How to make sure your wood surfaces last for a long time
When designing a home, making the right material choices is crucial, because it can make or break the look of your interior. Wood is a top choice for many homeowners, and it’s not surprising why. This material is a gift of nature, and since it can be recycled and reused, it is also ideal for eco-friendly homes. Moreover, wood comes in a wide range of colours, allowing you to create the perfect look for your living space – there are indeed no limitations to what you can achieve by incorporating it into your home.
If you want to add warmth and versatility to your space, look no further than wood, which can immediately enhance the feel and aesthetics of your home. Of course, you need to take good care of it if you want it to last. The good news is that maintaining wood surfaces doesn’t have to be overwhelming – all you need is proper knowledge and the right supplies.
Wood as a suitable material for both your indoors and outdoors
Undoubtedly, wood surfaces add a sense of luxury to any home. Not only that, but they also bring style and comfort, whether you are using them for indoor or outdoor projects. Given that they offer a myriad of colours and textures, they add that wow factor and enhance any room. Once you choose wood for your home, you are guaranteed to fall in love with it (and its numerous advantages) right away.
If you’re renovating the outdoors, you can use wood as cladding, making the entrance look more dynamic, as a boundary wall, or to create an accent feature. Regarding the interior, wood is excellent for flooring, doors and stairs, and furniture. And you can also use it for decorative purposes, whether for photo frames, wooden bows, tealight holders, and more. That’s quite impressive, isn’t it?
What does it take to maintain your wooden surfaces?
Wood can change its colour over time, and its mechanical properties can also weaken, causing it to deteriorate in appearance. If you want to ensure your favourite pieces still look as beautiful as the first time, proper maintenance is a must. Luckily, with a few tips and tricks, you can enjoy your wood surfaces as much as possible.
Firstly, regular cleaning is an essential step in ensuring your wood surfaces stand the test of time. It’s natural for dust and dirt to accumulate over time, making the wood look faded and scratched. Fortunately, you can prevent this from happening and the process isn’t complicated. All you need to do is use a soft cloth to dust the wood surfaces (or a damp one if the spots are more challenging to clean). Regarding furniture, you want to remember that there is no single approach to cleaning, given that there are different types of wood, finishes and stains. As a rule of thumb, you should choose the mildest cleaning solutions, and opt for stronger ones if that’s the case.
Protecting your wooden surfaces from sunlight is just as important as cleaning them, as this will keep them healthy for a long time. Indoor and outdoor wood can both be affected by direct UV exposure, causing bleaching and making your surfaces look pale and unhealthy. There are different ways to prevent this, but one of the best is to opt for wood treatment. This is an excellent solution for outdoor wood protection, preventing your surfaces from structural decay.
Treating wood provides plenty of benefits, enhancing the material’s durability, strength, and resistance, as well as its aesthetic properties. Interestingly, this solution can also prevent allergies, which is a great benefit. If wood is exposed repeatedly to moisture, it leads to the reproduction of mould, stimulating the multiplication of fungi and ultimately destroying the wood. But that’s not all; when mould spores spread into the air, this can lead to allergies, making people prone to infections and viruses. Luckily, wood treatment makes your home safer, so avoid using a dry cloth to remove mould and, instead, opt for the former solution.
Over time, wooden surfaces, including furniture, can be poorly broken, so to preserve its beautiful appearance, remember to treat it. Fortunately, there are many suitable products on the market that work as an excellent interior wood protector, allowing you to breathe new life into your home interior.
Don’t hesitate to call in a professional when needed
Let’s face it: life gets busy all the time, making it quite challenging for homeowners to clean and maintain their wood surfaces on a regular basis. If a sweep can’t help remove stains and dirt, you may want to seek the help of a professional wood cleaning service. However, when you do this, you want to ensure they are independently certified and have the expertise required to clean different types of flooring, whether solid hardwood floors, laminate wood floors or engineered wood floors.
Ask them about what methods they use to remove embedded debris and dirt, as well as the cleaning products they utilise to achieve a streak-free shine. Ideally, a reliable professional should use wood-safe cleaning equipment and solutions, so make sure to hire someone who will do a good job.
Your wood surfaces are a thing of beauty, adding significant value to your living space, so it’s worth putting in the effort and protecting them with regular cleaning and the other solutions discussed above. When DIY is not an option, you can always ask for help. What matters is prioritising maintaining wood surfaces in your home, which is essential to make them last.
Conclusion
In this blog, we discussed the different ways you can maintain your wood surfaces, whether outdoors or indoors, to preserve their look and durability. As a quote says” Home is a shelter from storms” so it only makes sense to take care of it – even if you are delighted with its initial design, it will not last if you don’t prioritise its maintenance.
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