Learn how to care for your wooden furniture during the winter.
Winter is known for zapping the humidity out of the air and wreaking havoc on wood everywhere, whether it’s in a violin or underneath your feet. If you have wood flooring in your home, you need to take a little bit of extra care to maintain it over the winter months. Here are three of our best wood maintenance winter tips!
Get Rid of Dust and Dirt
First, you should get rid of any dust and dirt lingering on the floor. Putting up holiday decorations can knock dust around in your home and let it (and grit) sit on top of the surface. If you leave it sitting on the surface, it will scratch up the hardwood floors as you walk around. You should use a dust mop, broom, or vacuum to get any dust and dirt up throughout the winter. This is especially important if it is snowy outside and you will be walking inside with rock salt and ice melt stuck to your boots.
Stop Gapping
Gapping is one of the biggest winter wood maintenance problems that occur due to low humidity. The air in your home will attempt to draw out moisture from whatever it can, and the wood flooring wants to maintain the humidity equilibrium, so to speak. As a result, the wood will give up moisture and start to shrink. Once it shrinks, small gaps will appear between the planks in your hardwood flooring. To prevent gapping, you should make sure that the relative humidity levels in your home stay within a 20% range throughout the year, even if that means installing a humidifier.
Protect Your Floor
Finally, you should protect your hardwood flooring with rugs and floor mats. Rock salt and chemicals used to treat roadways can tear up and damage your hardwood flooring. By placing rugs on your hardwood floors, you will also keep your home nice and cozy.
Hire a Wonderful Craftsman for Your Hardwood Flooring
Mahogany Inc. is a general contractor that specializes in quality construction for residential and commercial projects. We have the expertise and experience to tackle whatever your custom woodwork job is (and acquire those hard to find woods you might want to use!). If you are looking for work that will set your living room, kitchen, or business apart, contact us online or give us a call at (410) 727-0334. To see examples of our wonderful work and see what our customers have to say, check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.