Hardwood Floor Cleaning in Shavano Park, TX
Between December and March the air in a Shavano Park house gets dry enough that the floor starts giving back water it spent all summer absorbing.
Wood is hygroscopic, which means it holds moisture and trades it with the air around it continuously. In this part of Texas the outdoor swing is large and the indoor swing is larger, because heating a house in January drives indoor humidity down into the teens.
The floor responds by shrinking, and on a big house with two or three thousand square feet of wood that shrinkage is measurable. Seams open, a board here and there cups slightly, and by April most of it has closed back up on its own.
Reading the Seams Instead of Worrying About Them
A hairline gap that appears in January and disappears in May is the floor doing exactly what it is designed to do. A gap that stays open through the summer, or one that is much wider in one part of the room than another, is telling you something different, usually about a moisture source under the floor or an install that went in without acclimation. The difference between the two takes one year of paying attention and costs nothing. Photograph the same seam in February and again in June.
The Case For and Against Adding Humidity
Holding a house between roughly 35 and 55 percent relative humidity keeps a wood floor stable, and a whole-house humidifier on the furnace does it without anybody thinking about it. That is genuinely worth doing in a large house with a large floor. What is not worth doing is a portable unit run hard in one room, which creates a wet zone next to dry zones and can do more harm than the dry air was doing. Even distribution matters more than the number.
Why We Care What Your House Is Doing That Week
A floor with open winter seams is a floor with more exposed edge grain, and edge grain absorbs many times faster than a finished face. That is a reason to be careful, not a reason to wait. We put down a controlled amount of solution and lift it straight back before it can find a joint, which is the same method year round and matters most in February. Any company that wants to flood a wide-plank floor in a dry month is telling you something about how they work.
When the Movement Has Already Done Damage
Boards that have cupped and stayed cupped, cracked along their length, or pulled a fastener through the face are past what cleaning addresses, and so is any dark staining from a moisture source underneath. Sanding and re-coating with polyurethane is somebody else's specialty and we leave it to them. What we can put right is the film, the traffic dulling, and the general condition of the coating, and on a house this size that is usually the whole complaint anyway.
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 Shavano Park
Put a hygrometer in the family room this week and look at it every morning through January. That one number explains most of what your floor does.
Shavano Park: 210-538-3938 for the crew, or book on this page. First cleaning is fifty dollars less.
Areas we cover around Shavano Park
Zip codes: 78231
Hardwood questions from Shavano Park homeowners
Should we clean in winter or wait for spring?
Either works. The method does not change with the season, and winter is often easier to schedule than the spring rush.
How do we know our indoor humidity?
A twelve-dollar hygrometer in the main living area answers it. Most people are surprised by how low a heated house runs in January.
Do gaps need filling?
Seasonal gaps should never be filled. The filler gets crushed when the boards expand in summer and then falls out, leaving a wider gap than you started with.
How long does a large house take?
Usually a full day and occasionally two. Each area is dry enough to walk on well inside an hour, with rugs staying off overnight.
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Schedule your Shavano Park hardwood floor cleaning
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