The truth is that most all of us have never been taught the proper care of our hard flooring. You would be amazed to find out how many products commonly found at grocery and big box stores are actually bad for the longevity of your floors. Even things such as vinegar or even pure water, will damage your floors over time. The only product that you should ever be using on your floors whether it’s solid hardwood, engineered hardwood, or luxury vinyl plank is a quality neutral floor cleaner. Our technicians will be happy to recommend our favorite brands of widely available neutral cleaners to use. Frequent sweeping, vacuuming, followed by a microfiber flat mop using a neutral cleaner should be the only weekly maintenance your floors will need.

The bad news is NO, you should never use any product that is a polish or claims to restore your floors. The problem is that most of these store bought products are actually acrylic waxes. While it may initially improve the appearance of your floors, the wax quickly begins to fail by flaking off or peeling. Floors that have regularly had a wax polish applied now have layers of dirt trapped inside layers of wax making them look unsightly. If your housekeeper or anyone else is using wax on your floors it is a good idea to discontinue its use.

Here comes some good news. Many people falsely assume their floors need a full sanding. In many cases it is just your polyurethane wear layer that is keeping your floors from looking great. A properly maintained wear layer can help prevent your floors from ever needing a full sanding!

Instead of sanding your floors down to bare wood we use screens under our oscillating floor machine to remove light scratches and abrade the polyurethane. This process has also been called “Dustless Refinishing” or “Sandless Refinishing.” Our floor machine has a built-in HEPA vacuum which captures any airborne dust during the screening to maintain a clean environment. Once the floors have been screened they are then thoroughly cleaned. If the floors are in need of any color correction we can then apply water based stain to blend it in. Finally, two or more coats of a waterborne polyurethane with the sheen of your choice are applied to the floor. Your floors will now look amazing and will be ready for light foot traffic the same day! Heavy furniture can be replaced after 24 hours. This all happens without the huge mess and at a fraction of the cost of a full sanding!