Top Tips for Protecting Engineered Flooring During the Holiday Season

Everyone is revving up for the Christmas season, not to mention New Year's craziness, and many are wondering how to protect their engineered hardwood flooring during all of the festivities. Depending upon your location, there may be tons of snow, mud, and slush coming your way, and that's if it hasn't reached your neck of the woods already! If you're planning on inviting every single person on your contact list to dinner, then you'll need these top tips for keeping your gorgeous floors from ending up a big holiday disaster.

Protect Engineered Hardwood Flooring with Doormats
Snowy weather equals salt, gravel, and grit. Though, it doesn't take a blizzard to track in potential floor scratchers like pebbles and sand. Minimize the chance of heartache at the sight of damaged engineered hardwood flooring, by using doormats at every home entrance. However, avoid doormats that have rubber backing, as they can trap water underneath, which can be potentially hazardous to your floors.

Protect Engineered Hardwood Flooring with Rugs
For places within the home that need protection, rugs come in handy. In high foot-traffic areas, like hallways and stairs, runners are ideal, while rugs ensure that dining rooms, key serving areas for food and beverage, don't experience damage.

Protect Engineered Hardwood Flooring by Removing Shoes
It may be a no-brainer for family members to remove their shoes upon entering the home, but for visitors, it may not be a common practice. Feel free to ask guests to remove their shoes, since it's your house and your rules apply. However, this may not be convenient if you're in a milder climate, and going to throw a huge shindig. If that's the case, place a large area rug, preferably a dark-colored one that helps mask messes, right in front of your entrance to absorb as much dirt as possible.

Protect Engineered Hardwood Flooring with Boot Trays
Set up rubber or plastic boots trays, either inside the main door or just outside your entryway, for wet or slushy shoes. To further protect engineered hardwood flooring, place an absorbent material, such a towel, beneath the mats to soak up errant water spills.

If you're in the Baton Rouge, LA area, drop by our Wholesale Flooring & Granite showroom to check out our great selection of engineered hardwood flooring.