Floors and residents can breathe more easily

Our soci­ety is becom­ing increas­ingly aware of envir­on­ment­al con­cerns. The share of organ­ic and Fair Trade products is con­stantly grow­ing. Wood floor­ing like par­quet stands for “pure nature” since there can be no doubt that wood is a sus­tain­able, envir­on­ment­ally neut­ral raw mater­i­al. In order for par­quet to retain its beau­ti­ful look and feel for many years to come, it should be re-oiled from time to time. This helps to pre­serve its beauty and pro­tects against dirt. And if you choose solvent-free par­quet oils, you can be sure to con­trib­ute to a healthy indoor cli­mate.

Wheth­er an expens­ive sports car or an eleg­ant par­quet floor – it’s only when you invest prop­er care that you will be able to bene­fit from the qual­it­ies for years and even dec­ades. When treat­ing a wooden floor with the right care and atten­tion, it can eas­ily sur­vive sev­er­al gen­er­a­tions. If you want to enjoy the nat­ur­al warmth and fine pat­ina of your par­quet floor for as long as pos­sible, you are well advised to main­tain the floor­boards at reg­u­lar inter­vals – prefer­ably with the care product that goes with the oil. Depend­ing on the level of wear and tear, experts recom­mend that the wood be treated every 4 weeks.

Com­pared to seal­ing the par­quet, oil treat­ment has the advant­age that the wood can breathe – as inten­ded by nature. If the par­quet is oiled, the floor can also be par­tially sanded and re-oiled when only indi­vidu­al areas are affected by wear and tear. The pur­pose of sand­ing is to open the wood pores and enable them to absorb the oil. Before apply­ing the oil, how­ever, the par­quet must be care­fully freed from dust. Any exist­ing joints between the boards must be repaired and sealed.

After­wards, the par­quet oil is applied sev­er­al times like a lotion until the wood is sat­ur­ated and can no longer absorb any oil. About 30 minutes after the last applic­a­tion, an absorb­ent cloth is used to mas­sage the oil into the wood and to soak up any excess oil. Make sure to put the cloths after­wards into a water-filled buck­et to reduce the risk of self-igni­­tion. After just 24 hours, the par­quet floor can be walked on but without shoes. Anoth­er day should pass before all fur­niture is put back in its ori­gin­al pos­i­tion. After about two weeks, the wooden floor is com­pletely dry and can be wiped again with a damp cloth.