Protecting Your Kitchen Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood flooring can really enhance the beauty of your home, even in your kitchen. The kitchen is the room where the family can get together and get cooking. Moms cover the granite counter in baking flour to roll out and cut holiday cooking with the kids, also getting flour all over the floor. The dog walks through the kitchen after his trip to the water bowl and drips water and slobber all over the floor. Because this room is so lived in everyday, the hardwood flooring in this room needs a lot of tender love and care. Especially in the kitchen where surfaces are always wet or dirty.

Once you have the right cleaning products and tools to clean, then cleaning your kitchen hardwood floors is easy! You also can clean and protect/maintain your floors at the same time! A lot of cleaners on the market today protect while they clean. This makes maintenance super quick and easy, saving you time. This could potentially save money by extending the time between professional maintenance quotes. Try to wipe up any spills on the floor as soon as you see them. Watch for products that don’t leave a thick residue on the floor.
To protect certain areas of high traffic or where water is often spilled like in front of the sink, you can place a kitchen rug. By adding a rug, you are putting a layer between the floor and your kitchen. Therefore, the rug will take the damage instead of your hardwood floors. Remember to add a rug backing so that the back of the rug doesn’t scratch up your flooring. Also, the rug backing mat also allows space between the rug and the floor so that the moisture can dry and not get trapped. I recommend choosing an under rug mat that is close to the shade of your wood so that the mat does not cause any discoloration. The safest mat material is on that is all felt or all rubber. It is good to not have anything sticky on the mat to ensure your floors do not get damaged.

Like rugs, felt protectors can make a drastic change in protecting your hardwood floors. Heavy furniture like bar stools or an island in the middle of your kitchen can cause major dents and scratches into the surface of the wood. To prevent this all-together, add felt protectors to the bottom of the legs of chairs, or under the corners of your island. Add as many as you want. They even sell strips of felt protector for islands, compared to the traditional circle shaped ones for chair legs. They come in so many colors now that they are virtually invisible in your kitchen. This is a really cost efficient option that makes a significant difference in protecting your floors. Felt protectors are the same price as a pack of command strips.

I hope that we have gotten you to love hardwood floors as much as we do! We offer so many options in hardwood flooring here at Floor De Lis. Please contact us today if you have any questions about any flooring at all. We are happy to help you!