Engineered Wood Floor Maintenance

All our wooden floors are built to last. However, if you want to get the most out of your new floor and keep it spick and span for decades to come, you will need to give it some TLC. In this useful guide, we will explain the best practice to maintain engineered wood flooring. We will talk you through the dos and don'ts to keep your floor in the best condition including providing maintenance tips, effective aftercare products and the tools you will need if you are planning on installing engineered wood flooring yourself.

Do

When Cleaning, Do:

Sweep or vacuum your floor regularly
Once a week, wipe your floor with a specifically designed cleaner
Wipe along the grain of the boards

To Protect Your Floor, Do:

Put doormats and rugs by doors
Wear soft soled shoes
Put felt on legs of furniture
Lift furniture to move it - even with soft pads, grit can scratch
Keep pets' nails trimmed

Don't

When Cleaning, Don't:

Use a steam cleaner
Use a wet mop
Use bleach-based products
Use abrasive materials such as scouring pads
Use soap-based products
Use furniture polish

To Protect Your Floor, Don't:

Wear high heels
Leave puddles to soak in

Engineered wood floor maintenance tips

Maintain humidity levels: When humidity gets too low (below 40%), engineered wood can dry out, causing it to shrink and when it gets too high (above 60%) engineered wood can expand.
Use doormats: Doormats are useful for picking up moisture as well as grit which can lead to scratching the floor. A must have for any home.
When vacuuming and sweeping, pay extra attention to beveled edges as these are prone to collecting dust.
Soap-based products leave an unwanted film which can dull the surface of your floor over time. Instead, use a proper floor cleaner.
Sweeping with the grain will leave less dirt on textured boards.
Clean spillages straight away: If your floors come into contact will spillages, make sure to clean them up to avoid any damage.

Engineered Flooring Aftercare

It is critical to clean your floors with the proper materials; otherwise, they may suffer the consequences. However, because an engineered wood floor is a hard surface, it is easier to maintain and absorbs less dust than a carpet.

Nothing beats the look of a newly laid floor, and we think it's important to give your new engineered flooring all the TLC it needs. So, naturally, we've found the most effective aftercare products in the industry, balancing effectiveness with affordability.

See our real wood flooring after-care.

Engineered Flooring Tools

If you're installing your engineered floor yourself you will need the right gear. We supply a whole range of installation kits as well as underlay and adhesive which let you reach your full DIY potential. See our real wood flooring tools.

See our range of Engineered Wood Flooring here today. Available in a range of species, colours, and finishes.

Shop Engineered Wood Maintenance Products

Important tip

Important tip: it's standard to add an extra 5% on to your area to allow for the usual wastage that occurs during installation. To calculate this, you'll need to multiply the total area by 1.05. However, parquet and tiled floors where the installation starts in the middle of the room require 7-10% wastage as it's likely you'll have to cut more boards than with a regular, strait-lay design.

Measuring for Carpet

First, you'll need to measure the length & width of your room. You'll also need to allow for extra material for the installer to "cut in". When carpets are fitted, they need to run at least 5cm up each wall so they can be trimmed more accurately to fit against your skirting boards.

The most common widths for carpets are 4 & 5 metres. The width always refers to the width of the carpet, and the length is the other measurement, be it longer or shorter than the width. For example, if your room is 2.7 x 3.9 metres, you would opt for a 4-metre width carpet and purchase 2.75 metres in length, giving you 11m2 in total. If you want the design of your carpet to be in a lengthways direction, you'd need to purchase 4 metres of the 4-metre-wide carpet, giving you 16m2 in total.

Measuring Carpet for Stairs, Hallways & Landings

Draw a detailed plan of all of the flat areas involved, including any rooms that you intend to do in the same quality and colour as your hall, stairs and landing (HSL). Write each measurement against each wall.

Make a note of how many straight stairs you have and measure the width of these stairs. We recommend allowing 50cm extra in length for each straight step.

Make a note of any ½ landings, winders & kites that you may have (kites and winders are triangular-shaped stairs that create a curve in your staircase). Measure the length and width of each of these steps remembering that the length is the measurement that runs over the nose of the step and the width is the measurement running from side to side as you look up the staircase.

You'll need to decide whether to use 4.00 or 5.00-metre width carpet. Make sure you check which widths are available in your chosen carpet before you make this decision as you don't want to work it out in 5.00-metre width to realise your carpet only comes in 4.00-metre width!

Now the fun part! Draw a rectangle on your piece of paper and write the width at the top of the page and then try and fit all of the pieces that you need into that rectangle, ensuring that all of your relevant measurements will work within the space you have allowed. Diagram 1 shows an example of a HSL plan.

Remember, if you are carpeting some rooms in the same carpet that you intend to put on your stairs then you can use waste material from the rooms to use on the stairs, this may mean buying less carpet for your HSL.