- guest post from Service Master Solutions, Portland, OR.

Your biggest enemy when it comes to hardwood floors is water.

Hardwood Floors are both appealing and durable. They add that nice rustic and earthy touch to our homes. Although they can withstand a lot of wear and tear in their lifetime, hardwood floors often need care and upkeep to last. With the right products and regular upkeep, keeping your hardwood floors in pristine condition is no big deal.

Your biggest enemy when it comes to hardwood floors is water. Those wooden panels nailed to floor – believe it or not – are chunks of trees, cut to size and dried. When water begins to make it’s way into your hardwood floors, those wooden fibers begin to expand, eventually warping your wooden floor. Once this happens there’s really no going back, and you’re looking at an expensive and time-consuming floor replacement.

Wooden floors are sensitive, so it’s important to be cautious of any kind of moisture – from simple spills, abundant humidity, and water seepage from under the floor. In it’s most rudimentary form, water damage is simply the appearance of stains. There are a couple of home remedies to remove these stains. Using toothpaste or a combination of oil and cigarette ash will buff these white stains away. For a more severe stain, you may have to remove the finish on your floor.

In order to prevent small amounts of damage, be sure to coat your floors in a water-resistant finish before installing them. This will help prevent water from soaking in to the grains. You can also wax with a waterproof seal to shore up your defenses. In order to keep your floors in good shape, its ideal to re-apply water-resistant stain every 12-18 months.

If your wooden floors are suffering from major water damage, many professional cleaning services such as Service Master Solutions offer special drying services that can greatly reduce water damage to floors.