Your Floors and the Beach
Beach life is easy on the soul, but it’s hard on your floors.
Sand tracked on your floor is tough to deal with when you live near the beach.
Sand is the number one reason floors wear out and look bad, and it’s a pain to get sand out of your home.
If you want to keep your floors looking great and lasting long, you need to keep sand out.
The #1 thing you can do to keep sand out is use walk-off mats before and after your front door.
A few thick mats designed to catch sand and gravel will do most of the work for you. Set one on the porch, and two inside.
Here’s an illustrative metaphor:
Think of sand like an invading army of soldiers. Once they’re in your house, it’s over.
These soldiers maneuver by hitching a ride on your shoes and pet paws.
To keep the enemy soldiers out, you build walls and checkpoints to stop them.
3 walk-off mats that catch sand serve as your wall in this metaphor.
The first wall is the mat on your porch. It should be thick, sturdy, able to catch oil, and stand up to weather.
The second checkpoint is the initial mat on the inside of your threshold. It should be able to grab grass and hold sand, but it doesn’t need to be as rugged as the first porch mat.
The third line of defense is a finer-fiber mat to grab any sand left over and step off when you remove your shoes.
This will keep the invading sand army at bay until you can vacuum any that gets through.
When your mats are full, shake ‘em out and hose ‘em down.
Rejoice, the soldiers have been repelled!
After walk-off mats, the next best thing you can do is vacuum. That’s about it.
Floors will wear out, but it should take decades in most cases.
If you’re seeing dull floors and worn carpet before then, consider revisiting your sand prevention strategy. It’s very likely that sand is responsible for the floor wear that’s gonna cost you to replace.
To keep that from happening, your floor needs to be cleaned by a pro every year. If you see more traffic than average, it may be better every 6 months.
Your walk-off mats and vacuuming aren’t in vain, but some sand and soils get embedded and won’t come out without professional convincing.
Keep your cleaning up, and when it's time, SafeTech can be there. Hot water extraction and mechanical scrubbing removes every grain of sand possible in your carpet and floors.
In very few cases, some floors are too damaged to be cleaned and recovered, and will need replacement. Sand can ravage carpets and hardwood, especially, so be sure to stay ahead of sand removal!
When you need help getting your floors back into shape, give us a call.