Hardwood Floor Cleaning in Pontiac, SC
Builders ran the hardwood straight through the powder room in a lot of these houses, and that little floor ages three times as fast as the hall it came from.
It looks good and it saves a transition strip, so from about 2000 onward it became normal to carry the main-level wood into the half bath. Nobody thought hard about it because a powder room has no shower in it.
The problem is not the shower. It is the toilet, the basin, and the fact that the smallest room in the house has the highest ratio of water sources to floor area anywhere outside the kitchen.
Where the Damage Starts
Around the base of the toilet, every time. A wax ring that is not perfectly sealed weeps a small amount that never announces itself, and condensation runs down the outside of the tank in summer and drips at the back. Both put water at the joint between the porcelain and the floor, which is the one part of the floor you cannot see or dry. By the time the boards there are dark, they have been wet for a long time.
The Second Spot
Directly in front of the basin, in a strip about the width of a hand towel. Splash and drips land there thousands of times a year and get walked on before they dry. On an engineered plank this is where the face lifts at the bevel, and on a solid floor it is where the finish goes first and the grain starts to raise.
What We Do In There
Very little liquid and a lot of recovery, and hand work around the base of the fixtures where no machine will sit. If the boards at the toilet are already black we will tell you plainly that it is past cleaning, and we will suggest getting a plumber to check the seal before anybody spends money on the floor, because there is no sense fixing a symptom while the cause is still running.
Not sure whether your floor needs cleaning or refinishing? There are three tests you can run yourself in about a minute, and they will tell you which one you are dealing with before anyone quotes you.
Hardwood problems we handle in Pontiac
Talk it over on 803-393-7625 or book straight away online. New customers get $50 off.
Areas we cover around Pontiac
Neighborhoods: Pontiac, Elgin adjacent, Northeast Richland
Zip codes: 29045
Hardwood questions from Pontiac homeowners
The floor around our toilet has gone dark. Can you clean it?
We can clean the surface and it will not change the color, because that is water staining inside the wood. Those boards need replacing, which is a flooring job, and the leak needs finding first.
Should we just tile the powder room?
If the boards are already damaged, honestly, yes. It is the one room in the house where wood has no real advantage and several real disadvantages. If the floor is still sound, keep it and put a small mat at the basin.
Is there a sealer that would waterproof it?
No. Anything sold to homeowners as waterproofing a wood floor is overselling a surface coating. Water goes into a floor through the seams and around the fixtures, not through the middle of a board.
Do you charge extra for a room that small?
It is part of the main-level job and priced with it. It takes longer per square foot than anywhere else in the house, which is worth knowing but not worth billing separately.
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Schedule your Pontiac hardwood floor cleaning
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