I get this call about once a month where someone has tried to bring back the life of their dull floor finish with this or similar polishes and soaps.  The problem with these mop and glo type products are that they are actually a real low grade acrylic polyurethane.   Most of the time they think all you need to do is squirt some out on the floor and mop it in.   Wrong!   The result?  A nice shiny but hazy coat of finish that rubs off under any solid use.    There is nothing you can buy at the grocery that you can refinish you floor with trust me its bad news.    If your floor is dull but not worn thru the protective topcoats it’s time to consider some maintenance work.    A simple screen and coat or one of the chemical prep and recoat systems preformed by a professional is your best bet to keep it looking good for years to come.   Screening of the floor will take out some small surface scratches and some traffic pattern wear but the sooner you do something the better in most cases.    If you let it go  for too long and you wear all the way down to the bare wood then the only fix is a complete sanding.   Completely sanding the floor  will cost 4-5 times what a maintenance coat would have been and take much longer to complete.

The first thing you need to do is find out what type of finish is on your floor.   Most floors 1980 to present have some type of film building polyurethane  finish.    These floors are easy to clean and offer the least amount of maintenance during their lifetime.   I highly recommend a good micro fiber mop (everyone makes one now)  and a high quality wood floor cleaner like Bona’s or Basic Coatings squeaky clean.     First you want to sweep and or vacuum any loose dirt and grit from the floor prior to putting the mop on the floor.   Next run the mop cover under some warm water and ring out until its just damp dry.    Now you just mist the cleaner in the area to be cleaned and go over it with the mop until she comes clean.   Often if you have a real dirty floor or a large area to clean you will have to return to the sink and rinse out the cover once it  gets saturated with dirt   A dirty mop cover will leave a dirty haze on the floor by redepositing the dirt elsewhere.   You have to have a clean mop to get the floor good and clean.

Of ten I hear homeowners/builders /contractors tell me that they are having someone “other” than their flooring contractor install their new wood floor.    Its always leaves me a little boggled and I’m here to let you know its probably not that great of an idea.   It really takes years of on site experience to pick up all on all the fine nuisances that make or brake a successful   installation.    Wood floors can actually be pretty cantankerous if you don’t know how to handle them.    Ive seen brand new floors have to be entirely ripped out and replaced due to improper installs by less than  looking to make a quick buck.    People you dont take your new BMW to the plumber  if it has a water leak do you?  Solid wood floors are made to last the a lifetime so find someone who know what they are doing and get some referrals.    Heck even the pros have trouble from time to time.    more later.

One common misconception  when installing a wood floor in the winter months is that the longer the wood  sits in the house before its installed the better.   Wrong!  All wood flooring is kiln dried to 6 to 9 percent moisture before and is maintained during manufacturing.    The use of forced heat will dry the interior of the space to extremely low levels if the humidity is not replaced by use of a humidifier.    Letting the floor sit in a house with the heat running is drying the already dry material out even more, the longer the drier it will become until its in equilibrium with the area in which is it is being stored.

The real problem starts when the heat stops running and the humidity returns to the environment.  The over dry floor installed tight starts to gain moisture and will swell resulting in a cupped or in extreme cases buckling off the subfloor.     There are ways to prevent it mainly try and keep the interior of the home at a constant.  Wood floors have a comfort level too,  a relative humidity of 45% and a temp of 70- 75  you wood floor in most areas will result in a 8% m/c in the wood floor.   This is why wood floors are manufactured to the 6-9% standard.    Every part off the country has a different climate so the expected moisture content will vary according to your particular local.    Another practice is expansion gaps.  Leaving space for the floor in a predetermined intervals will allow the floor to swell in the summer and allow for the natural expansion the will occur.

test bamboo Bamboo floors have gained a lot of attention from the dyi tv shows.    Its one of the first floors that people bring up in conversation with me once they learn I am in the harddwood flooring buisness.   Bamboo is a pretty neat little product its sustainable, green and all that jazz but here are a few things you might also want to know about Bamboo.

1.Bamboo is not really wood but a grass,  on average the bamboo stalks are harvested only 5-6 years after they are planted.  This is the ideal time to harvest due to that is the time when its the most stable and durable.

2.Normal bamboo isnt really that hard of a wood floor,  some test I have seen rate it close to red oak but in my personal experence    its closer to a sothern yellow pine in hardness and durability.

3.It takes over a million gallons of desiel fuel to push one of those container ships across the ocean!   Now hows thatt enviromentally sound?

4.  I dont dislike bamboo floors I just dislike how all the ill informed folks and marketing gurus have many people thinking this some sort of super eco floor.   There are more wood floorinfg mills in TN than any other place in the country .    Being local cuts down on transportaion cost and impact and helps the local economy not the ones overseas.    We have someof the most sought after lumber in the world right here in our own back yard!  Buy Local!

We always try to make our customers feel like they know what to expect when you buy a hardwood floor but inevitably something gets left out or forgoten during the discussion so here are a few things one should expect when owning and purchasing a new wood floor.
    First off,  wood is a product of nature therefore no two wood floors will ever be exactly the same. This is one of the great things about a real wood floor but also can make showing acurate samples a challenge.  Always be aware that unless the samples you are looking at have came out the same run of flooring you plan on purchasing,  they will vary in grain patterns and color. Dont let this scare you into beliving you never know what to expect but do understand Mother nature made these floors not a guy in a lab.   

    Second,  all wood floors will move while in service unless the temp. and r/h are keep constant year round.    The number one complaint in the wood flooring business is and always will be cupping and cracks.    Both conditions are typically caused by seasonal changes that cause the use of your hvac.    During the winter months we run the heat and wood floors will dry.   As they dry they will loose some of there moisture content and the rusult is cracks between the board seams.   In the summer months we run the a/c and that does a good job of dehumidifying the living space but often its not enough to keep the floor from taking on moisture and swelling and the reusult is a wavey or cupped floor where the sides of the boards are higher than the center.   So I often get asked what time of the year is the best time to install a wood floor?  My answer would be late sping or early fall and the reason is thats the time of year where you are not forcing heat or air inthe living space and should be in the middle of the contraction /expansion seasons.  

Well Ive been wanting to do this for a while now and pretty excited I can share some of the knowledge I have gained over the years.   Im going to start with a couple of the most frequently asked questions I get day to day and see what happens.

thanks

Kevin

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