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9636 85th Ave N. Maple Grove, MN 55369 P: 763-424-3736 F:763-424-5272 |
Showroom Hours: Mon – Thurs: 9-7 Friday: 9-5 Saturday: 11-5 |
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For information on how to clean and take of your wood floors please click on the link for our guide or call us for more information. We also carry cleaning products available at out showroom.
Wood/Laminate - Care and Maintenance [pdf]
WOOD FLOORS
The face of each board may contain the following characteristics”
· Streaks, spots and color variation
· A light variation in the finish of tinted colors
· Unfilled pinworm hole not over 1/16” in diameter
· Small checks or strokes less than ¼” long
· Small cracks between the slats not over 3/32” wide
Pre-finished samples displayed are representative of a style of wood. Color, shade, and finish of the wood installed may vary from the sample.
Care and Maintenance
1. The use of water and soap is not recommended on any wood product and will void any warranty. Never use ammonia based or oil soap products such as Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean or mop your floor. Use a professional wood floor cleaner that is recommended by the manufacturer.
2. Grit is one of the biggest hazards to your wood floor. Dust mop or sweep it daily. Tracked in dirt acts like sandpaper on your floor. Use a walk off mat or an entry rug at every outdoor entrance to catch the grit and shake it out regularly.
3. Use floor protectors on all tables, chairs, stools, etc. to protect against excess scratching and denting. Clean each individual floor protector every time you clean your wood floor. Floor protectors should be changed regularly every 3-6 months.
4. Stiletto or spiked heels, treaded sole shoes that hold pebbles and grit, and certain types of furniture will damage wood flooring.
5. Climatic changes, which cause wood floors to expand and contract, are not covered under warranty. Gaps in wood floor of 1/8” or under are within industry standards. Keep humidity levels constant by using a humidifier in the winter and air conditioner in the summer.
LAMINATE FLOORS
Grit is one of the biggest hazards to your floor. Tracked in dirt is like taking sandpaper to your laminate floor. Laminate is not as susceptible to dents and nicks as hardwood but it will scratch and can be damaged or abused as any other floor covering
Do not use soap-based detergents, oil soap, or one step clean and shine. Do not use wool, abrasive cleaners, or scouring powder. They will scratch your floor.
Wipe up floor with a damp cloth; do not saturate the floor with water. Use cleaning products recommended by the manufacturer (Ex. Pergo floor cleaner).
HUMIDITY LEVELS
How a House Works!!
IS YOUR HOUSE TOO DRY?
Last December, the aggravating symptoms of excessive dryness began to appear in our home. My wife complained of dry skin and needed to rub lotion on her face, hands and arms several times a day. Our noses and throats often felt parched and irritated, so that we had to sip water regularly. In addition, our wonderful old oak writing table, the one we had worked so hard to refinish, developed a crack that gradually spread across it’s top.
Other signs appeared later, like shocks from static electricity when we walked across the carpet and touched a lamp. The house felt drafty in the evening, so we had to wear sweaters or turn up the heat. Late in the winter, we developed chronic sore throats.
Taken alone, each item of a dry house seemed like a minor inconvenience, but together they made our house downright uncomfortable. Our problem is not unique. Dryness can occur anywhere the weather gets cold enough to heat your home. Unfortunately, infants, asthma sufferers and older people suffer more acutely.
In this section, we will explain how your house becomes dry, how it affects you and what you can do about it.
HOW A HOUSE DRIES OUT!
The first cool weeks of autumn signal the kickoff of the football season, relief from the hot, humid summer weather and the first signs of moisture condensation on windows. In most homes, you will spot these foggy windows in the morning after a cold night. Cold temperatures cool the glass, causing the moisture from the warm, humid air inside the house to form water drops on the glass. This condensation is a sign that the drying process has begun.
Throughout the humid summer, moisture collects inside our homes. The wood in furniture, trim, floors, and framing absorbs it. So do drywall, fabrics, plaster, concrete and brick. By the time cool weather returns, our homes have virtually swelled up with a hidden reservoir of water stored in the building materials and furnishings.
Cool weather reverses the process. Cool air holds less moisture than warm air, so in general, the humidity level drops in cold weather. Of course, that is when we close the windows and turn on the heat. But that doesn’t stop cold, drier outside air from entering doors and windows to completely replace the inside air in about one hour. The drier air, especially when heated, picks up moisture left from the summer months and carries the moisture outdoors when it escapes. Therefore, throughout the winter, your house dries out.
FINDING A HUMIDITY BALANCE
Condensation on windows is a sure sign of the change taking place. Usually it appears on windows during those first cold spells of fall. It might return periodically for a month or two as your house slowly dries, and again when the thermometer drops even further.
However, some homes dry out faster than others do. Ours, built in 1924 when building practices didn’t emphasize energy efficiency, is very leaky and dries out so fast that we rarely find condensation on our windows, even in freezing weather. Extra moisture sources like cooking, the damp basement, showers (without the exhaust fan running); the aquarium and frequently watered indoor plants don’t raise the humidity level enough to even fog a window. They can’t keep pace with the flow of air through our walls that carries the moisture away.
Of course, homes that were built more tightly suffer from the opposite problem – too much moisture. They might never dry out, so their owners have to mop condensation off their windowsills and combat mildew all winter. For them, a dry house would be a welcome relief!
CONTROLLING HUMIDITY LEVELS
Humidity is elusive – you cannot see it or monitor it without an expensive instrument called a “hydrometer”. Hydrometers are available from heating and cooling supply dealers for $50 and up. High indoor humidity and dry temperatures cause more condensation. When moisture condenses on your windows, you can roughly predict the indoor humidity level. Once the temperature drops below 10 degrees, you cannot keep your house in the comfort zone (40-60% humidity). If you try, condensation will continually build up on the windows, run down the glass and soak the sills and nearby walls, ruining wood finishes and rotting the wood.
So homeowners in very cold climates must either install more energy efficient windows, like triple pane types and those with low-E coatings, or accept drier conditions. In many homes, the humidity level is so low that windows almost never develop condensation. The humidity is so far below the comfort zone that we must find ways to increase the moisture levels.
ADDING INDOOR HUMIDITY
In cold weather (below 40 degrees) the most comfortable humidity level you can achieve is in the point where condensation occasionally appears on your windows but dries off a few hours later.
In dry homes, there are only two ways to achieve this comfort level: (1) keep more humidity inside and (2) add more moisture to the air to make up for the rapid loss through air leaks.
The easiest, most economical solution is to seal up air leaks to keep humid air inside the house. Apply caulk or foam around the foundation, electrical boxes, windows, doors and other places that utilities puncture the walls or ceilings of your house. Also, close off attic “bypasses” where walls, chimneys, plumbing vents and electrical fixtures leave big gaps where air can escape. Weather strip doors and windows too. These steps will not only keep moisture inside, they’ll lower your energy bills, both in the winter when you heat and in summer when you air condition.
A note of caution, most houses built before 1970 were so leaky that you rarely had to worry about making them too air tight. That is, so tight that the air gets stale or polluted inside. However, whenever you tighten your home, your gas or oil fueled appliances, which often rely on a steady outside air supply to burn well, might not exhaust properly. Their exhaust gasses might flow into your house rather than up the chimney. Therefore, after tightening your home, check to make sure your furnace, water heater and any other combustion devices are exhausting properly.
The second approach, if the first does not solve the dryness problem, is to add more humidity to the air. In the old days, folks used to leave pans of water on top of radiators or registers, a strategy that while helpful, could not raise the humidity level high enough. Today, people often boil pots of water on the stove, or leave their bathroom and kitchen vents off when they shower or cook. Each method adds moisture to indoor air.
If these methods are not good enough, you can install a humidifier. “Spot” humidifiers pump moisture into the air in one room, while central humidifiers add moisture to forced-air heating systems, which blow air through ductwork to every room in the house.
Both types are controlled by a humidistat, which, once set maintains that humidity level. Unfortunately, you cannot just set it and forget it. When the temperature drops, your windows get colder and potentially damaging condensation or frost can build up on them if your indoor humidity is too high. To prevent these problems, be prepared to adjust the humidistat according to outdoor temperature, setting it lower during cold spells.
Whatever type of humidifier you choose, you will have to service it at least annually. Most water contains dissolved minerals. Mist-type humidifiers spew these minerals out with the moisture and they settle on the ductwork, in your furnace or throughout your house as white dust. If you have hard water, avoid mist-type humidifiers. Bypass humidifiers, which circulate air through a damp grid, avoid this problem. However, minerals accumulate in their girds too, so you have to clean them and replace the evaporating grid periodically.
