We
recommend these trusted stores in our area
Our St.Paul
Neighborhood Stores
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Care and Feeding of Your Hardwood Floor
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Call
651-698-5888
651-698-5888
to buy maintenance
stuff from Pete's!
It's
not that difficult. |
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Hardwood floors will last 25 years between sandings,
if they are well-maintained!
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What IS the smallest
thing that can cause the greatest damage
to your
finished floor?
A hard plastic caster |
1.Sweep
and vacuum your floors like crazy.
Here in
Minnesota, we track all manner of grit, gravel and
salt onto our floors. These particles are abrasive,
just like the grit on sandpaper. Your weight on top
of those abrasive particles turns you into a sanding
machine that will grind down the finish on your
floor as effectively as any floor sander. We
recommend a canister vac with a very soft bristle
wand head. |
You need a
soft, polyurethane caster.
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2.
Recoat your floors before you wear any spot
through to bare wood. There is not a finish on
the market today that will last 25 years unless you
periodically refresh it. Recoat your floors when
they first appear scratched and dull, but before
they are worn through to bare wood. This can be as
often as every year for kitchens that are not swept,
or as infrequently as every decade in upstairs
bedrooms. Recoating involves lightly etching the
existing finish of a floor with a fine grit screen
under a buffer or pole sander, and then laying down
a single layer of fresh finish. You can hire a
contractor to do this for you (current market rate
for this service is about $1 per square foot) or you
can easily rent a buffer (from Pete's), buy your own
polyurethane (yes, from us too) and do it yourself
for about 20¢ per square foot. Nothing makes us
happier than discussing recoating procedures, so
call already. Or, at least read our long defense of
the recoating process:
screen and recoat. |
.The
soft wheel doesn't grind against your newly
refinished floor. It's quieter, less damaging, and
saves you from having to refinish the floor two
months after it was done.
55mm flat black twin
wheel swivel caster with 7/16x7/8" grip ring stem...$10
each
Need a different stem or caster size? We
can do that -just call the store!!
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3.
Put floor protectors on all furniture that moves
and
replace them regularly.
We love-love-love
the brand we carry because the loosely-woven olefin
fibers absorb pieces of grit instead of just
trapping them against the felt, which leads to more
scratches. Also, the adhesive is incredible and
really stays stuck to chair legs. Available in 7/8"
and 1½" diameter circles. Packs of 20 are $5.99, or
$24.99 for 100. Don't live in St. Paul? Call the
store to place an order! We love talking to people
in Albuquerque about floor protectors |
Did you just refinish
your floor?
You need to be
extra careful:
- Keep rugs and carpets
off the floor for at least two weeks, otherwise the
rug can stick to the uncured finish.
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Don't wash the floor with water for two weeks.
-
You
can carefully replace your furniture 24
hours after the final coat goes down, but put
floor protectors on first!
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4.
Never wet-mop a wood floor; those
long-stick squeeze mops just don't wring out
the mop head thoroughly enough, and even
small amounts of water can cause your floor
to swell and cup over time. Now, for all you
strong, old-fashioned types out there,
getting on your hands and knees and washing
the floor with a carefully squeezed-out
conventional sponge is usually not a hazard
to your floor, but we feel bad making your
clean your floors that way. We recommend a
spray-cleaner expressly intended for
polyurethane or Monocoat floors (see below)
wiped with a dry push-mop. |
5.
Do not clean the floor with furniture
polishes, vinegar, ammonia, pine cleaners or
Murphy's Oil Soap, and never wax a
polyurethane floor! Those cleaners may
dull or even
 damage
the finish and will create problems when
your floor needs recoating. We sell and
recommend Bona Professional
Swedish Hardwood Cleaner for all
polyurethane-finished floors and Rubio
Natural or Satin soap for all
Monocoat-finished floors. The Bona
professional line is actually different and
better than the Bona cleaner that is
available through Ace and WalMart because it
contains a degreaser (and the silver bottle
is very snazzy), and you can get it from
Pete's for $8.99 for a quart spray bottle.
A bottle of the Monocoat spray is also $8.99
and for a small fee we can ship either one
directly to you! It also comes in
concentrate form (if you already have a
spray bottle) for $6.50. |
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Which
puts greater force
on a floor, a
125-pound
woman in high heels or an elephant?
An
elephant's foot has a ground pressure of 50 to 100
pounds per square inch (psi), but the lady in heels
exerts a force of 200 psi! High
heels leave thousands of little dents in hardwood
floors, and those dents can't be erased with a
simple a screen and recoat - those dings need to be
completely resanded. So, the moral is, no high heels
in the house!
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6.Place
mats at exterior doors to trap sand and
grit that arrives with incoming traffic. Use
area rugs in high traffic areas and spots
where you pivot, like the base of
stairwells. |
7.
Be careful about rug underlayments.
Many people like to
use a separate backing under their carpets
to add cushion and keep them from slipping.
But synthetic rubber and polyurethane rug
backing can react with the plastic in
polyurethane floors and discolor and degrade
it; natural latex or rubber underlayments
will not. But the problem is, manufacturers
are not very good about listing the
components in their rug underlayments.
Pete's sells a guaranteed natural rubber
backer called Rug-Check Plus that works like
a charm. $1.25 per square foot cut
from a 6' roll. We'll be happy to cut you a
nice custom piece just for your rug. And,
as always, we're ready to take orders from
around the country, just call. |
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8.
Use stands under plants to allow air
circulation; even a waterproof container
placed directly on the floor can attract
condensation and leave a water stain. |
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