Protect your floor from Christmas tree

Who doesn’t love a real Christmas tree? The natural pine smell, the lights twinkling from your living room window and the opportunity to make your neighbours jealous.

But before you drag your tree through the house and begin to arrange it’s display for the twelve days of Christmas, it’s always advisable to plan ahead and consider what impact having a real pine tree in your lounge may have on your floor.

There are many challenges that real trees can pose over the Christmas period including needles dropping, water leaking, stand staining, and tree sap getting into the floor. And of course, we’ve all seen comedy videos of cats attacking Christmas trees because they are shiny, but imagine the damage a real tree can cause to your floor if the tree is pulled over.

Here are some tips to help protect your floor over the festive period

Needles dropping - as with cut flowers, cut trees need watering. If the tree dries out, it will lose its needles very fast. Use a Christmas tree stand with a water dish so that you can top up the water regularly. This will not stop the needles dropping completely but it will reduce the amount. Also, heat will affect the tree and make it dry out faster, so try to place the tree away from a heat source.

Water leakage - a carpet or wooden floor can be badly damaged if you get a leak. Be sure to protect the floor under the tree stand with something waterproof that can catch the water if it spills. A big tray will do, a strip of carpet protector, or a waterproof mat. Test the stand's water holding capabilities over night before collecting your tree.

Stand staining – If the stand becomes wet, it can transfer its colouring on to the carpet. These are usually painted green and will result in a green stain on your carpet. As with above, put some sort of protection underneath, possibly an off cut of carpet that you don't mind getting stained.

Tree sap - Tree sap is very sticky to deal with. If the sap leaks on to your carpet you will want to use alcohol to treat it. As with all chemical treatments, do a test on an inconspicuous area of carpet first the ensure the alcohol will not damage the carpet. Using a clean, un-dyed cloth dab the alcohol onto the sap. This will harden the sap to make it possible to scrape away. If you are unsure, please contact Art of Clean us and we will be able to remove the mark.