Easily Avoid These Five Common Hardwood Flooring Problems in the Reno/Tahoe Area
Hardwood flooring problems in the Reno/Tahoe area are easy to avoid if you are patient & careful. Most homeowners already understand that a hardwood floor will outlast any carpet. Hardwood floors will remain beautiful and valuable long after most carpets had been torn out and recycled. The secret to keeping your floors beautiful for decades is mostly about keeping them clean and avoiding these common problems.
Hardwood Oxidation
Newly installed hardwood floors generally go through a period of oxidation which typically lasts for about a year. The more strong sunlight the hardwood floor is exposed to, the darker it will become over time. The problem arises when furniture is kept stationary, like a sofa sitting over one spot in the room. The floor underneath the sofa will appear lighter than the rest of the room.
Sometimes a dark patch can be grown on a hardwood floor with southern exposed windows allowing a trail of sunlight to cross every day. The easiest way to avoid spotty oxidation and the next tones that can bring, is to protect your hardwoods from harsh direct strong sunlight.
Poorly Chosen Plank Width
Hardwood floor planks will expand and contract with the changing temperatures and humidity of the seasons. If you live in an area with extreme season gradients like Reno/Tahoe, you will find that your wider flooring planks will exhibit more pronounced gapping over time. If you want to reduce hardwood flooring problems like this, we suggest narrower planks.
Smudges and Dull Spots
Your newly installed hardwood floors will gleam from corner to corner like a brand-new car in a showroom. And, just like a brand-new car after you have driven it for a few weeks, it will not stay as shiny unless you put care into it. Fortunately, care and maintenance to avoid hardwood floor problems is really very easy.
Poor Maintenance and Care
While I am on the subject of how easy care and maintenance is for your hardwood floors, I should probably point out the correct practices. If someone does not take care of their hardwood floors properly, they will not last nearly so long as they should.
I’ve written extensively on the subject of proper hardwood floor care and maintenance, so I’ll just leave the link right here.
Scratches and Dents
We all wish it was not so, but gravity exists and your floor is your floor. Everything you drop or push or slide will have some impact on how your hardwood floors look over time. If you’re installing your floors in a high-traffic area where you expect lots of potential damage to occur, you may want to consider a laminate or an engineered hardwood floor. On a bright note, harder woods do not necessarily cost more. Wood flooring prices have more to do with rarity and availability than relative hardness.
My best suggestion if you want to avoid these five common hardwood flooring problems in Reno/Tahoe, is that you contact the professionals at Artisan Hardwood Floors. We will walk you through the entire process and ensure your complete satisfaction at every step. In fact I encourage you to call me personally.
Sorin Giurca
Master Craftsman, Owner