Taking care of your flooring this year
It's the start of a new year, perfect time to think about cleaning your house and looking after your flooring.
Following some easy-ongoing maintenance tips can increase the lifespan of all your flooring - from carpet to vinyl - making the most of your investment and keeping your home looking fantastic all year round.
With many years of experience in designing, supplying and maintaining flooring of all types, we’ve got five top tips for you to help keep your flooring in tip-top condition.
1. Protect high-traffic areas
Although lots of flooring types are ideal for the heaviest traffic areas in the home, such as kitchens, hallways, stairs and landings, it’s still worth taking small measures to retain your flooring in its prime condition. For example, putting a rug down in a hallway helps to protect the flooring underneath – from excess dirt if you have carpet, and from scratches and dents if you have hard or laminate flooring.
We’d also highly recommend that you use an entrance mat. This can reduce the dirt on your flooring by up to 70%, preventing people from tracking dirt through your home. The usual recommendation for an entrance mat is that it can accommodate two strides – so many of the standard doormats available are not long enough to make much of a difference. Keeping your entrance mat clean will significantly reduce the dirt coming into your home.
2. Keep flooring clean
This sounds like something you may take for granted, but the more regularly you clean your flooring, the better it will look. Whether you have carpet, vinyl or laminate, frequent cleaning will prevent long term stains or damage. For example, immediately wiping up water, juice or other liquid spills on hardwood and laminate flooring will maintain the look of the floor. For carpet, vacuuming regularly will prevent dirt from sticking to carpet fibres, which not only keeps the carpet looking fresh but also maintains a healthier home environment.
3. Protect from heavy furniture
Furniture can cause damage to your flooring, no matter how practical your flooring choice is. Heavy furniture can leave flat patches on your carpet or dents in your vinyl, and can scratch both traditional hardwood and modern laminate flooring. You can use specialist furniture pads to prevent some of these problems, and make sure that you lift furniture rather than drag it when you move it around your house.
4. Read the care instructions
There’s nothing worse than attempting a home remedy for a stain on your carpet and then discovering you’ve made things worse. Always read the care instructions that come with your flooring and keep them somewhere safe so you can refer to them if you need to. And also keep the warranty or purchase invoice.
5. Use the right cleaners
It might be tempting to use the same cleaning product for the different types of flooring in your home, but it’s far better to use the right product. If you have wood and laminate floors, use cleaning products that are developed for wood – other cleaners may be too harsh and damage the colour or pattern of your wood. Similarly, be careful with vinyl – you should always use a non-abrasive cleaner.
We deliberately design and source our flooring to make life easier for homeowners. Our industry-leading carefree fibres are stain resistant and easy to maintain, our vinyl ranges are easy to fit and easy to maintain, and both our hard wood flooring and laminate flooring ranges are designed to keep homes looking great for longer. Check out our full flooring collection here.
