As anyone who has ever had wooden flooring will tell you, dirt and grit are the enemies of wood floors, along with moisture and water. Dirt and grit can cause scratches and deep indentations in your floor that can ruin its appearance and force you to spend a lot of time, effort and even money getting the floor surface re-finishing.

There are things you can do to minimise the problems caused by dirt and grit. Follow these tips:

1. Choose a floor with a super-resistant finish. If you are just about to get a new wood floor and you are worried about it getting damaged, you might want to spend a little more money getting one with a thick protective wear layer. This will provide extra protection against dirt, grit and anything else that would otherwise damage the floor.

2. Don’t wear shoes in the house. The main way that dirt and grit enters your house is on the soles of shoes, so for the sake of your floors it might be best to implement a ‘no shoes in the house’ policy.

3. Put down doormats at all doors. By putting doormats both inside and outside all access points to the house, you can hopefully catch dirt, dust and grit before it can enter your home and damage your floors.

4. Sweep up regularly. This will do a lot to prevent grit and dirt from being dragged across the floor under furniture or on the soles of shoes.