How to Look After Your New Floor: Care & Maintenance Tips
Care & Maintenance · October 2026
You've had it fitted. Now keep it looking that way. Simple, practical care advice for carpet, wood, LVT and vinyl flooring.
A new floor is an investment, and a little routine care goes a long way towards keeping it looking as good as the day it was fitted. Most of what follows takes minutes a week, needs no special equipment, and almost none of it needs a specialist.
The first few weeks
A new carpet sheds. You will find loose fibres on the hoover for the first few weeks and it can look alarming if you are not expecting it. It is not the carpet wearing out — it is the short ends left over from manufacturing working their way out, and it settles down on its own.
Can you hoover a new carpet?
Yes, and it helps. New carpets shed loose fibres for the first few weeks; that's normal and doesn't mean the carpet is wearing out. Hoover gently and regularly to lift them. On loop-pile carpets, including many wool and sisal styles, switch off the rotating brush or use a suction-only head so the loops don't snag.
How often should you hoover?
Once a week is enough in a bedroom. Halls, stairs and landings earn two or three times that, because they take the most traffic and most of what wears a carpet out is grit walked in from outside, working like sandpaper at the base of the pile. Slow passes lift more than fast ones — it is worth going over a busy strip twice rather than hurrying the whole room.
If you want a deeper clean, every 12 to 18 months suits most homes. We don't offer carpet cleaning ourselves, so there is nothing to sell you here — any reputable local firm will do it.
Spills
Blot, don't rub. Press a clean cloth down and lift, working from the outside of the spill inwards so you are not spreading it. Lukewarm water is the right first move on almost everything. Rubbing does two kinds of damage at once: it pushes the spill down into the backing where you cannot reach it, and it distorts the pile so the patch stays visible after the stain has gone.
Wood floors
Sweep or vacuum regularly, for the same reason as carpet — grit scratches. Mop with a barely damp cloth, never a wet one. Standing water is wood flooring's worst enemy, so wipe spills as they happen rather than leaving them. Direct sunlight will lighten a wood floor over months, so if you move a rug after a year you may find a shade difference underneath.
LVT and vinyl — and the one thing not to do
These are the lowest-maintenance floors we sell. A regular sweep and an occasional mop with a manufacturer-approved cleaner is usually all that is needed.
Don't use a steam cleaner. Heat and moisture together can work at the adhesive over time, and it is the single most common way we see a well-fitted vinyl or LVT floor spoiled. Karndean and Moduleo both sell their own cleaners, and they are the safe choice for the floors we fit.
Furniture
Felt pads under every leg, replaced when they wear flat. Wide castors rather than narrow ones on anything that rolls. Lift furniture rather than dragging it, particularly across LVT and wood, where a single drag can leave a mark that cleaning will not touch.
Doormats
The dullest tip here and the one that makes the most difference. Most of the grit that wears a floor down arrives on shoes, and a decent mat at every outside door stops a surprising amount of it before it ever reaches the floor.
If something isn't right
If something isn't right with a floor we have supplied and fitted, tell us. We will come back and put it right — that has always been how we work.
And if you are ever unsure what to use on a particular floor, ring us on 01206 395163 or call into the showroom at Jubilee End, Lawford — we are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm. Bring the offcut if you kept one. We can point you to the right product for whatever we supplied.