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How Can I Prevent My Hardwood Floors from Fading Over Time?

Jul 12, 2016

prevent hardwood floors fading sun You’ve purchased new hardwood floors and the salesmen told you that your beautiful hardwood floor’s colors would most likely fade over time. Or they didn’t tell you this. Either way, it’s important to understand that with any hardwood floors, there will be color fading experienced.

Remember: Hardwood Floors are NATURAL

Hardwood floors at their very core are NATURAL. This is an important feature to emphasize. Anything that is natural will undergo changes as it ages over time. For hardwood floors, the changes occur in the color of the wood. Some species of woods will fade lighter and some will fade darker. This process is known as “patina”.

Some people have absolutely no problems with their hardwood floors fading over time. Sometimes the changes are so subtle only you would notice. And then other people prefer to have their floors stay their original color from the time they were first purchased. In this case of the latter – what can you do to prevent this natural fade from occurring, if possible?

Preventing Hardwood Floors from Fading Over Time

First you must understand the 2 factors that cause hardwood floors to change color at all:

1. Exposure to sunlight.
2. Applied finishes and/or stains.

Minimizing exposure to sunlight.

The key here is to reduce your hardwood floor’s exposure to sunlight. The best way to accomplish this is by covering up your windows, as windows are the main source of sunlight to your floors. Blinds, drapes, or shutters all work very well. More costly options include upgrading your windows to low emissivity glass or window film, but work very well at keeping UV rays and IR light at bay.

Outside of windows, you may also utilize furniture and rugs to your advantage. By constantly moving rugs and furniture around, you spread he sunlight across all areas of the wood, which will slow down the fading process greatly. Also, it can be very fun to move your interior around every so often – it’s a nice change of pace.

Choosing the right finish.

Lastly, let’s talk about finishes. Oil-based finishes bring out very rich colors in your floors, but will yellow over time for a slightly amber appearance. Some people may be very pleased with this. However, if you’re absolutely concerned about maintaining your hardwood floor’s original color, then we recommend applying a water-based finish, which essentially remains clear the entire time, minimizing any long term fading that may occur.

But My Hardwood Floors are Already Faded?

If your hardwood floors have already reached the stage where the faded color has made it’s presence known and you absolutely cannot stand the sight of it, then the only solution is to sand them down and re-finish them. However, unless you know what you’re doing we strongly recommend a professional to handle this task.

How Can I Protect a Hardwood Floor from a Rolling Office Chair?

Jun 20, 2016

protect hardwood floor rolling office chair Are you concerned about the appearance of your hardwood floors becoming ruined by office chairs? This is a legitimate concern for many hardwood floor owners who enjoy sporting hardwood floors in their office, either at work or even at home.

Rolling office chairs undoubtedly overtime will leave marks on your hardwood floors unless you take proactive steps in an effort to prevent this issue from occurring. Scuff marks are the number one issue, which occur from wear and tear moving back and forth, especially if your chair has hard casters on it.

Protecting Hardwood Floors from Rolling Office Chairs

Follow our advice below to prevent shredding your hardwood floor from rolling office chairs.

1. Check Your Chair’s Casters/Wheels

Check out your chair’s casters, or wheels, and see if they feel hard or not. Chances are they will be hard as most are made from hard plastic or hard nylon.

Replacing them with a softer alternative is what we recommend. Softer alternatives include rubber, urethane, and neoprene options. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully in order to replace your casters.

If this is too daunting of a task, then we have an easier approach you could try. Place a layer of duct tape around the caster’s circumference and this will lesson the impact on the floor.

2. Utilizing Area Rugs or Chair Mats

Look in to purchasing a chair mat for your rolling office chair. This will keep the wheels on the mat and off of your hardwood floors. If you find yourself moving your chair around often and in wide space, then consider purchasing a larger area rug instead. Rugs of woven material are recommended.

Caution:
We do not advise using plastic mats of any sort as many people have found that when tiny pieces of debris (i.e. grit and rocks) become stuck between your floors and the plastic, damage ensues.

3. Maintenance

Maintenance goes a long way. By consistently keeping your floors clean from debris, as well as your chair’s rollers or casters, very little damage will happen to your floors. Combine this with the other 2 options we suggested above and your office floors will shine for many years!

Questions You May Be Asked When Buying Hardwood Floors

Jun 3, 2016

buying hardwood floor questions ask Here at Urban Floor, we sell hardwood floors. Duh, right? Well, being salesmen for all of these years in the hardwood flooring industry, we’ve come to learn a few things: that most people interested in hardwood floors often don’t know what they want. Is this a problem? Absolutely not!

However, if you’re in the market for hardwood flooring you’ve probably already come to the realization that it’s an investment worth making – but only IF you manage to find the perfect floor. That’s where a salesman comes in to the equation, to help you find the perfect floor based on your needs & wants.

Our point is that most consumers simply do not know what they “need” or even what they may “want” in a hardwood floor. When salesmen detect this, they will ask you certain questions attempted to bring out these needs and wants.

FAQs to Think About Before Searching for Hardwood Floors

The questions you use below you most likely will hear from hardwood floor salesmen. The benefit of having access to these questions beforehand are that it will give you time to think about your response, which will help narrow your perfect floor down.

1. What’s your lifestyle like at home?

Are you retired, do you have teenagers still living the house? Children? Pets? Constantly on the go or more relaxed? The answers to these questions will greatly narrow your choices down because certain species of hardwood floors work better than others for certain lifestyles.

2. Is your home built on a slab, over a crawlspace or basement?

If yes, then undoubtedly the salesman will direct you towards engineered hardwood floors which work very well for these environments over solid hardwood floors.

8 reasons to choose engineered over solid hardwood flooring.

3. What’s your home décor like?

Do you find that you lean more towards a formal, traditional, casual, country, modern, or rustic approach? Or perhaps something else not listed here? The nswer to this question will certainly drop a huge clue to your salesman on what type of flooring to consider: smooth, hand scraped, distressed, etc. as well as the type of color that may be preferred to match your décor.

4. Do you expect your wood flooring to look the same 10 years from now?

It’s important to be realistic about what you’re getting vs. what you want. Hardwood floors naturally will change over time due to sunlight, general wear and tear, temperature fluctuations, etc. If this is a large concern for you, then it should be made known upfront.

5. How long do you plan on staying in your home?

Hardwood floors may last a lifetime with proper care and maintenance. Most people don’t plan on leaving their home anytime soon, but it’s still worth asking to gauge. If you know for sure you will in or the long haul, then you may be directed towards most high-end flooring options that are made with better care and quality versus affordable floors that may be more suitable for those only staying in their home for a couple years or so.

Now that you know what types of questions salesmen will ask, here’s our other guide on what you can ask your salesman (which essentially go hand in hand with each other).

Emerging Trend: Hardwood Floors in the Kitchen?

May 24, 2016

hardwood floors in the kitchen

That’s right, you heard us: hardwood floors in the kitchen.

*We want to mention however that we do not condone the use of hardwood floors in the kitchen – despite how beautiful they are – because of the chance of water damage occurring.

With that said, a report performed by Houzz found that many homeowners are updating their kitchens by remodeling them. 72% of homeowners are updating their kitchen floors, according to the report.

Of the 72%, 34% chose solid hardwood for their kitchen flooring, while 12% selected engineered hardwood floors. It used to be that ceramic or tile-flooring options were most popular, but that has now changed.

Why Hardwood Floors for Kitchens?

It begs to question: why are a majority of people, specifically homeowners, turning to hardwood floors in the kitchen? What’s the appeal?

1. Kitchen Life Has Changed

It used to be kitchens were for cooking and nothing more. Nowadays this isn’t the case. Kitchens for many families have a variety of uses. Entertainment (i.e. TV), socializing, performing work or homework. There’s a lot more activity occurring in kitchens now, as much as 3-4 hours per day as estimated by the report.

With this much activity occurring in kitchens on a daily basis, you’re going to want something that looks appealing – such as hardwood floors – especially if you’re inviting guests over to socialize with.

2. It’s Just Due for a Change

In the report, half of the homeowners surveyed had reported that they were updating their kitchen because it had been 21 years or longer since the last update. That’s a long time & with trends constantly changing you want to make sure you’re keeping up in order to maximize the value of your home. Flooring is one of the top features being updated in kitchen remodels.

3. New Kitchen, New Style

People that remodel their kitchen are trying to be trendy or add in features or other bells & whistles that have a lot of appeal. Hardwood floors are one of these appeals because it’s something we haven’t traditionally seen performed in the past. Kitchen hardwood flooring is just beginning to gain popularity amongst homeowners.

Please refer to our other posts on hardwood flooring trends of 2016 and residential flooring trends for more information.

Our Engineered Hardwood Floors Are FloorScore® Approved!

May 13, 2016

Urban Floor is proud to announce that the engineered hardwood floors we offer have been carefully tested and certified by FloorScore®.

What Does FloorScore® Certification Mean?

The FloorScore® certification label on a floor ensures good indoor air quality for a healthier home.

“FloorScore® is the most recognized indoor air quality (IAQ) certification standard for hard surface flooring materials, adhesives, and underlayments. It qualifies for many green building schemes including LEED v4, BREEAM, and CHPS. FloorScore was developed by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI) with SCS, and SCS is the exclusive certification body for the FloorScore program.”*
See: Hardwood Floors and Allergies

A Voluntary Process We Undertook

It’s important to note that the FloorScore® certification process is a voluntary, independent certification program that tests and certifies hard surface flooring and the materials they’re made with are in compliance with stringent indoor air quality emissions.

As a result, Urban Floor has now achieved FloorScore® certification for all engineered wood flooring collections.

FloorScore® Certified & CARB II Compliant – Safety First!

Urban Floor has always put health and safety first. Urban Floor assures that all our products are CARB II compliant and our products meet or exceed all environmental, health and safety requirements, including formaldehyde emissions required by the U.S federal government as well as state requirements such as CARB II, (California Air Resource Board). The test results may be viewed here.

*More information on FloorScore may be found on their website.

OUR BLOG

How Can I Prevent My Hardwood Floors from Fading Over Time?

How Can I Protect a Hardwood Floor from a Rolling Office Chair?

Questions You May Be Asked When Buying Hardwood Floors

Emerging Trend: Hardwood Floors in the Kitchen?

Our Engineered Hardwood Floors Are FloorScore® Approved!

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