How to Keep Your Kitchen Floorboards Protected

There’s just something about wooden floors that take your breath away. Whether it’s in the bedroom, in the living space, in transitional hallways, or even in the kitchen, wooden floors have become a tried and tested flooring option that looks great while still being hard-wearing.

If you’ve taken the plunge and invested in wooden floorboards for your kitchen, you might be wondering how to protect your new investment to keep it looking as beautiful as it was on day one. When it comes to wooden floor maintenance, there are just a few top tips that you need to keep in mind; simple ways to keep your floors looking fresh and clean, to ward off potential damage or scratches. Below is a handy guide on how to keep your kitchen floorboards protected!

Choosing Your Flooring

When looking for flooring for a cooking space, it’s important to try and choose hardwood options that will be well suited to the area. The natural grain pattern and quality of the wood can go a long way, not only in the longevity of your floors, but also how well it matches your interior kitchen design.

Wood finishes can vary not just by look, but by their protective qualities, as well. Polyurethane wood finishes have been the best option for high traffic areas such as kitchens, as they’re highly durable and water resistant. So if a spill occurs in the cooking space, you can rest easy knowing that your timber floors are protected.

For Newly Installed or Finished Floors

Having newly installed flooring, whether you have solid timber planks or engineered wood, is guaranteed to make any space look stylish and classy.

Depending on where you’ve sourced your timber from, planks may or may not come pre-sanded and finished. This treatment process not only lets you fully customise the look of your timber floors to suit your specifications, but it increases the longevity of the wood while adding beautiful shine. Ensuring that your floors have been installed by professionals with years of experience in the field can go a long way in ensuring that the wood is well-installed and can withstand the many years to come.

It’s key to remember, however, that if you’ve just had a sanding and polishing treatment done on your flooring, to be extra mindful of scuffs and scratches. This is because some coating systems can take weeks to fully set, which is very dependent on humidity, technique, and the finish used.

Protect Your Floors

But don’t fret! There are some ways you can minimise the risk of scuffs and marks on your newly finished floors, such as using felt pad protectors on the feet of your furniture. This is a great way to soften hard edges that would usually etch light scratches on the surface of your floors, especially on chairs that may be accidentally slid across the wood as people stand up or sit down.

Try to make sure that you aren’t dragging heavy objects across the floor, either! This can be couches, tables, and even fridges: try to make sure that they’ve been moved onto felt pad protectors, and aren’t jostled or moved out of place until the finish has hardened fully.

Another way of protecting your flooring can be to use rugs and mats, but be mindful! You shouldn’t place rugs on newly finished flooring, as the finish needs to harden completely beforehand. Once it has, however, it’s a great way to protect the floor from heavy furniture items, spills, and heavy foot traffic. Not only does it help liven up the space and create a cohesive interior design element, it also prevents damage. Just be careful in choosing your rug: often, rugs with rubber backings to prevent slipping and sliding can actually stain and affect the coating of the flooring over time.

General Maintenance

Once your timber flooring installation by Kustom Timber has been done, and the finish has hardened, it’s important to follow some guidelines to help maintain the look and feel of your flooring throughout the years. Things such as regular cleaning and maintenance, as well as using protective materials, can go a long way in keeping wooden surfaces from the daily wear and tear.

Timber floors can gleam for years with the right cleaning procedures. This entails sweeping regularly, and using damp mops, drying the floor immediately afterwards to ensure that dirt and grit are kept away from the surface, as these can cause small scratches and dents easily if not cleaned properly.

While there are a lot of wood floor cleaning products available on the market, it’s important to refer to your installer or manufacturer for what products are appropriate to use on your floors. Some products on the market may include ingredients that can degrade the finish of your flooring, and be detrimental to the longevity of the wood. To avoid this, use manufacturer-approved cleaning products, which will usually be a neutral pH wood floor cleaner.

Avoid steam mops! While these can be great for tiled surfaces, they are very rarely effective at cleaning timber surfaces, and can in fact cause the floor to peel, or damage the finish. You’ll find that instead of a shine, your floors will look cloudy, or even slightly white.

Everyday tips

Try to make sure that you’re using gentle footwear when walking on your timber flooring, as well. Shoes such as cleats, high heels, or anything that can dent upon impact are not advisable, as these can damage the surface over time. Use doormats to ensure dirt isn’t being tracked onto timber surfaces. And because prolonged moisture exposure is not advisable for timber, spills should be mopped up quickly to prevent lasting water damage.

Take care of your kitchen floors!

Caring for your timber floors is always worth it. Make sure you do your research and watch them shine for years to come.