A Relationship to Last: Love Your Flooring This Valentine’s Day

Some of us relish the idea of gift buying, dinner dates, and luxury weekends away, whilst the rest convince themselves that it is just another corporate money grabbing scheme. Therefore this month, we thought we would join the romance bandwagon as we discuss how to ensure a relationship that will last; with your flooring that is. So why not take a look at our top tips for ensuring a long lasting, beautiful relationship with your floors? We’ve even come up with our own version of the classic poem:

Rose are red,

Violets are blue,

Floors in need of a revamp?

Let us floor you.

Your Flooring Choice

Extending the life of your flooring, whether carpet, wood, or vinyl, means more than simply choosing the correct cleaning methods. In fact, the longevity of your flooring starts from the beginning in terms of selecting the right products. Carefully considering the environment, design, and colour will contribute greatly to its long term performance and appearance.

For example, it is important to choose the right type of carpet in heavy traffic areas such as hallways or reception areas as they are more likely to see more wear and tear damage over a shorter period. We’d also suggest that you avoid hardwood flooring in bathrooms and kitchens as the additional moisture can contribute to potential warping of materials.

But fear not, this is where the Rivendell team can help. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry we can provide you with the widest possible range of suitable products at a variety of budgets to suit all pockets.

Care and Maintenance

Extending the life of any carpet investment and preserving the appearance of your new floors is essential. Unfortunately many homeowners aren’t fully aware of what is best for their flooring and therefore often make carpet care mistakes they didn’t even know they were making. So instead, why not start here?

Preventive Methods

The best place to start is most certainly undertaking preventive measures to avoid unnecessary damage and wear and tear.

Entrance matting has been designed to capture inbound dirt at entrance points, whether they are in the home or the office. In our view this type of flooring is essential to prevent the tell-tale signs of heavy traffic at entrances. Dirt can act abrasively on the flooring fibres and eventually discolour your carpet and scratch wooden floors. Simply vacuum them on a regular basis, preferably daily, to ensure that captured dirt does not spread to other areas.

Routine Cleaning

Spot Cleaning – The most important thing you can do should a spillage occur is to act quickly in order to avoid a lasting reminder of that second glass of red. Working from the outside in, scrape away any excess solids and blot dry with soft paper or cloths. Never rub at the stain as you’ll work the liquids into the carpet causing more damage. If you should need to use cleaning chemicals, we supply a range of recommended maintenance kits, just ensure that you test on a small hidden patch of flooring before use.

It is particularly important to act quickly where hardwood and laminate floors are concerned as they can warp under the moisture of spillages.

When dealing with spillages on vinyl simply take a damp cloth or mop to prevent any long lasting stain. Vinyl couldn’t be easier to care for thanks to its protective finish, water-resistance, and durable properties.

Vacuuming – Vacuuming is an obvious point to make and will more than likely be something you do on a regular basis already. But it is important to make sure that your hoover is the most appropriate for your type of flooring in order to prevent additional damage and to help your cleaning processes further.

For wool carpets we would recommend a vacuum cleaner with brushes to remove any surface fluffing before moving on to a suction-only head two to three weeks later. Natural fibre carpets should also be cleaned with suction-only vacuums as the bristles can distort fibres in the carpet. With natural carpets like our range of Alternative Flooring solutions we highly recommends that you do not use water or steam extraction as they are particularly susceptible to colour loss.

Periodic Additional Care

Cleaning on a regular basis does not always reach every spec of dirt. It is therefore advisable that you seek deep, thorough cleaning from a professional periodically. Cleaning systems will remove the oily, sticky soil that vacuums can’t reach by targeting the results from cooking vapours, air pollution, and tracked dirt, and will restore the state of your carpet to its once clean, fresh and odourless state.

So when you think that your carpet colour has faded it may simply be the case that it is hiding behind an untouched film of dirt. We suggest that you get a professional in once every 12 months, especially if you have pets.

More Help and Advice

At Rivendell we don’ just supply and fit new flooring. We can help you maintain the life of your existing carpets and floors with our expert help, advice, and care and maintenance products.

For more help and information give our friendly and professional team a call on 0117 963 7979.

Categorised in: For Home, Hints and Tips

This post was written by Binks