Posts Tagged ‘wood floor maintenance’

Treat your floors well this holiday season

Monday, December 21st, 2009

cleaner copy

This year with all of the spills of goodies, drinks, and food please avoid the tendency to damp mop your entire floor. The best way to clean your floor is to use a dry tack mop like the one offered at www.glitsa.com. This will get up all of the dust, pet hair, and dirt. Occasionally (once per week) a light spritzing with neutral pH hardwood specific cleaner will retain the original luster.
Please avoid vinegar and water to clean your floor. It may seem to work well, but over time the acidity of the vinegar will attack your floor finish.
Also avoid heavy residue cleaners like Swiffer wetjet, Murphy’s oil soap, and Pine Sol. The residue will gradually dull the shine of your floor and make refinishing very difficult. Also avoid cleaners like Mop-n-Glo because they contain trace amounts of silicone, which make recoating your floor (cheaper process) not possible because it ruins the chance for adhesion of a new layer of finish.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

How long will it last?

Monday, October 5th, 2009


The title of this blog in my opinion should be the first question out of your mouth if you are a consumer or remodeler who preaches sustainability. The beauty of wood flooring is that it has the ability to last for well over 100 years depending on the wear layer thickness of the material.

Let us define wear layer as the surface of a flooring product that is in contact with foot traffic that can tolerate gradual removal of material without compromising the integrity of the flooring fastening system. Wear layer is a tremendously overlooked factor for people who are purchasing products. A minimum wear layer thickness for product that is serviceable through recoating or refinishing should be 3/16″. The wear layer of a typical 3/4 solid hardwood floor is 5/16″. That means that you may be able to refinish the floors typically 8 times. Some of the houses in Portland have fir flooring with a wear layer thickness that may have once been close to 1/2″ or 8/16″ in my estimate. That’s pretty amazing for longevity.

We recommend that in addition to the cost and the color, the primary consideration of your flooring material should be serviceability over time.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Hardwood floor durability, Portland fir floor, wear layer thickness | No Comments »

|