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Care and Maintenance
Preventive Maintenance
Start with temperature control. Temperatures should be kept between 60 to 80 degrees
Fahrenheit and the relative humidity should be between 35 – 55% at all times.
Use exterior and interior doormats at all entrances to collect dirt and moisture and prevent
it from being tracked on to the floor. Area rugs are recommended at all pivot points and
within high traffic areas such as kitchen sinks and hallways. Do not use rugs with rubber or
vinyl backing. This is to prevent staining and entrapment of moisture. Use only non-slip
pads recommended for use on wood floors.
Use furniture leg protector pads (felt or indoor outdoor carpet type) under all furniture
that is placed on your new floor. Make sure to remove any metal or hard plastic caps that
are on the bottom of the legs prior to applying furniture protectors. Make certain to keep
them clean and well maintained. Chairs with plastic casters should be replaced with rubber
caster wheels. Make sure to keep pets nails trimmed.
Do not roll, or drag heavy objects across your floor. Do not wear shoes having heel taps,
spikes, cleats, rocks, gravel or sharp objects protruding from the sole.
Routine Maintenance
Vacuum, or sweep your floor once a week or more if needed. The vacuum head should be a
brush or felt attachment. Do not use a vacuum with a beater bar head. Make sure to vacuum
interior doormats and shake debris from exterior doormats regularly.
Spills, pet accidents, or tracked in dirt should be cleaned immediately. The sooner a mess is
removed, the easier it is to clean up and prevent tracking. We recommend Basic Coatings
Squeaky Clean, Bruce Armstrong wood floor cleaner, Mannington wood floor cleaner or
Bona X Hardwood Floor Cleaner for regular cleaning and removing grease and smudges
from your floor. Never clean or wet mop with water! Water may permanently damage the
floor. Do not use harsh abrasive cleaners, bleach, ammonia or vinegar based cleaners, wax
or acrylic polishes, or oil soaps.
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Long-Term Maintenance
When high traffic areas begin to show wear and become de-lustered (this will be noticed by
a white cast and dulling of the shine), it may be time for a fresh coat of finish to be applied
to your floor to enhance the longevity and beauty of your investment. Both Basic Coatings
and Bona Kemi have systems to recoat your floor with high quality urethane finishes.
Contact your flooring retailer for details.
Scratch Repairs
From your left over material, select a piece of flooring approximately 12” long (medium
color tone) to use as your scratch touch-up template. Now you are ready to begin the touchup process.
Taking a sharp object create 5-6 scratches on the surface of your template.
Take your template to your local craft store (Michaels) and go to the section where they
keep felt tip markers i.e. Sharpies pens. Match with the color(s) that come closest to the
color of your flooring. Note, It may be necessary to use several colors within the same
scratch (starting with the lightest color first) in order to achieve the best overall color
tone/blend. The variety of shapes and sizes allows the individual applying the stain/color
the ability to control the amount of stain being applied to the scratch.
Once you have achieved the desired color tone, you can apply water base polyurethane
(which can be purchased at your local Lowes or Home Depot) over the stain using a micro-
fine “tipped” artist brush. Note: Typically, it is not necessary to apply polyurethane over
scratches that are less than 1/16” wide.
Your main objective when touching up a scratch is to soften the scratches effect to the eye.
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