Hardwood Floor Cleaning in Seven Oaks, SC
There is a band of floor about three feet deep in front of every sliding patio door, and in most houses it is in visibly worse shape than anything else in the room.
It is the only piece of floor in the house that gets all four at once: direct sun for hours a day, water blown under the track in a storm, grit dragged in from a concrete patio, and the pivot point where everybody turns as they come through.
Nothing about it is dramatic. It just accumulates, and one day somebody moves a chair and notices that the floor by the door is two shades off from the floor by the sofa.
The Track Is the Water Source Nobody Checks
A slider track has weep holes to drain rain back outside. When they clog with grit and pine needles, which takes about one season here, the track fills and water comes over the inside lip and sits against the floor at the threshold. That is why the boards immediately in front of a patio door are so often darker than the ones a yard away. Clear the weep holes twice a year and most of this stops.
Sun Does Two Different Things
It fades the wood, which is a color change in the boards, and it embrittles the finish, which is a durability change in the coating. The fading is permanent and no coating reverses it. The embrittlement is why the finish in that band chips and scuffs more readily than the same finish six feet away, and it is a real reason to keep something sacrificial on top of it.
Concrete Patios and What They Shed
A concrete patio sheds fine alkaline dust for its whole life, and it holds sand and pollen in its texture. Bare feet coming in off a patio carry all of it. On a townhouse or a condo where the patio is the main outdoor space, this is the single biggest source of abrasive material entering the house.
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 Seven Oaks
The Seven Oaks and Piney Grove condos are quick jobs and usually done in a morning. (803) 302-7949, or book online, with $50 off the first one.
Areas we cover around Seven Oaks
Neighborhoods: Seven Oaks, St. Andrews area, Piney Grove
Zip codes: 29210
Hardwood questions from Seven Oaks homeowners
The boards at the threshold have gone dark. Can that be cleaned out?
If it is grime on the surface, yes. If the darkness is even, edge to edge across the board and deepest at the joint, that is water staining in the wood and it stays. The weep holes are the fix for the cause either way.
Would a rug in front of the door help or hurt?
Help, with the right one. Natural fiber or felt backing, never rubber, and lift it occasionally so the floor under it can dry. A rug also gives you an even fade line instead of a random one.
Can you coat just that band?
We coat whole rooms, because a coated strip against an uncoated one shows a hard line. The band is where most of the prep work goes even so.
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Schedule your Seven Oaks hardwood floor cleaning
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