Hardwood floors are inarguably beautiful and they add so much value to your home. Whether your entire home is made up of hardwood floors or you just have a couple of accent rooms with the rest being carpet, it?s important to maintain wood floors to get the most out of them. Maintenance isn?t as difficult or time consuming as you might have heard, but you do want to make sure you?re following the right tips:

Protect Your Floors

The best maintenance is to prevent damage in the first place. Keep mats at every entrance to catch the worst of dirt and debris that comes in on feet. Make sure to keep your floors dry by cleaning up spills immediately and allocating a special place for footwear on rainy or snowy days. Sweep your floors regularly with a special duster broom or mop to prevent small dirt particles from scratching the finish.

Clean Your Floors Properly

You wouldn?t use a pressure washer to clean your carpet, would you? Use the right tools to clean your hardwood floors and they?ll last for decades. You can clean floors with a floor brush vacuum attachment, and use a damp mop to handle deeper cleanings. Many specialty cleaning agents exist for hardwood floors, so be sure you do your research to find out which ones are safe for your specific floor. Ask the manufacturer what they recommend if in doubt.

Keep Your Floors Looking New

Even with the best care, your floors will probably take on a few marks or stains over time. It?s important to know both what type of mark you?re dealing with and what type of finish your wood floor has. You?ll use different techniques depending on these variables. What works well on a hard sealed surface could destroy a floor with a soft oil finish.

Wood floors provide a number of advantages due to their ease of maintenance and visual appeal. They are, however, prone to buildup from traffic, spills, and harsh cleaning chemicals. Watch this video for a look at cleaning buildup on wood floors.

You can use two household ingredients to create a wood cleaner: warm water and white vinegar. Fill a bucket with a few gallons of warm water and add in two or three capfuls of vinegar for each gallon. Saturate a sponge mop with this solution and wring it out, then mop the wood floor in the direction of the boards. Be sure to rinse and wring your mop frequently and clean up any excess water left on the floor.

All windows deserve to be dressed up, but some window treatments might be better in one room than another. From curtains to Roman shades, you have a lot of options, but one that you might not have considered is wooden blinds. You spend so much time making sure you have the perfect carpet, paint, and furniture, that it only makes sense to have the perfect blinds, too. Here?s what wooden blinds can bring to your home:

Increased Privacy

Even though wooden blinds tend to weigh less than synthetic blinds, they provide extremely good coverage for your windows. When drawn, their density completely blocks out light, so no one who is outside looking in can even make out shadows. For you on the inside, it?s great when you want to keep a room darkened during the day?no need to buy expensive blackout drapes on top of your blinds!

Easier Cleaning

Standard blinds can be a pain to clean. Even if you keep up with regular dusting, they?ll inevitably need to be taken down and soaked at some point. Wooden blinds are super easy to clean, requiring only regular wipe downs and the occasional swipe with a damp cloth. They?ll stay beautiful and vibrant rather than becoming dingy or discolored.

Versatile Beauty

Since wooden blinds can be stained or painted, they can be made to match absolutely any interior dcor. Do you want your window treatments to perfectly match your fresh carpet installation? They can! Do you want a warm, soft, natural look around your windows? Nothing accomplishes that better than wooden blinds. Plus, if you get tired of the way they look, you can always strip them down to re-stain or re-paint them!

Memories of all kinds are made on the floors of your home, including times of wear and tear. If you have children and pets, carpeting doesn?t have to be your only option. There are many different kinds of hardwood and laminate floors to choose from when considering floor installation in the NYC area.

Some hardwoods?such as pines, American cherry, and American walnut?scratch and dent more easily than others. Oak flooring is among the hardiest, as are hickory, Brazilian cherry, and Brazilian walnut. Bamboo is durable and stain-resistant, making it a top choice for homes with kids and pets. While laminate floors are sturdy, they tend to be slippery and may not be the best choice for homes with young children.

Bay Floors is happy to answer any questions you might have about floors that work with kids and pets. We are the leading home flooring specialists in the New York Metropolitan area. For more information, visit us online or call (718) 521-4308.