It's Not too Late for a Winter Makeover

Did the arrival of winter catch you off guard? You’re not alone. With the early beginning to snowy days and chilly temperatures, your Fall checklist might have gotten lost in the shuffle. If getting a buff and coat, sanding and refinishing, or replacing old carpet with hardwood floors was on your to-do list, we are here to tell you that it’s still okay to schedule a hardwood makeover in the cold winter months!

When the holiday season hits, it can be hard to imagine having construction done in your home, but there are several reasons why this might actually be the perfect time.

1. You’re gone a lot! You don’t need to be around the noise and smells that come with in-home construction. If you’re planning to be out of town for a few days around the holidays or in January, you can be confident in having our team complete the job while you are away.

2. We reduce the mess. We know that adding dust to your home when it closed up in the winter doesn’t sound great, but we go above and beyond when we plastic off our work zone in an effort to keep the rest of your home as clean as possible.

Maybe the hustle and bustle of the holiday season isn’t what’s holding you back from scheduling your hardwood flooring job. Perhaps you just don’t know what you want yet! We get it. Hardwood flooring is something that will last decades, so you want to select something that you will love forever. That’s tough to do when home trends change so much. Check out this video for upcoming flooring trends in 2020, and you can also ask our team at your free in-home estimate what would work best in your home.

If you’re ready to start your hardwood flooring winter makeover, give us a call today or submit an estimate request form. We cannot wait to transform your home!

The Right Time for Your Hardwood Job

When will it be the perfect time to schedule your hardwood flooring job? The answer varies for every family based on your personal schedules, finances, etc. However, there are opportune times for us as a construction company to get your job done. A few of these opportune times include before the holidays and during Spring Break.

We often get customers calling us in mid-November to schedule a buff & coat or sand & refinish project to get their floors looking good as new before the holidays. The problem with calling so close to the install date is that you may not get your job completed before the date you would like. If you are looking for a holiday face-lift for your hardwood floors, we recommend getting your job on the books now, even if we schedule it out a few months.

Another great time to schedule your hardwood flooring job is when you are gone for the holidays or on Spring Break with your family. Buffing or sanding a floor creates a mess and reapplying finish is a smelly job, so why not have it all done when you aren’t home! We work closely with our customers to make them comfortable with our team being in their home when they are on vacation and always protect your belongings as if they were our own.

So what are you waiting for?! Give us a call today to schedule your late Fall, early Winter flooring project! Or easily submit an estimate request form on our website. We cannot wait to gift you with beautiful floors for the holiday season!

Buffing vs. Sanding

It’s in the nature of all hardwood floors to be susceptible to signs of wear-and-tear like scratches, grooves, sun discoloration, and other damages. It is also in the nature of hardwood floors to bounce back from these things!

There are two methods that hardwood flooring professionals use to restore hardwood floors: buffing and sanding. Many people don’t know they have these restoration options, or don’t understand the difference between the two, so let’s clarify!

A buff and coat is more of a maintenance procedure that should be done about every 5-years to extend the life of your floors. In this process, the hardwood flooring specialist buffs down the finish of your floor down to the last coat of polyurethane - it does not go down to the bare wood or remove your stain. This process allows you to remove superficial scratches and discoloration from your floor’s finish and gives your floors a fresh new coat of finish.

The sanding and refinishing process goes deeper - it takes off the floor’s finish as well as the surface of the damaged wood. This process reveals a new layer of your hardwood floors, and allows you to stain it a completely different color if you want to! For severely damaged hardwood, this is the process you want to select.

Breaking it all down to conclude: “Sanding takes care of deep imperfections and allows homeowners to change the color of their hardwood floors. Buffing is simpler, faster, less disruptive, costs less and extends the life of wood boards” (Royal Wood Floor).

Is your floor in need of a buff and coat or sand and refinish? Contact us today to schedule a free estimate and we will tell you which process your floor needs to look as good as new!

Hardwood Flooring Care Guide

Cleaning

One of the best things about hardwood floors is that we can wash them. This makes for a cleaner, healthier home that we can all feel good about living in. However, the cleaning agent you use on your hardwood floors actually harm them. Many of the hardwood cleaning products on the market are oil based – these are a big no-no! The solution you should use to clean your floors should be very simple and always highly diluted with water. We recommend using a 25/1 water to vinegar ratio, or an all-purpose cleaning solution that is not oil based (we use Mr.Clean), mixed with water to the same ratio. For a great mop kit that includes a washable cover, contact us to order today!

Scratch Prevention

Furniture and hardwood floors unfortunately don’t mix well. Items like chairs, couches, and ottomans can really scratch a floor. To prevent these scratches from occurring, we highly recommend putting floors pads on all of the furniture that you put on your hardwood floors. We sell the following floor pad size options:

·         1" round - 12 per pack - $3.99 + tax

·         1 1/2" round - 6 per pack - $3.99 + tax

·         3 1/2" x 5/8" strips - 6 per pack - $3.99 + tax

·         1/2" x 36" roll - 1 per pack - $3.99 + tax

·         3 1/2" x 4 3/4 pad - 1 per pack - $3.99 + tax

And remember, you should change your floor pads whenever they start to look really worn down.  

Buff & Coat

After a few years of wear and tear, your floor will start to show scratches, light spots from the sun, and many other little “beauty marks” that come from a busy home. Instead of letting your floors go too long, which would require a complete refinishing, we recommend getting a buff and coat once every three to five years. The buff and coat process adds an extra layer of poly to your floors to hide imperfections and add an additional layer of protection. This process not only brings new life to your floors, but it will also save you hundreds of dollars in the long run!

Refinishing

Refinishing your floors is much more in-depth process, but the results are incredible! The refinishing process involves sanding your floors which will completely remove the original finish, and also take out almost all scratches. You then add a new finish, which gives you the opportunity to completely change the look of your floors if you want to! Most solid hardwood floors can be refinished around ten times in their lifetime.

We hope this guide to caring for your hardwood floors helps you care for and extend the beauty of your floors for decades to come!

Want to schedule a buff and coat or refinishing? Call Neva today to set up an estimate! 763-428-8601