Looking after your Kährs nature oiled floor

For you to get as much pleasure as possible from your Kährs nature oiled floor, it’s important that you look after and maintain it correctly.

Download Maintenance and Repair Guide (pdf)

More beautiful with every new coat of oil

Floors treated with nature oil are easy to maintain and keep clean, but they do need a little more care and should be oiled at regular intervals. In return, your floor will become more and more beautiful, and will take on a deeper tone, every time you treat it.

Looking after a Kährs floor in the home is easy and treatment with polish isn’t necessary. But it is important to look after your floor, otherwise it will start to show footmarks and take on a slightly grayish tone. Kährs nature oiled floors are ready-treated for use in domestic environments.

Cleaning nature oiled flooring

Note: Before carrying out any maintenance or repair work, please check that your floor is a nature oiled floor and not a UV-oiled floor, which is also common in domestic environments.

Your nature oiled wood floor will benefit from daily ‘dry’ cleaning, i.e. vacuuming or sweeping. If necessary, you can wipe it clean with a well wrung-out mop or cloth. Ensure that the floor is only dampened slightly, and that the film of water formed dries within one minute. Do not leave any spillages on your floor, particularly if your wood floor is made from beech or hard maple, as these wood species are particularly sensitive to moisture. How often you have to clean your floor, in this way, will depend on how dirty it is and how often you use the room. Kährs Cleaner will give you the best results. If you use a different cleaning solution, ensure that it is pH-neutral (maximum pH 8).

Regularly cleaning your floor will prevent dirt from sticking to the oiled surface. However, unnecessary cleaning using wet methods will do more harm than good. This is particularly true over the first few weeks following maintenance with Kährs Oil Refresher.

Stain removal — on the spot cleaning

Make sure that you clean up stains as quickly as possible, using water and Kährs Cleaner, or a neutral detergent. If this doesn’t work, the stain can be removed using a green nylon cloth, such as Scotch-Brite. After removing the stain, the cleaned surface may need to be touched up with a little extra Touch-Up oil before you apply Oil Refresher.

Maintenance and repair of floors treated with nature oil

The need for maintenance will vary, depending on a number of factors. Maintenance should be carried out more frequently if the floor is cleaned regularly with a damp cloth, because this will have an abrasive effect on the protective coating. Floors subject to greater wear, such as surfaces regularly walked on with outdoor shoes, will also require more frequent maintenance. Pale, porous wood species, such as beech and ash, will require more frequent maintenance than other wood species.

Once your floor becomes harder to clean, it is time to carry out maintenance.

In most cases, the floor will require maintenance twice in the first year and then once a year. Ideally, your first floor maintenance should take place straight after it has been laid. During the first maintenance treatment, the entire surface should be treated; if you do this immediately after the floor has been installed, you won’t need to move any furniture. This will also give additional protection against moisture penetration between joints.

If you aren’t able to perform initial maintenance straight away, but wait six to twelve months, the easiest way to carry out the procedure is to move all of your furniture to one half of the room. Carry out maintenance on the cleared half, wait one to two hours, then transfer furniture to the treated area and repeat the procedure on the rest of the floor. Subsequent maintenance can be carried out on the parts of the floor surface that really need it, such as the areas that are walked on.

The floor’s moisture resistance, durability and dirt-repellent properties will increase each time you maintain it.

Microscopic scratches on nature oiled wood flooring

If a small part of the floor has been scratched, under a chair for example, you can treat the area with Kährs Oil Refresher. This oil refresher will conceal microscopic scratches.

Partial repair of Kährs multi-layer floors

Worn or damaged surfaces can be sanded or planed back to bare wood. Finish off with sandpaper, grain size 220, and then apply a thick layer of Kährs Touch-Up oil. After approx. 30 minutes, wipe off any oil that the wood hasn’t absorbed. Leave the renovated surface to dry overnight. Then apply a layer of Kährs Oil Refresher to the surface.

If a small area has been damaged or worn through, or has to be repaired for any other reason, you may have to replace an individual board/boards. Kährs Woodloc® joint makes this an easy task.

Total renovation and polishing of oiled wood flooring

Once your floor has been in use over a long period, you may need to renovate it and apply a new oil treatment: Apply a thick layer of Kährs Satin Oil to the surface. Then polish the floor with a polisher set to 150 rpm, so that the oil dissolves any dirt. Use a nylon cloth, such as a green Scotch-Brite, or coarser grade, scrape up the dirty oil with a rubber scraper and then wipe up the remaining oil. Attach a cloth to the disc on the polisher and polish the floor until it is as dry as possible. Work on small areas at a time, so that the dissolved dirt doesn’t have chance to dry. Once the Kährs Satin Oil has set, the floor can be walked on.

If renovating the surface treatment isn’t sufficient, your floor may need to be machine-sanded back to bare wood and then re-oiled. Contact your floor oil supplier for advice.

Please note: Kährs Linnea cannot be sanded.

• Things to bear in mind with floors treated with nature oil

• • Ideally, use doormats both inside and outside external doors to prevent dirt and grit being walked in, which can cause considerable wear.

• • Place protective pads under your furniture (but not metal feet which may leave marks and blemishes on a wood floor) to prevent unnecessary marks and scratches.

• • Wood flooring expands and contracts depending on the ambient climate. To prevent movement and damage to the floor, avoid exposing your floor to temperatures above normal room temperature. The relative humidity should be kept between 30 and 60%. Some wood species — such as beech and hard maple — are more sensitive to climate variation than others.

• • In rooms where water is often spilt, and where it may also be left on the floor, we recommend you treat the surface of your floor with Kährs Oil Refresher after installation. This seals the joints between the boards and gives better protection against water.

• • Allow the floor to dry for 1–2 hours before walking on it. Do not walk on the floor in outdoor shoes during the first 24 hours following treatment. Remember that it takes 1–2 weeks for Kährs Oil Refresher to become fully dirt-resistant. Be careful not to spill water on the newly treated surface during the first week, as this can cause permanent stains.