How to Protect Your Hardwood Floors

Hardwood floors are renowned for their rich beauty and natural allure, exemplified by the superior performance they offer. It's one reason hardwood is such a popular choice for homes of all shapes and sizes.

But once your luxurious new hardwood flooring is installed, the challenge becomes how to protect wood floors from scratches or scuffing. Your floors, after all, are essentially a showcase for the furniture you use every day. And no matter how careful you are, you'll eventually need to move furniture around, even if it's only sliding chairs around a table. Fortunately, with a bit of care and consideration, you can protect your hardwood flooring so it continues to look its best.

Handle Furniture With Care

Your first rule should be to handle your furniture with care. Carry chairs, sofas, and other heavy pieces as much as possible, rather than pushing them across your wood floors, as pushing can cause scrapes and scratches. This will protect not only your floors but also your furniture, especially the legs, and edges.

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It's also wise to plan your furniture layout before moving it into position. Know where you want your furniture to go so you only have to move the furniture once. That will limit the chance of scratching the flooring's surface. Fortunately, there are ways to protect against scratches even if your furniture ends up sliding across the floor. Who hasn't bumped into a sofa or slid a chair back once or twice?

Put Protective Pads Under Your Furniture

One way to protect the finish on your hardwood floors is to make your furniture itself soft and gentle, so it slides along nicely across your beautiful wood floors. That's precisely why LL Flooring offers felt pads designed to fit on the bottom of furniture legs and other hard surfaces that may come into contact with your flooring.

Felt provides excellent protection for your wood surfaces with its soft, gentle touch and tough construction. Our pads come in various sizes and feature a strong adhesive on the back that quickly affixes to the furniture's feet or wherever contact is made with the floor. Once properly secured, these pads significantly reduce the risk of scratching your wood floors, acting as ideal floor guards so you can enjoy your floors worry-free.

Rugs Offer Color and Protection

A beautiful rug can not only add color and interest to your floors, but it can also help protect your floors from furniture or foot traffic. In a sense, your rug acts as a giant protective layer in addition to its decorative benefits. You can place a runner along a hallway, or larger rugs in living spaces where you want sofas and love seats. Remember that rugs should be moved regularly to prevent flooring discoloration from sun exposure or the natural patina of real wood floors. This is also important as the rug blocks UV light which can cause fading and ultimately leave uneven discoloration across your floor. Choose softer rug textiles like wool, cotton, and silk to minimize the risk of scuffs even further.

Showcase Your Furniture

Hardwood provides the perfect stage to showcase your furniture's style and appeal because of its natural warmth and inherent beauty. Larger furniture pieces are often designed to be incredibly distinctive; placing them in a room with wood flooring is a great chance to take advantage of and enhance your pieces' charm and allure.

Want to Know How to Protect Hardwood Floors From Furniture?

Protecting your flooring ultimately means doing as much of the above as possible. Be careful moving your furniture, and use felt pads and rugs; your floor's beauty will continue to shine long after its installation. Be sure to check out your Warranty, Installation, and Care guidelines to get all the important details on protecting your hardwood flooring.

But even if your hardwood does show signs of scuffing, it's important to think of it less as damage and more as a sign of a well-loved home. And a well-loved home is what everyone dreams of.

Find the right hardwood flooring for your home with a wide selection of solid and engineered hardwoods in various colors and species. Be sure to browse LL Flooring's care and protection collection to keep your hardwood floors protected.

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