Care, Repair or Replacement? How to Tell What Your Hardwood Flooring Needs
Hardwood flooring has historically been the most popular type of flooring available, both in terms of beauty and property value. Most people would elect for hardwood flooring if money were no object. It is attractive. It adds elegance. It is comfortable.
However there is one issue that hardwood flooring does struggle with: it is softer than other types of flooring, which means that it can become damaged, dull, or have issues that develop over time.
Luckily, hardwood flooring can also be restored fairly easily – much more easily than many other types of flooring, where restoration may not even be possible. But how can you tell what your flooring needs? Does it need only a little bit of care, a more significant amount of repair, or is it time to replace your flooring altogether?
When Care is Needed
Most of the time, hardwood flooring only requires a little bit of care for it to be looking as good as new. The type of care depends on the type of damage. If there’s only some minor scuffs and scratches, or a dulling of the wood, or dust, dirt, and mild stains, then you may only need:
- Cleaning with a hardwood floor cleaner.
- Polishing with a hardwood floor polish.
That is typically it. One important piece of advice is to only use products that are made for hardwood floors, but most of the time, only a little bit of care is necessary to have your flooring looking like new.
When Repair is Needed
Caring for your floor is something you’ll usually do on your own time and more frequently to make sure you’re bringing out the life from your floor. But over time, more significant damage may occur, and you may end up requiring repair. Usually, a hardwood floor only needs repair when there are issues such as:
- Deeper scratches or gouges in specific areas.
- Minor warping, cupping, or gaps between boards.
- Water stains limited to specific spots.
- Isolated loose or squeaky boards.
In these cases, you can try spot sanding (which may be enough to repair the issue), or you may need to use wood filler around gaps and cracks, or replace specific boards but leave others, so that you can avoid a more sizeable replacement.
Another benefit of hardwood flooring is how replaceable boards are, as they do not lock into place the same way that other flooring like LVP and laminate do, so you can simply replace a board if it’s experienced too much damage.
If none of these work, then usually the problem can be solved with refinishing. One of the many benefits of hardwood flooring is that it can refinished multiple times over the course of its lifespan. You can typically refinish hardwood flooring as much as 6 times before it needs to be replaced. Since hardwood flooring usually only needs to be refinished every 7 to 20 years (depend on traffic), you’re looking at decades before replacement will be necessary.
Refinishing involves sanding a very small layer from the top of the board, and then applying a protective finish to extend its lifespan and protect it from additional damage.
When Replacement is Needed
Hardwood flooring can last anywhere from 25 to 75+ years. But all good things will eventually come to an end. Typically, replacement is needed when this type of flooring:
- Has extensive water damage, often caused by floods or untreated long-term humidity.
- Has already been refinished multiple times and is now too thin to be refinished again.
- Has experienced significant water damage, especially if it led to mold growth/warping.
- Has experienced pest infestations.
Hardwood flooring is so durable and so long lasting that you’ll often know that your wood flooring needs replacement before we even tell you. Rarely, unless we find secret mold growth or the boards have become too brittle, are our customers surprised when we tell them replacement is needed. Still, replacement is usually seen as a last resort unless you are replacing your hardwood flooring for cosmetic reasons.
Care, Repair or Replacement: Get the Help You Need from Texas Hardwood Flooring!
Texas Hardwood Flooring is here to help you with your hardwood flooring requirements, and can also support you with repair, refinishing, and related services. If you need help with your hardwood floor, or you’d like an opinion about what your flooring needs, reach out to our team today.
