The Beauty and Buyer Preference for Hardwood Floors
By Bill Primavera
When I open my new condo door in a Trump building, the first thing I see are gleaming, dark hardwood floors that give me a great feeling of clean space and quality living.
As a realtor, I always find that homebuyers are attracted to marketing copy that can claim “hardwood floors throughout.” While most folks today like hardwood floors exposed, oddly enough, they went through a long period of cover up.
When I was a little boy in grade school, I remember coming home one day and finding my mother speaking in hushed tones with two of her friends. “Al and I are having wall-to-wall installed next week,” she said.
“Oh, how nice,” chimed in her friends.
I didn’t know what “wall-to-wall” was, but I was proud that my mom seemed to be the envy of the neighborhood because she was getting it. In short order, the wall-to-wall arrived in one enormous roll and was laid out seamlessly in the living room. (We didn’t have a dining room.)
The texture, as I recall, was a short shag, and it was chartreuse. No kidding. Mother justified the relatively expensive upgrade by telling my dad, who thought it was an extravagance, that it “warmed up” the living room and made it easier for her to keep the place clean.
But this is not about carpeting, it’s about hardwood floors, the beautiful, gleaming surface that my mother buried with her up-and-coming lifestyles choice.
Today, we no longer want warming up. We want clean gleaming surfaces of natural wood that conveys open space, perhaps punctuated by smaller area rugs. If you’re lucky enough to have a quality hardwood floor, here’s the best way to take care of it.
Always use a soft broom when sweeping floors. Hard bristle brooms can scratch the surface. Vacuum the floor at least once a week to remove dirt. It’s better to buy a lighter vacuum for hardwood floors because the wheels of heavier vacuums may scratch. It’s best to use the soft brush attachment.
You won’t like the way it looks, but there should always be non-slip rugs near all entrances so that family members and visitors can brush off dirt and gravel from the bottoms of their shoes. These small carpets should also be vacuumed regularly to prevent dirt and other debris from making its way to the floor.
Are you annoyed when some hosts ask you to remove your shoes at the door? Actually, it’s not a bad rule for your household to follow if you really prize your floors. Or, you can place carpet runners in heavily traveled areas. Spiked heels, and even regular heels, can be murder in denting the wood.
Furniture needs little booties, too, in the form of rubber or plastic pads below table and chair legs. And never drag furniture across a hardwood floor.
Liquid spills obviously should be cleaned up immediately. Most new floors come with a scratch and dent repair kit that should be kept in an easy-to-remember place. Save the manufacturer’s instructions on how to use them.
Keeping wood floors clean is a very simple matter; use only a damp mop. Any excess water can run between the seams and cause damage.
Years ago, it was common practice to use a lot of wax on hardwood floors but today, most are sealed well with polyurethane and should require only the damp mop process.
In fact, hardwood floors are easier to maintain than that wall-to-wall that my mother thought would be easier to keep clean. I remember how disgusted I was when I recently had carpeting pulled up and found that it was a safe harbor for years of dirt below.
A few years ago, I visited my boyhood home on a nostalgic trip to Virginia and, amazingly, the couple who bought it from my parents still lived there.
When I was escorted into the living room, the hardwood floors my mother had concealed almost a half-century earlier gleamed in the streaming sunlight from the windows with southern exposure.
“We were so surprised when we pulled up the carpeting and found these gorgeous floors,” the homeowner said. “There was this green carpeting that I knew just had to go…”
Bill Primavera, while a publicist and journalist, is also a Realtor® associated with William Raveis Real Estate and Founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc. (www.PrimaveraPR.com). To engage the services of The Home Guru to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
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