Top 3 things to do before you leave on vacation, to care for your floors –

Planning a vacation is something a lot of us look forward to throughout the year, and who could blame us?  Who doesn’t love a little time away from work; soaking up some much needed sun, kicking back, relaxing and leaving the day-to-day stresses and worries back at home.

After a nice, long vacation, it’s often comforting to come back home; assuming your home is in the same condition as when you left it, that is.   What we mean is, we understand how easy it is to forget about the maintenance of your homes “environment” when you’re away on vacation.

Not many people go away and wonder how their floors are doing.  (Well, except, maybe for us, admittedly.)

What you may not realize is that your floors, over everything else, are at the most risk of becoming damaged if the proper precautions aren’t set into place before you depart.  We all get antsy and excited when vacation time approaches, but that doesn’t mean the thermostat can be turned to “OFF,” and assuming that as long as the doors are locked, the pets are at the kennel, and the alarm is on, you won’t come home to beautiful floors being badly, sometimes irreversibly damaged!  We know it may sound a little dramatic, but  because our flooring team puts so much TLC into every project, we want to make sure the floors last for the lifetime of the home and don’t succumb to damage that could have easily been avoided.

As professionals, we want all our clients to have restful, worry-free vacations, and that includes coming home to the same beautiful floors they left behind.  So in order to ensure this, our flooring pros have listed some need-to-know tips and information about maintaining your homes interior climate while you’re away.

#1 – Check the weather:

We understand that your main focus for the weather forecast is probably on your vacationing spot and not so much on what’s going to happen back home.  However, taking note of the weather forecast is a great first step in preparing your plan for home maintenance while on your trip.  We all know how unpredictable temperature and humidity can be, especially here in the Northeast, so making sure you’re prepared is an important part in the maintenance of your homes climate, and ensuring no damage comes to your floors.  Drastic temperature and humidity changes really do affect flooring, no matter what type of floor covering you have, most materials react to their climate, expanding or contracting; thats why acclimation is such an important part of the installation process.  Maintaining interior temperature and humidity levels are still important, even when you’re not home.

#2 – Keep your windows closed:

We know this sounds kind of obvious, but you may be surprised at how many people forget to close a window completely, or keep their skylights ajar when they leave.  Unfortunately, we’ve seen this happen; a client left two back windows open by mistake, unaware of the impending driving rain, and came home from vacation to discover their floors have buckled!  So make sure you put “Close Windows”on your checklist of “Things-to-do Before we leave.”

#3 – Don’t turn the thermostat OFF –

It’s extremely common, maybe a “force of habit,” for people to walk around their home before they leave, unplugging things and turning everything else to “off,” with the assumption that they’re doing the right thing.  For the most part they are, but not when it comes to the thermostat.  Keeping in mind that your indoor temperature should remain anywhere between 65-75 degrees with a relative humidity level between 30%-50%, setting your homes thermostat to turn on if/when the temperature has a drastic change, is a crucial and completely necessary step in preventing damage to your floors while you’re away.  Your thermostat should be thought of as your single and only line of defense to unwanted floor damage and buckling while you’re away.

It’s completely understandable that the days before you go away on vacation can be hectic, to say the least, but making sure these 3 tips are taken care of will greatly reduce the risk of you coming home to discover any unwanted floor damage.