging deeper into the floors, making it more difficult to remove. 

• For a weekly care plan with a more thorough vacuuming, damp cleaning or mopping using recommended products, buffing of scuffs if any, and checking the finishing if your floor is finished. 

• Monthly floor maintenance is intended to maintain shine and ensure early detection of spots and scratches. Fixing them at the right time will help you avoid costly repairs or replacement. 

• Check the flooring in every season, especially with hardwood flooring. Moisture, cold, heat, and humidity can affect different materials.  

• Annual care is where deep cleaning happens. It’s during this time that you’ll appreciate the importance of a sealant in ensuring the floors remain shiny and almost brand new. 

Protecting Hardwood in High-Traffic Areas

Start by Minimising Dirt and Dents: What could be a better way to protect your floors than to eliminate as many damaging factors as possible? 

• Protect high-traffic areas with rugs, mats and other floor protectors. Studies share that high heels aren’t exactly hardwood-friendly, especially if the one wearing heels weighs 125 pounds or up. When walking, heels deliver up to 8,000 pounds of pressure. 

• Put a doormat on every entrance to limit dust and debris brought inside the home. This will also ease your daily cleanup. 

• Follow a strict rule of not wearing shoes indoors to keep the spread of outdoor particles and contaminants. 

• Use felt pads to prevent scratches caused by dragging furniture. Remember to change them on a daily basis to ensure effectiveness. 

• Prefer window treatments to protect floors from fading due to direct and prolonged sunlight exposure. UV-protected blinds are one of the most effective barriers you can use. 

Ensure the Right Humidity Levels

Humidity levels change with the season, which causes hardwood to shrink or swell. You want to keep this from happening to prevent aesthetic and structural issues. 

• If humidity is a problem in your area – invest in a humidifier and dehumidifier to keep humidity within a 40-60% range all year round. Use a hygrometer to monitor humidity levels. 

• Ensure good ventilation to help maintain proper humidity. 

• Use a humidifier during winter, a dehumidifier in summer, and then adjust the HVAC system during transitional seasons (spring and fall). 

Follow Winterisation Best Practices 

Winterising is an effective way to make your floor last longer. What you do will depend on the local climate. 

• To combat the winter dry air, use a humidifier to increase the air’s moisture level and prevent gaps that will collect dirt and debris. 

• Always ensure the salt or calcium chloride used to melt snow and ice stays outdoors. Use a special cleaner if some of them manage to reach your wood flooring. 

Create a Maintenance Routine

Consider flooring care as an integral part of home maintenance done at specific schedules so that every inch of your property is well-protected against damage. 

• Based on the maintenance schedule above, create a routine that you or an assigned member of the household should follow. 

• Daily maintenance needs to be done as scheduled, followed by weekly and monthly care activities. 

• Create a checklist for seasonal maintenance that must include inspecting humidity changes, grit build-up, and scuffs and marks. 

• Follow the specific schedule for the re-application of wax-finished flooring. Or, wax as needed. In high-traffic areas, the wax is likely to wear off quickly.

• Check if buffing will restore the waxed floor’s shine in high-traffic places and remove wax build-up in low-traffic areas.

Check If the Flooring Needs Refinishing

The finish’s protective layer will wear out over time, more so in busy areas of your home. 

• Check for indications that refinishing is in order—visible scratches, discolouration, dullness, and the like. Or, follow your installer’s advice for the refinishing schedule if you’re given one.

• Hire professionals to check if your floor only needs a recoat or a full-on sanding, polishing, and finishing. 

Be Consistent

The goal is to build good habits of floor maintenance, and the best way to achieve this is consistency. 

• In routine, follow daily, weekly, monthly, annual, and seasonal care activities. 

• Stay on top of winterisation, waxing requirements, and refinishing needs. 

Hardwood may have a longer lifespan than other materials, but you can make it last by following the tips above. You must develop the right habits so that maintenance won’t feel like a chore and one you’re likely to forget. Need to have your parquet floors polished? Let Lux & Beyond handle the work and see the difference. 

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