One of the questions we receive after delivering a beautiful hardwood floor is how the homeowner should take care of it.

My answer is generally quite simple:

Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Luxury hardwood flooring is made to be lived on.

It does not need to become a museum exhibit where everyone is afraid to walk across the room.

With sensible care and maintenance, a quality hardwood floor can remain beautiful for decades.

Dirt Is More Important Than Most People Realize

One of the easiest ways to protect hardwood flooring is simply to keep loose dirt, sand and grit from accumulating on the surface.

Why?

Because these tiny particles become abrasive when people walk across them repeatedly.

Regular vacuuming using an appropriate hardwood attachment or cleaning with a soft broom or microfiber mop can remove this material before it begins creating unnecessary wear.

Hardwood and Excessive Water Are Not Friends

This should be fairly obvious, but it is worth saying.

Do not flood a hardwood floor with water.

If something spills, clean it up.

Normal everyday spills are not a catastrophe. Leaving standing water on natural wood unnecessarily is another matter.

Use an appropriately damp—not soaking wet—cleaning method when recommended for your particular finish.

Be Careful With Cleaning Products

There are an extraordinary number of cleaning products available, and unfortunately that does not mean every one of them belongs on your hardwood flooring.

The finish is the surface you are actually maintaining.

For that reason, use products compatible with the specific finish on your floor rather than assuming that anything labeled "wood cleaner" is automatically appropriate.

More chemicals do not necessarily produce a cleaner or better floor.

What About Black Walnut Flooring?

There is a common concern that Black Walnut flooring requires some extraordinary maintenance program because Walnut is not as hard as some other hardwood species.

Under normal residential circumstances, this has simply not been our experience.

Château Napoléon has produced and delivered hundreds of thousands of square feet of Walnut flooring over the years with virtually no follow-up complaints concerning excessive damage.

Walnut is a hardwood.

Its Janka hardness rating is approximately 1,010 lbs., compared with approximately 1,360 lbs. for American Oak.

Yes, Oak is harder.

But practically, both are natural hardwood materials and both can be damaged if subjected to sufficient force.

Drop a sufficiently heavy object onto either floor and you can create a dent.

The Real Issue Is Usually Large Dogs

Where the difference in hardness becomes more noticeable is with large dogs whose nails are allowed to repeatedly scratch the surface.

Black Walnut will generally show this type of damage more readily than a harder wood such as Oak.

But Oak is certainly not immune to it either.

The simplest solution is prevention.

Keep your dog's nails properly maintained and take appropriate steps to prevent repetitive scratching of the floor.

Allow the Wood to Age

Something else people sometimes forget is that natural wood changes.

Light, age and the environment influence its appearance.

I do not consider this a disadvantage.

It is part of what makes genuine hardwood different from a synthetic imitation of wood.

A beautiful hardwood floor develops character as the house itself develops character.

My Recommendation

Clean the floor sensibly.

Keep abrasive dirt away from it.

Avoid unnecessary water.

Use the appropriate cleaning products.

Protect it from obvious sources of damage.

Then stop worrying about it and enjoy your floor.

That is ultimately what luxury hardwood flooring is supposed to be for.