Light hearted, but very serious question here. 🙂
We recently installed hardwood floors. Stranded Bamboo to be exact. It's beautiful!
Now, besides the sheer beauty of it, one of the main benefits to having hardwood floors in my opinion is that you can slide on them. I slide every chance I get. Need to run to the fridge? Sliiiiide. Doing dishes, and need to put one away in the cabinet over there? Sliiiide. I can't help it. It's just the natural way for me to get around on these slick floors. It's wonderful. Try it!
My wife is afraid that since I do this almost all the time, it will add up, and eventually start causing signs of wear prematurely on the wood. She has a point there. I don't want that to happen, either. But since the wood is sealed with something, and my socks are a nice soft cotton material, I feel like it's probably a negligible thing even with how often I do it.
One thing I can't argue with is that if I ever accidentally had something hard stuck to my socks, and I slide with it, I could cause a scratch. And this dark wood really shows scratches easily. But I am careful about that.
So I'd love to hear from someone knowledgeable about the care of hardwood. What kinds of wear and tear could we expect to see over time, and what activities cause it the most? Do even the smallest things like walking on it cause wear over time? And of course, what about sliding on it with soft socks? 🙂
Best Answer
Nothing short of laminating it in acrylic 3" thick and never putting anything on your floor, ever, is going to keep it from getting some damage eventually.
If you find the proper stain color, practice a bit matching the color, and learn how to refinish the floor, you needn't let it worry you too much. Hardwood is extremely resilient and eminently restore-able - even bamboo can be reclaimed and restored to beauty.
I refer you and your no doubt lovely and certainly conscientious wife to this example of how good a really ugly floor can look (written by yours truly...)
Romancing The Floor