Wood is a beautiful material when it comes to décor. But maintaining it can be a task. Shanti Petiwala speaks to industry players about the latest practices in the market.

Wood brings a sense of warmth to any space that is used in. Gleaming wooden floors, polished furniture, or even cladding on walls of any expanse offer a certain feel of comfort to any space. However, when it comes to cleaning wooden surfaces, the challenges are a plenty. Unpolished wood scratches easily and scuff marks from shoes, etc. are quite an issue on floors. Apart from this, water is quite damaging to wood, and a lot of care must be taken to prevent dampness from permeating into wooden surfaces.

Replenishing and cleaning

One of the biggest steps in cleaning wood is protecting it through wood finishing. Although wooden items like furniture come with their own finishing, it helps to replenish the finish through frequent polishing. Polishing offers an enhanced appearance and increased resistance to moisture and superficial scratches. It is also easier to clean polished wood.

According to Tushara Rathnayake, Executive Housekeeper, Cristal Hotel, Abu Dhabi, “All wood is susceptible to damage from excessive environmental conditions and its users. Even in normal everyday use, there’s a danger of scratching and abrasion. Often, when furniture is neglected over a period of time, only costly refinishing can restore it.” At Cristal Hotel, forty percent of the walls in the public areas are made of dark wood cladding to complement the beige and brown contemporary interiors. The guest rooms have hard wooden surfaces, doors, wardrobes and panels in the same combination with ebony black furniture. Moreover, the floors in the restaurant and bar are made out of laminate and grain designs, while the gym floor is made of maple wood parquet.

The challenges that Rathnayake faces include surface prints after usage and spillage of liquids and moisture of air causes wood to expand and shrunk, which often cause the wood to crack and split. He adds, “Any chips and damages to surfaces and edges made our engineering team more occupied in terms of giving it back the original look.”

Maintaining the finish

SPS International – a company specialising in products for special applications has in its range the Wood Master. This product by Italy-based company Unitas, can be used on all wooden surfaces. The product is water based and because it has no silica in its composition, there is no build-up of grease like other traditional sprays. As a result, as Director, Diane Meek says, “The product allows a glossy surface to remain glossy and matte to remain matte. This not only cleans and protects the wood but also allows for the material to be replenished.” The application of Wood Master is quite simple – the product is sprayed on to the floor and a soft mop or machine is used to buff it in.

Cristal Hotel’s furniture and wood panels are protected with a matte finish. The finish keeps the surface free from accumulating dirt, helps protect against scratches, indentations and changes in the wood’s colour.it also helps prevent the exchange of moisture between the wood and atmosphere. Furniture care products will reinforce the finish and help protect it from everyday wear and tear. Rathnayake uses another leading water-based product in the market for its wooden surfaces, which leaves behind a residue-free finish and dries quickly with a fragrance, while he uses a high concentrate floor cleaner and a damp mop system to clean the wooden floors.

Maintaining and training challenges

The biggest challenge in maintaining wood is the everyday grime – floors especially get scuffed and scratched. In order to keep it looking fresh, wood care products can be used regularly. Dhofar Global Trading collaborated with Italy-based company Kleen Purgatis in 2015 to fill the gap in the industry. After a deep study, the company created its product range of tissues and chemicals. Kleen Purgatis’ wood polish polishes, protects and maintains wood surfaces. It takes care of surface scratches and can be used on laminates.

Chandan Singh, Group COO, Dhofar Global Trading Co., “This gentle-care product is mainly used for furniture – and it varnishes and revives any piece of wooden furniture without any solvent. The product offers a new silky shine with minor scratches almost disappearing and is anti-static.”

According to Rathnayake, at his hotel, with 40 per cent of the surfaces made out of wood, it is highly important to give a long life to the surfaces, and it falls on the housekeeping team to maintain them routinely with periodic cleaning schedules. The process of cleaning is simple – the surface is wiped of dust, dirt and grit. Microfibre dusters are essential in this step. Then, the chemical is sprayed on terry towels or flannel cloths to apply it evenly on the surface. Rathnayake doesn’t recommend direct spraying on the surface since it makes polishing and drying difficult. When it comes to polishing, the team requires a separate set of dry dusters and polish till a residue-free surface is achieved.

In terms of training, the new employees go through one-on-one training and refresher programmes with the existing team. SPS provides full training to its consumers with a staff fact sheet, pictures of products, pictures of applications and a pshycial demonstration. The training is aimed at offering user-friendly instructions and allowing the staff to understand the product quickly.

Replenishing wood

“Wood paneling and furniture is often a prized possession, as well as an expression of our hotel image,” says Rathnayake. He continues, “Furniture is also one of the largest asset investments in hotel establishment. As a result, changing of wooden panels and furniture is a costly process and it comes under capex and mostly at the time of refurbishment.”

In terms of periodic maintenance, all the wooden panels and furniture spray polished on a yearly basis; furniture damages in the guest room are identified according the severity of repairs as moderate and heavy, and then prioritized on a monthly basis. Rathnayake finds that a spare set of furniture is an advantage when it comes to high occupancy levels, without interrupting the scheduled programme.