Ensure your wood flooring stays in good condition even when no one’s around to maintain it.

If you own an overseas property, you might have had a rude shock at the rundown state of the floor upon returning after a long absence due to Covid-19. Developers with an intervening period between building a property and selling it also often face the challenge of making sure the floor stays in mint condition.

Generally, if you’re going to be away, or if your property’s going to be untenanted, for six months or longer, your wood flooring could decline in condition without regular care. However, this can be avoided by taking a few simple and straightforward measures.

Here’s what to do if your wood floor is going to be left untended for an extended length of time:

Guard against water leaks

Go around and make sure that the windows are closed, to prevent water from wetting your wood floor when it rains. Becoming excessively wet can cause your wood floor to soak in the water and swell up.

Remove any rubber-backed rugs

Store away any rugs or mats with rubber backings, such as anti-slip ones usually placed in front of bathrooms. These tend to trap moisture under them in conditions of high humidity, which can damage the floor. The rubber may also break down over time and stick to the floor.

Ventilate the property

Keep the property as well-ventilated as possible to allow heat and moisture to disperse. Timber is an organic material, so humid conditions can cause mould to grow on wood floors. Also, if the wood gets too hot, it could dry up and result in gaps in the wood.

To ensure ventilation when you’re away, keep the bathroom and bedroom doors open to allow cross-ventilation within your home. You can also keep bathroom windows ajar.

Close your curtains or lower your blinds to protect against heat and keep your apartment as cool as possible. If your air conditioner has an automated function, have it turn on for one hour a week to further cool the place down and dry out the air.

Maintenance upon returning

When you return or when your property is about to be rented out, you can easily clean and freshen up the floor. Vacuum up the dust, and use a well-wrung mop to apply water or a floor cleaner – be sure to use one designed for wood floors, such as the Bona Cleaner. Other detergents can dull the surface of your floor. For example, products meant for polishing and cleaning metal and stone could damage the coating of the floor.

If you come back to find that mould has grown, or the wood has warped, call in a specialist to resand, recoat and/or replace the wood as needed. The advantage of having wood as a floor material is that it can always be repaired and restored.

Conclusion

Leaving your wood flooring alone in an empty property isn’t a problem if you plan ahead. Just follow the steps above to prime your wood flooring for a long period of no maintenance.

For other times when you’re able to carry out regular floorcare, check out how to best clean your wood floor in this article.

A vibrant yet classy palette of wood flooring brings together this home for three generations.

When designing a four-storey home for his family within the Da Silva Lane neighbourhood, the owner was struck by the warm, multi-toned American Walnut wood flooring that he had seen at one of Perswood’s projects.

He had been searching for something unique and different from the teak commonly used in houses in Singapore. The multi-toned American Walnut melds a gradient of tan shades in a bright yet warm palette. Its interplay of colours is made even more fascinating by the rippling grain patterns.

Light cream streaks from the wood’s sap also line some of the panels, creating a “highlighting” effect that further draws out the vibrancy of the wood. Altogether, the timber provides a cheery yet soothing base to ground a home meant to embrace three generations, including our client’s children and his mother.

Our client also selected the wood for its classy and premium appearance, which complemented the terrace house’s modern and refined décor. The chic panelling was appropriate for his home office and public entertaining areas, besides the more personal quarters.

Seamless connection throughout

We installed American Walnut flooring for the bedrooms, hallways, home office, recreation room and staircase. The timber elegantly connects the various levels of the home, imbuing it with an inviting atmosphere.

The homeowner also installed lighting that lines each step of the staircase. The result: glowing honeyed grain that transforms an otherwise purely functional staircase, into a feature that can be admired from day to night.

Distinguished decking

A deck of Ipe Walnut was constructed at the entrance to the home. One of the hardiest woods available for outdoor use, the darker toned Ipe Walnut provides a handsome area to receive visitors. The deck also doubles up to conceal the owner’s water pump system for the koi pond nearby.

Should you want to find out more about our walnut series, including American Walnut and Ipe, view our specialty wood or contact us through our website’s chat button.

Come rain or shine, keep your deck in peak condition through these easy-to-follow tips.

Outdoor decking is vital in creating lovely and accessible environments. Think sun-drenched platforms next to swimming pools, elegant yet cosy balconies, boardwalks and walkways that whisk you through landscaped areas. All these are examples of external wooden flooring that enhance their surroundings, and guarantee that it’s a pleasure to walk at and use the areas.

Outdoor decking sets itself apart from wood used for the indoors with its ability to weather the elements. Though hardy, outdoor flooring comes with its own vulnerabilities and still requires appropriate maintenance. We’ll take you through the common problems, how to rectify them, and the best way to care for your decking.

Common issues of outdoor decks

You might encounter some of these scenarios if you’ve got wood flooring outdoors:

• Mouldy deck surface: caused by consistently wet surface or sub-floor, which create conducive environments for mould to thrive
• Deck end wet rot: where you’ll see the ends of the wood planks rotting. As wood draws in moisture from its ends (just like a straw), these tend to rot if they do not dry out sufficiently.
• Exposed nail or screw head: when subject to the sun and rain and hence different temperatures, the wood expands and contracts, causing nails and screws to dislodge
• Minor surface checks: these are small hairline cracks that are also caused by the expansion and contraction of the wood
• Colour fading or coating wearing off: due to exposure to the sun’s Ultraviolet (UV) rays and wear and tear

The main causes of these issues can be narrowed down to a few usual suspects. Firstly, mould and rot set in when the wood is not allowed to dry off and water does not exit quickly enough through the water outlets below the deck.

If you notice these signs, check if debris or dried leaves are clogging up the drainage system. In some cases, moisture-seeking roots could even encroach under the deck boards, blocking water from flowing out. It’s therefore advisable to regularly clear your drains and floor traps and remove any obstructions at the sub-floor such as tree roots.

Next, though exposure to weather and varying temperatures is inevitable, you can minimise the impact on your decking through a few methods.

Avoid a surface-nailing system so that nails and screws won’t come loose and become a safety hazard. We utilise a side clip fastening system for our deck boards. Stainless steel screws are secured directly to the battens without puncturing the deck’s surface.

You can also regularly treat the surface of your wood flooring with dedicated deck oil, so it’ll repel water and resist mould and UV rays. Such products also help to reduce cracks and colour loss.

Steps for maintaining outdoor decking

To avoid the common issues mentioned above, regularly clean and treat your outdoor deck:

1. Every three to four months, or at least twice a year, scrub your deck with a bristle brush of medium hardness and solution of deck cleaner and water.
2. Mop the deck dry with a clean cloth and allow it to dry completely.
3. Apply a thin coat of deck oil, such as Bona Deck Guard, on the wood along the direction of the grain and let it dry. (Check that the deck oil is compatible with the one already applied to the deck.) You can apply a second coat if required.
4. Finally, leave the deck to dry for at least six hours without any foot traffic. If you’re leaving it to dry overnight, protect it from possible rain with a plastic cover. Pro tip: It’s best to choose a sunny day to do maintenance!

Cleaning your deck and renewing its coating as above, will help ensure that it remains a durable and attractive surface for all your outdoor needs.

If you’re keen to install or upgrade your decking, find out more about our range of heavy-duty hardwood for the outdoors.

One of Singapore’s loftiest dwellings, Wallich Residence employs high-grade engineered wood flooring that is classy yet durable.

Known for being the complex where James Dyson once owned a super penthouse, Wallich Residence’s apartments are located on the highest floors (180m to 290m above sea level) of Singapore’s tallest skyscraper, Guoco Tower.

Located in Tanjong Pagar, in the heart of the Central Business District, the 181 homes consist of one- to four-bedroom units, four penthouses and a super penthouse.

As the wood flooring supplier, we installed Oslo Oak and Wenge planks to complement the apartments’ elegant design schemes. Oslo Oak lends its delicate cream colour and evident natural grain as a neutral base to its surroundings. Wenge’s rich dark hues meanwhile furnish the apartments with sophistication and warmth.

Both are hardy woods suitable for residential flooring, rating higher than 1,000 pounds-force (lbf) on the Janka scale.

Engineered timber for sustainability and practicality

Wallich Residence’s emphasis on sustainability has led to it being awarded the Building and Construction Authority’s Green Mark (GoldPlus). In line with its green approach, engineered timber was used for the flooring. Such timber is more sustainable as only its topmost layer (in this case, 4mm-thick) is solid wood. This maximises the solid wood across several lengths of engineered flooring.

We also utilised wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which ensured it was harvested in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

We opted for engineered timber partly because of its greater practicality as well. Its composition of multiple slabs of plywood beneath the hardwood surface, results in a more stable structure. This enables it to adjust better to different temperatures and conditions, as compared to solid wood.

When subjected to, for example, dry conditions from air-conditioning, or humidity from Singapore’s tropical climate, engineered timber shrinks and expands less.

Premium-grade products

In keeping with Wallich Residence’s ethos of luxurious living, we used premium engineered wood sourced from Italy. This ensured fine craftsmanship, and exquisite attention to detail. For example, the plywood layers were uniformly composed of quality birch timber, and hence long lasting and reliable.

Similarly outfit your apartment with high-grade timber flooring from our Royale range for a classy and luxurious aesthetic. Our engineered flooring solutions guarantee a sustainable yet practical floor that is durable through all weather and temperature conditions.

Seeking a wood floor that is durable yet pleasing to look at? Find out how to choose a floor that is resistant to dents and damage.

Your floor is an unsung hero as the most-used surface of your home, office or business. After all, you and countless others tread on it day in and day out, move furniture and roll trolleys and toys across it. So, when it comes to choosing a floor, it makes sense that one of the primary considerations be how much wear and tear it can take.

An additional consideration could be pets if you have any, and how well the floor can weather their paws and claws.

Select a wood that accommodates your household’s intensity of use, by keeping the pointers below in mind.

Wood that’s suitably hard 

Your floor’s degree of hardness, as measured on the Janka scale, can be one way of determining the hardiness of your floor. The scale, named after Austrian researcher Gabriel Janka, measures the force needed to press a steel ball of 11.28mm diameter into a surface until the ball has sunk in to half its diameter.

In general, wood floorings that are 1,000 pounds-force (lbf) and above on the Janka scale are appropriate for homes. This is especially true for Asian households where shoes are usually taken off, lowering the likelihood of heels or soles indenting the wood. Meanwhile commercial projects, such as restaurants, shopping malls and hotels, work well with wood types that are higher on the scale, around the 2,000 to 3,000 lbf range.

Other factors that homeowners may want to take into consideration include the colour, grain and texture of the wood. Wood types with evident grain and warm neutral tones complement most home decors. Examples of wood floor types that tick all these boxes, and have acceptable hardness, are oak, walnut, birch and teak.

For commercial projects, ipe, Brazilian cherry, wenge and South American timbers are recommended for their harder surfaces to better withstand high foot traffic.

Scratches are unavoidable

Though harder wood types can prevent the surface from getting dented, pets can still scratch your floor – regardless of how high it may be on the Janka scale. Tip for pet owners: keep claws trimmed to minimise damage to your flooring!

Nonetheless, wood floors are still a great option for furry friends because of the warmth and comfort they provide.

Engineered vs solid wood

Engineered wood has the same degree of hardiness as solid wood, provided that the top-most wood surface is 3mm or more. The advantage of engineered wood is its coating – being UV-cured in the factory means that its coating is more durable and resistant to indentations, compared to the coating done for solid wood onsite.

Helping your floor last  

Wood flooring types aside though, the best way to keep your wood floor in tip top shape is to maintain it well. This includes having mats at your doorways to prevent any grit and fine dirt that could scratch the floor from being tracked in, sweeping or vacuuming daily, and mopping with a microfibre mop that is only slightly damp once to twice a week.

Also avoid dragging furniture across the floor, and place protectors under chair legs.

If you want to restore your floor to as pristine a condition as possible, you can lightly sand and recoat your floor every five to six years (a rough guide is when you repaint your home’s walls). The light sanding will remove any residue and contaminants that may have accumulated on its surface from cleaning products, food stains and others. Recoating will then restore its protective layer.

For commercial developments, ensure that a commercial-grade coating is used for the floor. You can top up this coating every year since it’ll see more wear and tear (subject to manufacturer’s recommendation).

Conclusion

Though hardness can be a key factor in choosing a suitable wood for your floor, there is a wide range which looks good while lasting through years of use. Regular and careful maintenance will also ensure that your floor endures.

Browse our range of solid and engineered wood, which includes the Janka ratings and descriptions of their characteristics, and chat with us to explore customisation options.

Survey the tropical lushness of Marina One’s Green Heart park from a curvilinear ramp made of sustainably-sourced Balau timber.  

Nestled among four glass towers in downtown Singapore, is a verdant park. An array of trees, shrubs and flowers come together to form the surprising rainforest-esque public space amid the expanding Central Business District. The development is Marina One, a futuristic collection of office, retail, F&B, and residential spaces, and its stunning centrepiece is the Green Heart.  

A 100-m-long timber ramp threads through the Green Heart’s over 350 varieties of trees and plants. The incline provides a sweeping view of the lush landscape, with one vantage point parked just behind a three-storey-tall waterfall. It also serves as a connector between the first and second floors.  

Sustainable wood 

Crafted from timber that Perswood carefully selected and prepared, the ramp adds to the park’s green factor in another way. The client required the use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified Balau timber. This would mean that the timber had been harvested in a sustainable manner that met stringent environmental and social standards.   

While Europe had numerous sources of FSC-certified wood, this was less common in Asia, where Balau wood hails from. Balau is commonly used as outdoor flooring in this region due to its hardiness in tropical climates. After extensive sourcing, we finally searched out a supplier in Indonesia which had an equivalent certification from the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).  

Features for safety and inclusiveness 

Visitors are assured of a firm footing and helped along in their ascent of the ramp by the anti-slip properties of its timber. We carved a fine reeded surface into the wood  to ensure it met the R11 anti-slip rating recommended for outdoor environments. 

The ramp’s strikingly seamless aesthetic is due to long lengths of 2.5m x 145mm planks without joints in length. The unusually broad pieces had to be painstakingly cut, with provisions made for the wood to taper at the curving points of the ramp.  

As you ascend the ramp, you’ll notice its gentle slope halts and levels out at various points. This design and the ramp’s generous width make it friendly for wheelchairs. Tactile features on the flooring also help guide the visually handicapped.  

Conveying you through the various layers of the Green Heart’s vegetation, this solid yet elegant Balau ramp is itself a feature to enjoy, and integrates naturally with its luxuriant surroundings. The inclusive design applied to the ramp and its wood means that anyone can enjoy traversing its length to discover its surrounding tropical oasis.  

Keep your hardwood floors spotless after gatherings using these recommended techniques.  

A clean and well-maintained wood floor is one of the first aspects of your home that guests are bound to notice. Not only is the rich wood grain pleasing to the eye, the smooth panels are also a pleasure underfoot.  

But cleaning your wood floors and keeping them in prime condition takes some know-how. Host visitors with confidence, and deftly clean up after they leave, through these simple steps that will keep your floor looking and feeling as luxurious as the day it was installed. 

Get rid of dirt and grit   

First off, sweep or vacuum up dirt, dust, and rough particles such as sand. Though tiny, these can have an abrasive effect, scratching your floor and causing it to look dull. This is the most basic step for timber floor care, and it’s best to do so frequently – ideally every day.  

Use well-wrung mop 

Next, mop your floor. The key is to ensure your mop is well-wrung, not dripping wet. Otherwise, the wood, as a natural material, will absorb the excess moisture and expand. This may eventually lead to the wood popping up in a “cupping” effect. It’s recommended to use a microfibre mop. 

Speed up the drying of the floor by turning on the fan or air–conditioning for a short while. Make sure the wood is fully dry before placing back any rugs or carpets.  

Clean water is sufficient for mopping; you can use warm water if you’re concerned about killing germs. However, should you want to add a floor cleaner into the mix, use one specially formulated for wood floors. Generic detergents can leave a residue on your floor. Mopping can be done once to twice a week. 

Actively clean spills and remove stains 

Wipe any spills on your floor as soon as they occur. Just like water, other liquids can be easily absorbed by your wood floor and stain it. Corrosive substances, such as thinner and nail polish remover, are especially dangerous as they eat away your floor’s protective coating.  

To get rid of stains on wood flooring that already exist, apply timber floor cleaner on a small portion of the stain and gently rub it with a soft cloth to try removing it. In the same way, remove the rest of the stain bit by bit. If it still refuses to budge, however, contact your wood supplier or chat with us for professional assistance.  

Also address water leaks promptly, so that your wood floor doesn’t drink up the extra liquid. Check under rugs and mats to make sure they’re not trapping moisture – rubber-backed anti-slip rugs are especially prone to this.  

Protect your floor from heat and humidity  

Check that your floor is not exposed to direct sunlight and gets ventilation. Too much heat can dry up your wood, causing it to shrink and leave gaps between the planks. With not enough ventilation, the humidity in the air can cause mould to grow on the wood.  

Easy fixes are installing blinds or curtains to shade your floor from the sun, and occasionally opening your windows or turning on your air-conditioning to help disperse the moisture in the air.  

Ensure rugs and furniture won’t mark the floor  

Inspect the furniture – their feet should be tipped with soft protectors so they won’t scratch the floor. These protectors wear out, so you’ll need to change them regularly. The feet of furniture and undersides of rugs also preferably shouldn’t have rubber backings, as these can cause heat and friction and leave markings on the wood floor.  

Oil up outdoor decking  

If you’ve got wooden flooring for an area that’s outside, applying protective deck oil will help protect the wood from the sun and maintain its condition. Clean it first with a soft bristle brush and a solution made from a deck cleaning product. Then mop it and allow it to dry. Rub the deck oil into the wood using a cotton cloth along the wood grain, and immediately use another cloth to remove excess oil. Then let the floor dry for at least six hours without anyone walking on it.  

Frequently made mistakes in cleaning wood floor 

Avoid these common missteps in timber floor maintenance:  

• Using a sopping wet mop or steam mop: As mentioned, an excessively wet mop will cause your floor to soak up excessive water. Steam mops can also introduce too much moisture and heat to your wood floor.  

• Mopping multiple times a day: Again, this exposes the wood to more moisture than is recommended, and is not necessary to keep your floor clean. What’s more important is to remove the grit and fine particles that could scratch your flooring.  
• Not cleaning at all: Not cleaning your floor or cleaning infrequently will lead to dirt building up on your floor. That will ultimately dull the surface of your floor and result in patchy, stained flooring – not at all what you want to see.  
• Using the wrong cleaner: It’s critical to use the cleaning products formulated for indoor timber floors and outdoor timber decks according to the area, as they’re designed for different purposes. The outdoor decks in particular, will need cleaners that help them maintain their weather-resistant properties.  
• Using pressure jets to clean outdoor decks: It may seem convenient, but using water jets to clean your outdoor wood flooring can strip away the coating protecting it from the elements.   

Conclusion  

All it takes is a little care when cleaning your wood floor to maintain its distinguished and luxe appearance. Follow the steps above to keep your floor in its best possible condition through the years. Should you need to buy cleaning products designed for timber flooring, you can enquire with Timplex, or visit DIY stores or larger supermarkets.