If you are looking to have hardwood flooring installed in your home, or already have it, you will want to do everything you can to ensure your flooring retains its appeal for as long as possible. Cleaning your hardwood flooring is something you should be doing regularly anyway, but as time goes on, you should also be reapplying a finish to your floor.
Hardwax oil is a common finish for hardwood flooring and gives your floor a soft, natural sheen which mellows over time. Flooring that is finished with hardwax oil tends to me more forgiving of scratches and scuffs, as you can apply more finish to scratches to practically erase them.
The frequency with which you reapply hardwax oil to your wooden flooring can vary, depending on the amount of traffic the room receives. However, in general it is recommended that you reapply this finish at least every 12-24 months.
If the time has come to re-oil your floor, the first thing you should do is take all of the furniture out of your room – this will make it much easier to reapply the finish to the entire floor. Remember to be careful when moving your furniture – make sure you lift and carry it, rather than push or pull it as this can cause your floor to become scuffed or scratched.
After all of your furniture has been removed, sweep or dust your floor to remove any dirt or debris and then give it a thorough clean using the manufacturer’s recommended cleaning product. Once it has dried, you should then gently sand your floor using a 150-grade sandpaper. When you have finished sanding, vacuum your floor again to remove the dust which will have collected on your floor, especially in any gaps in between floorboards.
Finally, apply a thin coat of hardwax oil and leave it to dry for a number of hours before buffing it to the desired sheen either by hand with a soft cloth, of with a buffing machine if required.
At Just Wood, we can provide all of these required cleaning materials if needed, and can also carry out this work for you if you don’t feel comfortable performing it yourself.