Water can be one of the most dangerous things your reclaimed hardwood floor from Aged Woods comes into contact with on a day to day basis. Chances are you have a rug and/or a welcome mat to help protect your floor. That is a good start but we will give you a few other things to consider with your floor to help keep the water from getting deep into your floorboards and causing mayhem.
Unless you live in the Atacama Desert in South America chances are it rains where you live. You are going to drip water when you enter your home and take off your jacket or hang up your umbrella. All of that water heads down to the floor. Make sure that you have a rug by the entrance way to catch that water. But don’t forget that your shoes get wet as well and when you walk on your floor that is going to spread that water over your beautiful reclaimed wood floor. You might want to take off your shoes when you come in. The same can be said if you have a pool. You could be dripping wet and spread that all over your floor. And of course don’t forget the kids. How many times have you told them to take off their wet shoes on the rug and they don’t listen? Probably a lot.
Make an area where they can leave their wet shoes and make sure they are dried off before coming into the house from the pool. Kids will be kids as well, so with that comes being muddy. Water is not the only thing that can get into the cracks between the boards, soil can and unlike water it does not evaporate over time. A garage makes a convenient place to put all of these wet clothes, after all it probably has a concrete floor and isn’t as susceptible to damage.
You’ve got a place that everyone can leave their wet shoes or change after being outdoors. There are other parts of your home to think about when dealing with water. The most obvious is the bathroom (or washroom for our Canadian viewers) but you probably already have a rug in there and are dry when you leave. Do you have plants to water? If you mis-poured that water is going onto your floor. Your canine or feline friends need to drink water and probably have a bowl. You should put a mat underneath it. After all, unlike children, they don’t understand English (or at least if they do they are great at not showing it).
Water getting onto your floor is not the end of the world, after all a light mopping every now and again is recommended. If possible be on the lookout for any water and other harmful substances that may have walked through the door and clean them up as quickly as possible. If you make the kids do it they might actually think about it the next time!
