Thousands of floors are sold everyday, yet seldom does the topic of what is the biggest killer of new flooring come up. Why not?
1. Flooring buyers are not in a position to ask questions about a topic in which they are not experts therefore there is no line of questioning that may surface this topic.
2. Many flooring merchants are not in the business of bringing up deal breaking topics, despite the fact that if they surfaced this issue before the sale they would have more happy customers long term. The best sales people with a long term mentality will help a buyer get the right questions on the table, even if it jeopardizes the sale today.
So what is the killer for hard surface floors? The number one killer is dirt and sand which is small and brought in by shoes, pets, kids and normal traffic. What makes this a killer for flooring, however, is the lack of maintenance. A grain of sand combined with other grains of sand can act EXACTLY like sandpaper under shoes. Imagine someone wearing shoes is standing in an area where there is a little bit of sand under there feet. Not enough to qualify as a messy home, but enough to scratch right through the top finish layers of the flooring when someone pivots or changes direction while standing over those little tiny grains of sand.
Vacuum and or dust mop regularly your flooring and be mindful that the more sand and debris that can be tracked in the more your beautiful new flooring is at risk. Be sure to use walk on and walk off mats and don’t be afraid to use the no shoe policy. After all flooring is one of the largest home or office improvement investments that people and companies make – why risk it all by letting a few grains of sand destroy your new flooring?
The next biggest killer of flooring: MOISTURE! – watch for a topic on that soon.
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