Protection of Wooden Flooring in Winter Weather Conditions
Protection of Wooden Flooring in Winter Weather Conditions
Wooden Flooring (Hardwood Floor) is well recognized all over the world for its beauty. The protection of wooden flooring in winter weather conditions is the main issue. Weather transitions may badly affect the condition of flooring. Especially with the start of winters, due to snow, it gets damaged. Now the question is how can we protect our wooden flooring from winters? Although once damaged, it can’t be restored as original but we can use certain protection techniques.
Here are some effective techniques to protect Wooden Floors from winters:
1. Use Rugs and Protective Mats:
In winter season we need to save our wooden flooring mainly from snow. Snow basically has two elements Ice and Salt both have the bad effect on our flooring. We should use some protective mats to isolate our floor from snow content. At the exits and entrances, we can use rugs. Rugs will keep snow particles away from entering into our region. By this method, we can prevent our floor reacting with snow particles.
2. Maintain Cleanliness of Floor on Regular Basis:
In winter areas where there are more chances for snow to enter into our premises, we need regular cleaning. If our home/office (where wooden flooring is installed) gets cleaned on regular basis, there is less chance for dirt enters into it. So a regular cleaning should be done to remove moisture or dirt present on the floor. If dirt or moisture persists on the floor for a long time, it may permanently damage our flooring.
3. Reduce the Gapping Between Boards, if Exist:
Due to moisture, gaps in hardwood floor are generated. If these gaps are not properly taken care of in time, there will be a major loss to the flooring. Well, it’s awful but we suggest you not to panic much. With an increase in humidity, wooden floors expand and with a decrease in it, they get contracted. As such for this problem, we don’t have a proper solution. Though, to reduce these gaps we can use the humidifier at our place.
4. Maintain Humidity Levels of Room:
According to The National Wood Floor Association (NWFA), the normal relative humidity levels should be in a range between 30% and 50% to maintain a long-lasting performance of Hardwood Flooring. As we have mentioned above, here also we can use a humidifier to maintain our room’s humidity.
5. Use Engineered Hardwood Floors :
To prevent our Wooden Flooring from varying winter conditions, the best way to use Engineered Hardwood Floors. Engineered oak floorboards are made up of several wooden sheets. It’s like 5 – 7 slabs of plywood (crisscrossed in diverse directions) compressed within two layers of timber. The top layer here is of 100% natural wood while the bottom layer is also wood.
The Engineered Hardwood construction creates a high degree of stability of the core that is less likely to get affected by varying weather conditions. Using engineered hardwood flooring is the best option to prevent our flooring from moisture and dirt in winters.
