5 Tips & Tricks For Your Hardwood Floors
HELPFUL HACKS FOR HARDWOOD FLOORS
Caring for hardwood floors can be a bit labor-intensive. While they’re a popular choice in many homes, the fact is, they can be high maintenance. To keep your hardwood floors looking fabulous, we’ve put together a few helpful tips and tricks below.
HARDWOOD FLOOR HACKS
REMOVE DENTS
Kids and hardwood floors don’t play well together, but there’s no need to fret any longer as it’s easy to remove dents with a steam iron and a damp cloth.
Place the wet cloth over the dent and run a hot iron over it in tiny circles to pull the dent up. Voila! No more dent!
PREVENT SCRATCHES
How many times have you accidentally scratched your hardwood floors moving furniture? Place socks over the legs of your furniture before moving them. Not only does this prevent scratches in the beautiful finish, but it also makes the furniture much easier to slide.
REMOVE PERMANENT MARKER
Again… kids and hardwood floors. If your little Picasso has permanently marred your hardwood floor with a marker, grab a dab of toothpaste and a damp cloth and gently buff it away.
MAKE YOUR OWN FLOOR CLEANER
Hardwood floors require special cleaners that can be quite expensive. You can make your own cleaner that’s safe for hardwood floors as well as for you and the environment. Just use the recipe below.
1 C. distilled water
½ C. vinegar
½ C. isopropyl alcohol
2-3 drops dish soap
25-30 drops of essential oil
Combine all the ingredients in a fine-mist spray bottle and use it whenever you need to clean your floors.
Bonus: This all-purpose cleaner is excellent for cleaning most surfaces in your home.
GET RID OF SCUFF MARKS
It’s easy for shoes to leave behind scuff-marks on hardwood floors. It’s even easier to get rid of them using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!
SILENCE CREAKY FLOORBOARDS
Squeaky hardwood floors keeping you up at night? Silence those creaks and squeaks by applying a generous helping of baby powder over the sound. Work it into the cracks between the boards until the creak subsides and most of the powder is gone. Simply clean up any powder residue left on the surface.
SAY GOOD-BYE TO SCRATCHES
Do your dining room chairs leave scratches in your hardwood floors every time someone pushes their chair away from the table? Say good-bye to these unsightly scratches by combining one-part vinegar with three parts canola oil. Apply the solution with a dry, soft cloth and watch those scratches disappear. There’s no need to worry about wiping it off, either!
ELIMINATE PET URINE ODOR
If you have pets, you know that accidents happen. Unfortunately, when they happen on your hardwood floor, the odor can stick around for a long, long time if not dealt with properly. To get rid of pet urine odor on hardwood floors, combine:
½ C. baking soda
½ C. vinegar
½ C. dish soap
Enough hydrogen peroxide to increase the mixture by 10 percent.
Saturate the stain/odor well with the solution and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Blot with a paper towel to clean the area.
Once the area is dry, sniff it to see if any odor remains. If so, try a second round of treatment. If the odor remains after treating the area a second time, you may need to take more drastic measures such as sanding and re-staining the area or replacing the affected boards completely.
