Dents that press deeply into the floor can appear, as can scratches that sharply sweep its surface. Careless mistakes happen in homes every day, but what are you and your family doing wrong that’s causing dents and scratches on the hardwood floors?
Continue reading to learn the five of the most common culprits and how you can minimize these damages.
Frequently Wearing Shoes Inside
Kids may wear soccer or baseball cleats indoors. Adults may enter the house wearing work boots or walk around in high heels while getting ready for the day.
Shoes are a common cause of damage to hardwood floors. Sharp objects can linger on the soles of shoes. Furthermore, debris stuck on their bottoms can scratch the floors as you walk. To prevent this, you should avoid walking around the house in shoes.
Dogs and Their Sharp Nails
Pets scurry around the house in a hurry. They can’t trim their own nails and aren’t aware they’re harming your beloved hardwood floors. The scratches quickly accumulate and damage the surface.
To avoid the severity of the issue, remember to frequently trim your pet’s nails. It’s also helpful to walk your dog to naturally file their nails down.
Dragging Furniture
You may move the kitchen table back and forth aggressively when cleaning. Additionally, many people scoot chairs back and forth repeatedly.
A common cause of dents and scratches is haphazardly moving furniture. Dragging furniture across the surface of hardwood floors is one of the quickest ways to create imperfections.
Instead of facing this issue, add felt pads underneath furniture items. The felt adhesives easily stick to the bottoms of the furniture legs. Once they’re in place, it’s safer to move furniture around gently without the fear of scratching.
Dropping Heavy Items
This entails lifting one end of a heavy couch to grab a loose item and dropping the couch’s legs onto the floor. Heavy items can also come in the form of food cans falling from the pantry and boxes filled to the brim that you can’t wait to let go of. Even losing control of kitchen utensils and dropping them can hurt the floor. Accidents do happen! While you can’t prepare yourself for every fallen object, you can be more careful when moving items around the house when possible.
Improper Cleaning
Crumbs, dirt, and other debris build up on floors. Failing to periodically sweep hardwood floors increases the chances of scratches. You never know what’s on the surface. Any of these objects could potentially rub against the floor the wrong way and develop a scratch.
Dents and scratches are two of the signs your hardwood floors need refinishing. Getting this will buff away and polish the imperfections. When the job’s over, you’ll hardly remember they existed in the first place!
How to Care for Your Hardwood Floors
