Talk to me about hardwood floors

[kanga1]

Looking at a house with hardwood floors in the kitchen, living room, dining room, foyer and hallway...I have never had them so not sure about wear and tear and upkeep. They are maple hardwood floors.

[thatgirl2478]

We have them on the main floor of our house - everywhere except the kitchen, 2 baths and 1 bedroom. The only reason one bedroom doesn't have them is because when we took out the carpet we found that the original hardwood wasn't put in there, instead they put in asbestos tiles...(it was the original owner/builder's office).

Upkeep is easy - I vacuum & swiffer a few times a week (we have a dog & 2 cats so lots of fur) and 'mop' with a vinegar & water dampened white terry towel on the end of an XL swiffer pole. If I have a spot that's stubborn (ie cat puke), I'll hit it with a little of whatever cleaner I have sitting around and wipe it up immediately.

As far as scratches - they do happen but I haven't found them to be that big of a deal. However, I also have area rugs and hall runners which helps to cut down on the wear.

I used to have HW in the kitchen of our old house. I liked it well enough, but it was old & gaping in parts so junk got caught in the cracks easily...

[Velar Fricative]

We love the hardwood floors in our apartment - they are pretty easy to maintain with vacuuming and swiffering. I was skeptical about installing them in our kitchen but given our small apartment, it does help create a more uniform look throughout the apartment. No pets and only a baby in our household though.

[kanga1]

Thanks. No pets so that won't be an issue. Sounds like they wouldn't be a problem to clean either which is good. For some reason I was thinking there wsa more care needed for hardwood.

[downtoearth]

Ours are original (fair condition) finished in the living room and bedrooms and recently finished in the dining room and hall. We love them - even not recently finished. We plan to have them all refinished in the next year or so and have the same style hardwoods added to the kitchen at that time.

We too vacuum them weekly and sweep/swifter about once a week also - in the main areas. The bedrooms, I vacuum about once a week and that's it. We have large area rugs over the living room and bedrooms.

Our rental/first house had them also and they are easier to keep-up and clean than carpet in higher traffic areas IMO.

[msmerymac]

We have 94 year old pine floors. We had them refinished. There's no subfloor under them! Thankfully they were covered in carpet for 50 years. We have 2 cats and I use a washable dust mop about every other day to get up any hair and dirt. Just mop with a damp mop every so often. I don't want to use acidic cleaners that might dull the finish, though being pine, they'll get nicked eventually anyway.

[Deleted]

I have hardwood floors in my house and LOVE them. They are beautiful and easy to take care of, especially if you have kids or pets. You just wipe up spills as they happen. I vacuum every week and just spot clean as needed. A few times a year I mop with a barely damp mop and a little wood floor cleaner. Ditto to what PP said about a patina. They won't stay perfect if the room gets any amount of wear and tear, but to me that just adds a little character.

[kaylie]

We have hickory in our entire first floor with the exception of the mudroom. We baby them a bit because they're still somewhat new, so shoes are still a no no in the house. We run our Roomba every day and use Bona products for cleaning. We were told not to use vinegar to clean them because it breaks down the finish.