Wood Floor Care and Maintenance

As with all natural products, your new Alpine floor will always look better and last longer when cared for properly.

Alpine provides all new customers with an easy-to-follow guide on how to care for your new floor, and how to deal with life’s little accidents should they occur.

Pre-finished wood flooring is easy and inexpensive to maintain by regular sweeping or vacuum cleaning. When necessary, we can advise you only the cleaning products available which have been specially designed for wood flooring fro example Bona Floor Spray Cleaner for Lac and Oiled Floors, simply spray on and mop off.

Common Sense Care & Maintenance Floor Care Tips Added Protection Minor Touch-ups Occasional Floor Care: Recoating Your Floor Accidents Can Be Remedied

Common Sense Care & Maintenance

Immediately: Blot up spills or spots with a lightly damp (well-wrung) cloth.

Frequently: Vacuum or sweep your floor daily to prevent dirt, dust and grit from scratching or dulling its finish. Keep mats by doorways to prevent grit from getting into the room.

Periodically: To help extend the life of a your floor remove all cloudy residue or dulling dirt-film layers, clean it regularly with Wood Cleaner. Complete instructions can be found on the label of each bottle of cleaner. Wood Cleaner is specially formulated to clean no-wax wood finishes like similar to a factory finish. It's a cleaner, not a polish, and it contains no waxes or oils. However, since it removes the dulling residue that builds up on the surface of the floor and dries clear with no streaking, it appears to enhance the shine.

Easy & Safe to use in your home! Non-toxic vapor Non-flammable Highly transparent Extremely effective

Floor Care Tips

While most floors are tough, they aren't indestructible. However, you can generally prevent most problems before they occur with proper care and maintenance, ensuring your new floor retains its natural beauty, strength and durability.

Do:

• Support furniture and heavy appliances with wide-bearing, non-staining glides or casters.
• Moving appliances and furniture into place by sliding them slowly over the floor on a clean piece of carpet (turned upside-down), or on masonite with the smooth side down.
• Place a quality door mat at the entrance of your home to help protect your floor from abrasive dust and grit and to help save unnecessary clean-up tasks.
• Maintain normal interior humidity levels (some floors require a relative humidity range of 45-60%. Relative humidity should never fall below 30% or exceed 60%).
• Place area rugs in high - or concentrated - traffic areas to make long-term maintenance easier and less expensive.

Don't:

• Do not use wax conditioners, oilsoaps, or acrylic wax.
• Do not use steel wool on the floor.
• Do not use soap or detergents on the floor and never pour water directly onto the floor.
• Do not use ammonia-based cleaners.
• Do not use vinegar on the floor.

Added Protection

Once your floor is installed, nothing is more discouraging than discovering dents or scratches that you could have easily prevented. Because wood is a product of nature, it can be dented or scratched by sharp appliances and heavy loads on furniture legs. Some furniture manufacturers place small-bearing metal or plastic domes, or hard rollers on furniture legs that can cause damage to any wood floor.

Combat this potentially-damaging problem by using wide-bearing and non-staining glides and casters and by placing Floor Protectors beneath the feet of all furniture legs.

We offer both Steel Shank Floor Protectors for wooden legs and bases and Peel-and-Stick Floor Protectors (95% wool felt) for metal or plastic legs and bases. Both provide maximum protection against scratches and dents commonly caused by furniture and appliances

Minor Touch-ups

No matter how carefully you treat your floor, accidents do happen. Dropped packages and equipment and other things can dent or scratch any wood floor, regardless of how hard it is. Flooring manufactures have designed easy-to-use, user-friendly Touch-Up Kits so you can make minor repairs. We offer kits to match each flooring color.

Each kit contains a filler stick, touch-up market, and a bottle of clear finish. Both simple and inexpensive, Touch-Up-Kits can be the perfect remedy when you need to repair minor flooring blemishes.

It's rare and extremely unfortunate, but if you damage your floor too extensively to repair by yourself, contact your floor covering dealer and ask for a professional to repair your floor.

Occasional Floor Care: Recoating Your Floor

Most floors can be refinished without removing the factory finish. As a floor ages, normal wear and tear will cause a floor to lose its shine. This is natural-it happens to all wood floors! To restore the luster and extend the wear layer of the wood floor recoat with a water based urethane coating. Recoating should be done when necessary. Don't wait until the finish has worn off. Call your professional flooring contractor for recommendations as soon as you see a wear pattern developing.

Note: To achieve a uniform look coat the worn traffic areas first followed with a coat over the entire floor.

Accidents Can Be Remedied

Problem Solution

• Food/drink stains & spills.
        Wipe with lightly-damp (well-wrung) cloth and/or Wood Cleaner.
• Tar, asphalt, gummy substance, ink, lipstick, carbon, typewriter ribbon scuff marks.
        Wipe with Wood Cleaner;clean any remains with mineralspirits.
• Scratches, burns.
         Consult your Touch-up Kit,materials, and professional assistance is available.
• Surface wear, low luster levels.