Caring for your Timber Floor

Timber floors vary in ease of maintenance depending on the type of coating used and the severity of use and always greatly benefit from regular care. In doing so, the life of the floor finish and floor are greatly enhanced. However at some stage the floor will need to be rejuvenated and this usually requires buffing back and re-coating.

Some of the softer floor finishes can also benefit from application of metalised polish which provides an additional wear surface. It is important that maintenance aspects are passed on to customers as it assists in ensuring ongoing customer satisfaction.

A Newly Finished Timber Floor

Although a floor may be walked on after initial curing, some precautions are necessary with a newly

Finished floor until the coating system has fully hardened and this may take in the order of two weeks.

Use of the floor before the full cure has been realised can result in increased tendency for scuffing

and scratching. It is recommended that rugs are not laid until after the floor finish has fully hardened. Additionally rugs with rubber backings should never be used as these may tend to stain the applied coatings. While light furniture can be replaced and used during this period, it should be ensured that furniture protection felt pads are attached to the feet of tables and chairs etc and furniture such as

chairs should be lifted. Similarly, it should also be ensured that heavy items such as fridges are moved carefully into position and at no time should they be dragged over either newly finished or fully cured floors.

Consideration should also be given to chairs with castors as they can indent softer  timbers and also cause premature wear of the coatings they are in contact with. Again these should not be used until the finish has hardened and barrel type castors are less likely to damage a floor than ball castors.

Timber floors are generally easy to maintain and greatly benefit from regular care.