Long Term Care
Even though the most advanced wood treatments and finishes are used to create our nature inspired flooring, your hardwood floor will need to be looked after to stay in tip-top condition. This involves cleaning and sometimes re-finishing your flooring at suitable intervals to ensure it continues to delight throughout its lifetime.
Cleaning Oiled Floors
To protect the beautiful look and feel of your oiled floor, we recommend removing grit and dust regularly with a brush or vacuum cleaner. You can also use the Woodpecker Cleaning Kit for Oiled Floors or a well wrung damp
cloth mop.
For a deeper clean now and again, use Woodpecker One Coat Soap. This clever product will clean your floor and form a protective film, helping to build its surface resistance over time and making your floor even easier to maintain.
Cleaning Urethane Floors
Ensure your Urethane floor stays clean and keeps its stunning shine by using the Woodpecker Cleaning Kit for Urethane Floors or a well wrung damp mop.
Restoration Treatments for Wood Flooring
How often you recoat or repair your floor will depend on several factors including the type of floor it is, its finish and the wear its experienced. However, as a basic preventative, you might consider recoating your floor every two or three years. Don’t wait until your floor looks worn. If you allow the protective coat to wear away, it becomes susceptible to dirt and water penetration and harder to clean and repair.
A Quick Test
A good way to check whether your floor needs treatment is to pour a few drops of water onto its surface. If the finish is in good order, the water will bead on the floor and can easily be wiped way. No maintenance is needed. If the water slowly soaks into the timber, leaving behind a light saturation mark, the finish is starting to wear thin. A new coat of Urethane or oil should be applied. However, if the water is immediately absorbed and leaves a dark stain, the finish has been completely worn away and the floor may need sanding and recoating.
NB: Before any treatment is carried out, we recommend testing in an inconspicuous area of the floor to check compatibility.
Re-Urethaning and Repairs
If your Urethane floor gets any isolated scratches or dents, these can be sealed using Woodpecker Touch-Up Urethane. First, make sure the area is clean and dry then lightly sand the surface with a fine grit sanding paper. Using the brush supplied in the lid, paint the Urethane onto the affected area and leave it to cure.
Deeper scratches or gouges might call for professional wood filler. These are available in a variety of colours from most hardware and flooring retailers. They come as a paste, which is applied to the damaged area, left to cure, then sanded. Afterwards, apply some Woodpecker Touch-Up Urethane to give the repair a protective finish.
Extra care is needed when sanding stained floors to ensure that the process doesn’t break through the complete layer of stain. In this instance, the floor would require a patch-repair before the Urethane is applied.
If the floor is badly worn in some places, it may be necessary to sand the flooring back to its unfinished surface before recoating all over. Unlike oil, Urethane doesn’t penetrate the wood’s surface, instead it sticks to it. Therefore, the entire floor must be covered to prevent the formation of ridges and overlap marks. For best results, use a roller. A single coat of Urethane will be enough to protect against moisture, though several coats should be applied if the floor faces lots of foot traffic.
If you are Urethaning unfinished timber, you will need to cover it with three coats. Between each coat, the floor must be sanded, vacuumed and wiped thoroughly with a damp cloth. Urethane takes one to two hours to dry between applications. After the final coat, leave the floor for 24 hours before stepping onto it. Curing will continue for a week, after which rugs can be placed on
the floor.
Re-oiling and Repairs
Unlike Urethane floors, isolated areas of an oiled floor can be treated without having to re-oil the entire floor. Yet, oiled surfaces aren’t as tough as Urethane surfaces and need to be maintained more often.
Before re-oiling your floor, it’s essential that you clean up any dust or dirt that’s accumulated. Contamination will hinder adhesion and could affect how the floor looks. Apply a small amount of One Coat Cleaner to a dry cloth and wipe the affected area thoroughly. Dust will be collected electro-statically. It takes 15 minutes to an hour to dry depending on the saturation. If the floor remains soiled, consider sanding the surface and clean again with One Coat Cleaner.
Make sure the floor is completely dry before applying Woodpecker One Coat Oil. This should be applied sparely and evenly, along the wood’s grain, using a cotton cloth, brush or squeegee. The oil will react with the floor within a minute and any excess should be wiped away within 15 or 20 minutes making sure the surface is nearly dry. Because the oil reacts so quickly, it’s a good idea to treat relatively small areas each time. Oil doesn’t leave tide or overlap marks and should be left for 24 to 36 hours before you can stand on the floor again or it’s cleaned.