How to Protect Your Hardwood Floors: Essentials And Expert Tips

When you finally get a rental of your dreams, you are inevitably getting the legacy to take care of. Usually, it may be an old furniture piece, stylish backyard, or clean and shiny hardwood floors. 

Did you know that Rentberry allows you to filter out the apartments for rent with hardwood floors only?

While we usually have a perfect understanding of the ‘wear and tear’ concept, sometimes we have to invest more of our attention and care into particular elements of our home interior. And hardwood floors can be considered the most tricky surface to deal with when it comes to floors in the rental apartment or house. 

The number of scratches that you can leave after a year or two in the rental apartment can be so significant that your landlord will have to deduct a certain amount of money out of your security deposit to cover this damage. Yes, we understand that it is more of the ‘wear and tear’ situation, but we genuinely believe that you can put a little effort into hardwood floor protection and avoid misunderstanding with your landlord. Doesn’t it sound right to you? 

Use Rugs to Cover the Most Popular Areas

We’ll start our comprehensive list of tips with a general rule of thumb that you should keep in mind while dealing with the wooden floors. Determine the areas where you move your furniture the most or where you interact with the surface the most and put area rugs there. 

Area rugs are designed specifically for floor protection in the zones that may seem too dangerous for the integrity of the surface. Since there is a tremendous number of area rugs of any size and color available online, you won’t have a problem to find a decent one for your home. 

We’d recommend you putting an area rug under your coffee table and armchairs in the living room. These zones are usually the most popular in the apartments. Therefore, the surface faces a lot of walking, pushing, dragging, etc.

Avoid Mindless Pushing and Dragging While Moving Your Furniture 

It is not a crime to move the furniture in your rental. Making specific rearrangements do not require an authorization from your landlord until you do not decide that you want to throw away a table or whatever. 

However, while moving your furniture, you’ve got to remember that the hardwood floor surface may face inevitable damage from this process. The best option for you will be asking your friends to help you out and move the furniture only after you lift it above the floor surface. 

Furniture Pads Are the Must

It doesn’t matter whether you move these furniture pieces around occasionally, or they are completely static. Put the furniture pads on the feet of your units to avoid a direct impact on the floor’s integrity. 

Unfortunately, wooden floors can easily get scratched even if your sofa, table, or any other furniture piece moves the tiniest bit. This means that an unnecessary awkward hit can result in one small annoying scratch. 

While this may not seem a problem when you get your first tiny scratch, it may become your ‘scratch snowball’ in the long distance.

There are multiple types of furniture pads that you can buy anywhere (specialty stores, furniture stores, Amazon, like literally anywhere):

• Round furniture pads with different colors and thickness
• Pad sheets that you can cut and fit onto the furniture with unusual feet
• Furniture pad sets with more than a hundred universal pads

From the ‘how to save my budget’ perspective, we’d recommend you look at the furniture pad sets. The price/quality ratio on those is just what you may need.

Use The Right Cleaning Supplies

When we talk about floor protection, it’s not just about the scratches and damages from direct impact (hit or whatsoever). It’s also about what care and cleaning supplies you use on a daily basis and how much moisture the wood absorbs after. 

The idea is to keep your wooden floor away from spilled water and clean those spills with the mop. 

Depending on the type of wooden floor that you have in your apartment, you’ll need a specific kind of cleaning supply. You can check it on the internet or ask for help in the Home Depot (or any other home interior store). 

Unfortunately, if you clean your floor with the wrong supplies, you may damage the floors with the chemicals that will start a harmful reaction on the surface.

Trim Your Pet’s Nails

Whenever you rent an apartment with a pet, it becomes a pretty complicated quest to save the apartment interior from this little spoiler. 

Make sure the nails are always cut. Otherwise, your pet will make lots of scratches on the floor. Also, we recommend you keeping a separate rug for your pet, cause dogs and cats love a spontaneous run, it’s a real ‘floor killer.’

Use The Right Vacuum Nozzle 

This is something everyone tends to forget, yet it has a tremendous impact on the floors. If you’re using the nozzle designed for the carpets, you will not only have problems with the cleaning process but also cause additional scratches. 

Usually, vacuum cleaners go with various nozzles, but in some cases, you will have to buy a separate one for the type of floor that you have. Trust us; it’s worth a hassle.

Try Furniture With Wheels 

Yeah, it may sound quite radical, but in some cases, it may be a great solution. Coffee tables on wheels and other small furniture pieces can even look more stylish in the lofts and Scandinavian design rooms. 

Summing Things Up

If you take our guide and use it as a simple cheat sheet — your hardwood floors will be protected even from the normal wear and tear. We genuinely believe that investing your time and attention into the floor protection will not only keep your apartment clean and stylish but also help you maintain a great relationship with your landlord.

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