I’ve recently become something of a regular on the FloorTalk blog by fellow flooring blogger Shannon Bilby, the blog sponsored by the World Floor Covering Association. Shannon always has something interesting to say about the practicalities and design elements of all kinds of flooring, including hardwood.
Recently, she posted her findings about using Murphy’s Oil Soap on a hardwood floor. In recent years, I’ve found that a lot of people out there on the ‘internets’ are asking the question about best uses of this product. A lot of people have been concerned about reports of a filmy residue left on the surface of their floors after cleaning them using the product. But, I’ve not found a definitive answer to the question to determine whether this is the case, or if it is, that the product has been used correctly.
Take a look at Shannon’s post to see what the answers are, direct from the Murphy’s technical support team with whom she consulted before posting.
For many, ’tis the season for dragging a tree across your living room floor, placing it in a metal base, and watering it to keep it from drying out. Maybe that’s not a very festive way of putting it. But the point is, when you’ve got a real Christmas tree, it has an impact on the rest of your life too, including your floors.
Here’s an article which submits a few Christmas tree tips when you’ve got a real tree and wood flooring too. And for good measure, there are a few tips too about controlling moisture and foot traffic that comes with having friends and family over.
Here are a few suggested the article makes:
Put a plastic sheet down beneath the base, so that when you water the tree, your floors won’t suffer from any spillage
Watch for increased ‘pet activity’, by which I mean pee. Think about it. You’ve put a tree in your living room.
To control spills, and moisture from the boots of visitors, dry mop spills as soon as they happen.
I love Christmas, and all of the things that go with it. But, sometimes when I think about it in a certain way, it seems absolutely absurd to put a tree in my living room. Sometimes, I think it’s just a weird thing to want to do. Still, as long as we’re doing it, it makes sense to get the best practices on it, like anything else.
I came across a great online community of flooring installers and enthusiasts called The Floor Pro Community . It’s a great site to get your questions answered by the folks who actually install the stuff. I’ve signed on myself so will be asking questions and giving my two cents here and there. I invite you to do the same.
Moving furniture around is a pretty common activity, particularly before Thanksgiving and in the Yuletide season too. And during these times of shifting objects around on a wood floor, it’s also pretty common to get the sinking feeling that things have gone horribly wrong too.
When a chair leg or shelving unit suddenly judders across the surface of a solid wood floor and you can almost feel the gash opening up, you know you’re going to have to take some extra steps to making your interior ready for company. It’s a real “uh-oh…” moment
I found this article about ways to make minor repairs to your wood floors. One of the points the article makes is that it’s always a good idea to actually see to the repair rather than attempting to cover it up. The article talks about the potential embarrassment of having to answer the question of ‘why didn’t you repair it?’ if attempts to hide the scratch with a throw-rug aren’t successful. But, I think another reason is that a scratch can make the floor more vulnerable to moisture, which can cause even more long-term damage to the floor as a whole.
Anyway, I hope you’ll find the tips in the article as useful as I do.
At this time of year, particularly around here in Vancouver where it rains an awful lot in the winter time, moisture can become a problem for solid wood flooring if it works its way underneath.
Of course the two are mortal enemies; moisture can be insidious, and wood flooring reacts by swelling and cupping. But, what to do if a single board is damaged and a precision replacement is needed?
One thing that seems to be an undercurrent in the answer is that this is a tough job. And unless you’re a pretty seasoned flooring installer and repair person, it can test the limits of your patience a well as your skills as a DIYer.
So, if you’ve tried this in the past and found it difficult but got the job done satisfactorily, than you were probably doing it right! If you’re facing the problem now, hopefully Tim’s answer will point you in the right direction.
When I was first starting out here at BuildDirect, I didn’t know one thing about flooring, other than the experience of walking on it. So, a good deal of my time when I joined up with this ragtag bunch of rebels (note the Star Wars reference…) was spent researching the world of flooring - how it was made, what some of the advantages and disadvantages are, and how to take care of it too. One of my favourite sites to fill in my knowledge gaps was this one - Ask The Builder.
This is an accessible site that seems to speak to people at all skill levels. So, an article like this one, which talks about how to repair a hardwood floor, really helps the less experienced to understand how it’s done, and kind of makes the idea of having a hardwood floor to be a little less intimidating too. Since getting hardwood flooring installed can be a chunk of change when compared to other types of flooring, many people shy away from it because, perhaps, they feel it’s beyond them.
I have to admit, I kind of felt this way myself, because I’m DIY charity case. But even if you’ve got some skills at home repair, like the fellow in the article for instance, I think the feeling of being out of one’s depth is a thing which a lot of people face when it comes time to shop for a new floor, or indeed anything which is meant to last for a long time. Will I be able to take care of it? Am I up for the responsibility?
For my money, the answer is nearly always “yes” for people who think to even ask the question. It’s kind of like wondering if you’re really ready to be a parent, only, you know, with fewer concerns about changing diapers and midnight feedings, and more to do with how often you’re likely to look at refinishing or putting felt protectors on your furniture legs.
Is that a bit of a forced comparison? Well, maybe.
The point is, there are plenty of sources of information out there for you to look at, which not only allows you to take care of your hardwood flooring and enjoy success with them in adding value and practical benefit to your property, but also to help you weigh the pros and cons of making the investment in the first place. Building knowledge builds confidence, and after that the possibilities are yours to imagine.
It’s great living in this golden age of information! There’s a lot of helpful content out there to help us out with home improvement projects, including information about refinishing a hardwood floor.
I found this video which you might find helpful:
The video comes from a site called HowCast, which is kind of like a Youtube dedicated to “How To” information.
We at BuildDirect are looking into creating some videos of our own pretty soon - not just how-to stuff, but certainly including information like that. Any opinions on what you’d like to see would be helpful - let us know in the comments section on this post.
In the meantime, take a look at what this video can help you with, and let me know what you think.
The Washington Post is the legendary newspaper which broke the Watergate scandal during Nixon’s administration in the mid-1970s. But, they’ve come a long way since then. Here’s a story they’ve run about how to stop your squeaky hardwood floors from squeaking. From political corruption to increased peace and quiet in your home; is there nothing these guys won’t take on?
The advice given here comes under the category of simple is best. Basically, a squeaky hardwood floor is often due to nails rubbing the wood. Renailing works and so does seeing to flooring joists if you can, but what the article suggests is talcum powder spread on the floor to act as a sort of flooring emollient. Pretty simple - just remember to clean up afterwards to avoid slipping on leftover powder on the surface of the hardwood.
Hey all you baby-boomers and generation-Xers; remember the glory that was ‘harvest gold’ wall-to-wall carpeting? I certainly do. In the 1960s and 1970s, bare wood flooring kind of went out of style for a bit. The floor covering of choice at that time was wall-to-wall carpeting - enter our ‘harvest gold’ and the even more tasteful orange pile shag carpet too. One of my earliest memories when we lived in an apartment in Port Credit Ontario in the early 70s was crawling across our living room floor, with a rectangle of sunshine beaming across its golden surface. Ah, the hazy memories of childhood and dated interior design.
A lot of carpeting like this was installed over vintage hardwood flooring in order to update the look of interiors in line with the tastes of the time. Take a read of this article from Easy Remodel Tips that talks about how the discovery of hardwood flooring underneath old carpeting, and refurbishing those hardwood floors, can boost the look and value of a property. The article gives some helpful tips as to how to take up the old carpet, and sometimes the even older linoleum underneath that.
Given that fashions change and then tend to circle back, let’s keep hoping we’ll never see the return of shag carpet and harvest gold. Some things belong in the past! But sometimes a little bit of interior design archeology when it comes to your floors is worth the effort.
Renovations can be messy. So, here’s a link to an article about keeping your home clean and free of dust during those times when you’re in the process of transforming a space. The article concentrates on drywall, but I think the advice can also apply to hardwood flooring.
This type of advice can come in handy, especially when you’re re-finishing hardwood floors. It’s noisy, messy, but worth doing correctly. And this is not just about making sure that your new unfinished hardwood floors, or the old ones which you’re refinishing, are sanded so that they’ll properly absorb the finish you’ll be applying. It’s also about trying to minimize the presence of dust in general for air quality and general cleanliness as you work.
A couple of important points the article covers which can be applied to re-finishing hardwood floors is:
Whenever possible, completely seal off the room in which you’ll be sanding
Rent the right equipment, including a sander which includes a vacuum attachment to minimize dust while the sanding process is underway
Keep your equipment in a specific area when not in use
Wear coveralls that you can remove after you’ve finished working, and keep it with your other equipment
Keep the air moving - use fans in your space, and open the windows. It might help to turn off your central air, to avoid any dust particles circulating in other areas of your property too
Just a few pointers when re-finishing hardwood floors, folks - I hope they, and the attached article, are helpful.
Cheers,
Rob.
Sanding hardwood flooring image courtesy of Meja Design
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This is an accessible site that seems to speak to people at all skill levels. So, an article like this one, which talks about 
