Caring for your timber floor
Timber floors have a very unique and distinctive quality which makes them a great flooring material. Each timber species used is unique, from colour, texture, and wear-ability.
Maintaining timber floors is easy, but depends on several factors. One of them is the coating or finishing material used. It may be necessity for your timber floors to be re-coated several times over there lifetime. This ensures an enhanced years of your floor. After all, regular care and cleaning is a basic need for your timber floor. It does not only protect your floor’s finish, it also protects your floor timber.
That’s why it is importance to keep up regular maintenance of timber floors.
Caring for your new floor
It is a fact that a newly finished timber floor can be walked on straight away, but it’s a big “no” in a professional’s point of view.
Just like any other materials or products, if it is new it should be treated with utmost care and specific precautions should be taken to prevent any damage. In your timber floors case, the finish or coating can be appear dry on the top, but deep inside the coating is still working its way into the timber, is not fully dryyet. A span of 2 weeks is a safe mark to consider your timber floors is already safe to be used.
Here are some precautions you should be aware of to ensure your timber floor retain its look:
- Avoid using rugs and rubber backings when your timber floor has just undergone re-coating or even first coating. These items can stain your floor surface.
- Avoid sliding furniture through your floor surface. It can scratch or stain your floor.
- You can put in your light furniture but make it sure that they are installed with protective pads.
- Bigger appliances such us fridges and cabinets should be put in place by lift and not by dragging them. It can cause dents and scratch which doesn’t look good on your timber floor.
Caring for your timber floor, need help?
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For more information about care and maintenance of timber floors, call DIY Parquetry, Timber and Cork Flooring!
Timber floor – The choice of grade influences the character it?
Grading rules do not cover either colour or colour variation, but do significantly
influence the appearance of timber, with some grades including more of the
character of the trees history with larger gum veins, knots and other features
present. In other grades, the cleaner natural lines and figure of the timber will
dominate with fewer and smaller features present. When deciding on a timber
grade for flooring ensure that you consider the following:
• All trees contain features such as gum veins, knots and past borer activity
and such features for many, add to the character and charm of their floor.
Therefore when choosing a grade you are simply deciding on how much
feature you desire.
• The grade has no influence on a timber floor’s fitness for purpose in terms of its
manufactured moisture content range or machining tolerance. These aspects
are the same for each grade.
• All grades permit some feature and even though it may be named ‘Select
Grade’ some gum veins, knots and past borer activity is permitted.
• How the boards are mixed into the floor both in terms of colour and feature
is up to the installer, so if you have any specific views on this, you should
discuss it with your installer prior to installation.
• Because different features tend to dominate different species, two floors of
the same grade may appear quite different.
• There are grade names associated with Australian Standards grading rules.
In other instances, flooring manufacturers may have their own grades and
grade names. A manufacturer’s grade of timber may not be exactly the same
as that in an Australian Standard.
It is therefore important to realize that the overall colour or blend of colour in a
floor is dependent on the species or species mix chosen and the character of
the floor, in terms of the features present, such as gum veins, is determined by
the grade.
If choosing an alternative species from the one originally considered, not only
will the overall colour differ but the dominant type of feature may also change.
It is important to work closely with your supplier and installer so that they are
absolutely clear about the look that you desire.
D.I.Y. Parquetry, Timber & Cork Flooring, have years of experience and are your flooring specialists call to discuss your needs on 0409 081 679.
Article courtesy of Australian Timber Flooring Association (ATFA)