Denisemomof4 Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 why didn't I do this sooner? *LOVE* *LOVE* *LOVE* having no carpets!!! I will NEVER go back!!! I do have a couple of questions though. We have all maple flooring. I had two 9 x 12 carpets to separate a huge open space. It kind of made them their separate room. Anyway, when we lifted the carpets, the maple flooring is very dark where the carpets were. Do you think that will lighten? Our other maple floors are so light compared to that, they almost look like bare wood! Also - vacuuming is a BREEZE!!! Where I used to vaccum at least once per day, now I only vacuumed once this WEEK!!!!!!!!!!! YOWZA!!! I use my dust mop daily and have the downstairs dust mopped in NO time. Those of you with all wood floors, do you even NEED a vacuum? I'm thinking to dust mop daily or twice per day and a damp mop once per week will suffice. Opinions? We do have two large dogs, two very small, and birds, so we have a lot of dust. The dust mop does seem to keep things quite tidied up. I can not WAIT to remove the carpet from our room. I have decided that I never, ever want carpet again! Dh wants carpets on the stairs. I hate that idea. Are carpet treads on stairs the only option to keep them non-slipping? Also, do you vacuum those and just sweep around them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkacademy Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Wood floors are so pretty! Having dogs I feel I should tell you what happened in my daughters room though, I know you have girls lol! She got these little nail polish things for Christmas one year and spilled the nail polish on the floor. I was like well this is OK I will just use some polish remover as she did not see she had spilled it so it had dried over night. It majorly discolored the floor. I mean bad. Fox (God love that boy) took our dog for a walk and I guess the lease got wet well it was metal and he tossed it on the floor and it left horrible black marks that never came off. My little one when she was little anyways threw a sippy and it put a crack in the floor. This was years ago and I had never had wood floors before so I am sure there were things I could have done differently. But I agree that the house was much less dusty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 (edited) some aspects of having wood floors are bothersome, like denting and nicking, scratching (from dogs), etc. but I love the ease and cleanliness. The downstairs is a huge open area with all maple, and I had those two area rugs, but they only took up a small amount of space. The larger space was all the exposed maple. So we've been living with them for years. Because I had the rugs, I vacuumed daily. I'm not even sure if I need to vacuum anymore. One (of many) reason why I no longer let ANYONE watch my little RADish is that when ds19 was watching her, he stepped out of the room to go to the bathroom. Now I bring her with me, obviously he couldn't. She lies in wait for an opportunity, and by the time he got back, she had painted our maple flooring all over downstairs with RED nail polish. I WAS LIVID. She had previously painted our kitchen table with red nail polish and signed dd12's name to get her in trouble. Dh got Goo Gone (is that what it's called?) and made her clean it all up, and she was grounded afterwards. It left no mark or stain. She also took a pencil or a toy and gauged them up pretty good. We're going to sand them down when we have the energy to move all this furniture out, and thankfully now she won't have the opportunity to destruct again. Dog nails are hard on floors.:glare: We're going to stay on top of keeping our puppy's nails very short. Edited December 31, 2011 by Denisemomof4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 why didn't I do this sooner? *LOVE* *LOVE* *LOVE* having no carpets!!! I will NEVER go back!!! I do have a couple of questions though. We have all maple flooring. I had two 9 x 12 carpets to separate a huge open space. It kind of made them their separate room. Anyway, when we lifted the carpets, the maple flooring is very dark where the carpets were. Do you think that will lighten? Our other maple floors are so light compared to that, they almost look like bare wood! Also - vacuuming is a BREEZE!!! Where I used to vaccum at least once per day, now I only vacuumed once this WEEK!!!!!!!!!!! YOWZA!!! I use my dust mop daily and have the downstairs dust mopped in NO time. Those of you with all wood floors, do you even NEED a vacuum? I'm thinking to dust mop daily or twice per day and a damp mop once per week will suffice. Opinions? We do have two large dogs, two very small, and birds, so we have a lot of dust. The dust mop does seem to keep things quite tidied up. I can not WAIT to remove the carpet from our room. I have decided that I never, ever want carpet again! Dh wants carpets on the stairs. I hate that idea. Are carpet treads on stairs the only option to keep them non-slipping? Also, do you vacuum those and just sweep around them? I'm so confused!! Did you have *carpet* or *area rugs*? They aren't the same thing! I've lived in homes with hardwood floors since 1987. Love, love, love them. I'm especially happy with this house because the hardwood continues into the kitchen. :001_wub: We have carpet upstairs, and on the stairs. I won't take out the carpet on the stairs, but I gotta tell you that it is a pain vacuuming that. :glare: I have an upright that I use for the carpeted rooms up there. I have area rugs in the living room and in the family room--not room-size area rugs, you understand, but large enough to anchor the funiture, and to add a little color and softness to those rooms. I also have mats inside each door to the outside (from Don Aslett); they catch all manner of flotsam and jetsam before it comes into the house. I have a cannister vacuum for downstairs. I usually vaccum everything once a week--under the furniture, the furniture itself, window sills, etc. I use the rug attachment to vacuum the stairs. I have a microfiber dust mop that I use--or, rather, that I should use, lol--daily. I have to vacuum around the parakeets' cage once a day :glare:. So, yes, you need a vacuum cleaner. And it does get more dirt off the floors than dustmopping. When we're going to have company, I vacuum before they arrive, and on a good day, I also mop. :D I use Bona to clean the floors, as needed. I also have a steam mop which I use irregularly. I don't know about the discoloration of your floors. Stairs aren't necessarily slippery without carpet treads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beach Mom Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 We have cherry floors and our area rugs had the opposite effect - lighter underneath. Once we removed them the floor normalized in a few weeks. Like you, I love hardwood floors and would never go back to carpet by choice. We have hardwood on our stairs and dust mop them daily (actually the easiest way to do it is with a swiffer duster, not a floor swiffer), it is quick and easy. The stairs can be slippery, but we wear slippers or are careful (barefoot instead of socks). I have come to view the nicks and scratches as signs of a lively, lovely home with activity, loving animals and occasional ruckus. It took me a year or two after installing the floors not to freak out over every nick, but I gave in to the joy of watching my two little boys have races with their match box cars, watching my two Yorkies wrestle with each other, and learning that dropped utensils is part of raising an 8yo boy who aspires to be a chef. When I came to view the on the floors like smile lines that show a life well lived, I became at peace with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I have mostly hardwood floors, but I still use the vacuum for things like window sills, stair corners, behind the radiators, window treatment tops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 We do not have hardwoods but have been considering. When you walk into our house we have a very tiny foyer which opens up the the living room/family room. It is a 2 story room. We keep thinking about hardwoods (or probably the heavy duty laminates) but I'm so worried that this room being so tall that it is going to echo really badly. I already don't have curtains on the windows because I have plantation shutters. I could build those boards that go over windows and cover them with fabric, but never have bc well... I don't really know. We're cheap, I don't want to commit to a fabric, take the time to build them....... etc. So, anyone with a two story room and hardwoods or laminates? Does it echo bad, get on your nerves? How do you deal with it? Rugs? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 I'm so confused!! Did you have *carpet* or *area rugs*? They aren't the same thing! So, yes, you need a vacuum cleaner. And it does get more dirt off the floors than dustmopping. When we're going to have company, I vacuum before they arrive, and on a good day, I also mop. :D I had area rugs. I notice that I said area rugs in the first post, carpets in the second. Yup, that would be my communication issues. :glare: Ok, I didn't know that the vacuum got up more dirt than a dust mop. What I will likely do, then is vacuum 2 - 3 times per week, dust mop 1 - 2 time daily, damp mop once per week. I am trying to buy a rug for the front door. We will ONLY use this when we have company. I park in the garage and we all walk in through the mudroom with slate flooring, leaving our shoes there. We let the dogs go in and out in another area, and I regularly sweep there. We also wipe their paws before they come in. Sorry for the confusion. :blushing: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 We have cherry floors and our area rugs had the opposite effect - lighter underneath. Once we removed them the floor normalized in a few weeks. Oh! This gives me hope!!! I agree with everything else. We are going to sand down our floors and we will be using Waterlox instead of polyeurothane. The chipping poly bothers me more than anything. Once we have Waterlox on them, if there is a scratch with bare wood, we will clean it out and put Waterlox inside. I've been wanting to do this for YEARS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 We do not have hardwoods but have been considering. When you walk into our house we have a very tiny foyer which opens up the the living room/family room. It is a 2 story room. We keep thinking about hardwoods (or probably the heavy duty laminates) but I'm so worried that this room being so tall that it is going to echo really badly. I already don't have curtains on the windows because I have plantation shutters. I could build those boards that go over windows and cover them with fabric, but never have bc well... I don't really know. We're cheap, I don't want to commit to a fabric, take the time to build them....... etc. So, anyone with a two story room and hardwoods or laminates? Does it echo bad, get on your nerves? How do you deal with it? Rugs? Thanks! it does echo. It is very loud. But to me, I would rather get used to that and get rid of carpets than living with all the junk inside a carpet. Carpets are so unhealthy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I had area rugs. I notice that I said area rugs in the first post, carpets in the second. Yup, that would be my communication issues. :glare: No worries. :D Ok, I didn't know that the vacuum got up more dirt than a dust mop. What I will likely do, then is vacuum 2 - 3 times per week, dust mop 1 - 2 time daily, damp mop once per week. I am trying to buy a rug for the front door. We will ONLY use this when we have company. I park in the garage and we all walk in through the mudroom with slate flooring, leaving our shoes there. We let the dogs go in and out in another area, and I regularly sweep there. We also wipe their paws before they come in. It would still be good to have rugs inside of those other doors. Really. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 The one concern about the stairs is the amount of wear they get in the center. Since stairs are SUCH a pain and SOOOOO expensive to refinish, repair, or replace, I would go ahead and get either stair treads or a carpet runner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 The one concern about the stairs is the amount of wear they get in the center. Since stairs are SUCH a pain and SOOOOO expensive to refinish, repair, or replace, I would go ahead and get either stair treads or a carpet runner. excellent advice. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cin Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 If the floors are solid hardwood and not stained to be a different color, the knicks and such shouldn't be a big deal. They won't show a ton. If they are stained to be darker than the natural wood color, then the nicks will show, but a bit of stain in the scratches/dents should take care of that. Want to share my experience with nail polish. MIL spilled some on our carpet. We were devastated, because it was newer, a beige berber, and in the middle of the room. It flaked up after several weeks with regular old vacuuming. I was VERY surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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