Preparing Your Floors For Withstanding The Harshness Of Winter

Irrespective of the type of floor installed in your home, the advent of winter can spell doom in some way or the other, if certain steps are not taken beforehand. The installation of flooring options be it hardwood, ceramic, marble, vinyl, stone etc.,

is always a task which involved personal intervention. Hence homeowners spend a lot of time choosing the design, colour, texture and type of flooring so that the home becomes a welcoming and pretty place. Hence it is necessary to ensure that the newness and shine of the floor is maintained throughout the whole year, especially in winter.

Other than the prevalent weather conditions there are several other reasons also which make it necessary to pay special attention to floors during winter. The key-offenders in this aspect are:

• Grit and sand which collect in the snow and are brought in with the shoes,
• Pounding and heavy shoes worn during the winter months can mar and damage the finish of the floor,
• Since outside conditions are not conducive to going out, people tend to stay indoors thereby ensuring more foot traffic etc.

Some steps which can and should be taken to prevent any damages to the floor of a house due to the dry, cold and generally harsh climatic conditions prevailing in winter are:

• The floor should be given a light scrub and recoated with a good quality of floor finish just before the onset of the first snow.
• Doorways and entryways should be protected by using mattings. This will ensure that people coming in from outside do not bring in a trail of snow melt, moisture and debris into the other parts of the home.
• The matting installed should also be wet vacuumed so as to avoid:
  • Tracking in moisture and salt,
  • Reduce instances of slips and subsequent falls and
  • Prevent the emission of foul odour from accumulated moisture under the matt.
• The cleaners used during winter need to be changed to those which facilitate winter floor neutralisation since neutralised solutions are far more effective than neutral cleaners.
• The mopping solution needs to be cleaned and changed frequently especially during the harshest period.
• Frequency of mopping should also be increased during this time. Auto scrubbing periodicity also needs to be increased. This essentially also means that automatic scrubbers also need to be regularly cleaned.
• First floor areas of the house need special attention since they are most affected by the snow, sand, soils, grit etc.
• Carpets installed need to be aired and cleaned regularly to prevent infections from the accumulated allergens and also from the emission of bad odour.
• The necessary equipments that will facilitate the upkeep of the floor during the winter months need to be properly checked so as to ensure that they are in top running condition.

While everything done can seem to be still inadequate at times, following the above precautions and guidelines can help prevent about 90% of the damage that a floor would otherwise suffer. The remaining 10% needs to be taken care of after the winter months have passed and spring is about to set in. This pre and post winter floor care will ensure both the durability and longevity of the floors installed.