Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood flooring is harvested from trees that grow much slower, it ends up being far denser, and more durable than softwood counterparts. This means that they last longer and require less maintenance. Unlike carpet and other flooring options, hardwood flooring won’t fade as easily, looking beautiful for decades. Ease of cleaning is an important feature for many homeowners. Hardwood flooring is incredibly easy to clean and requires very little maintenance. Most properly maintained hardwood floors can go anywhere from 20 to 30 years without needing any significant work done. Their longevity makes hardwood floors a great investment for any house.

Hardwood Flooring – How it is made

As the name suggests, solid wood flooring is made of solid wood throughout its thickness, usually a hardwood species, such as oak, maple, or walnut. Its significant advantage is that it can be sanded and refinished numerous times throughout its lifespan. Solid wood is milled from a single 3/4”-thick piece of hardwood. Because of its thickness, a solid hardwood floor can be sanded and refinished over several generations of use. Solid wood flooring expands and contracts with changes in your home’s relative humidity. Normally, installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall. Base molding or quarter-round is traditionally used to hide the extra space.

Engineered wood is produced with three to five layers of hardwood. Each layer is stacked in a cross-grain configuration and bonded together under heat and pressure to form a really strong bond. Then a wood veneer is added to the top layer. This construction creates a wood floor that is dimensionally stable and less affected by moisture than a solid wood floor. It’s this bonded core board that makes engineered wood flooring ideal for all levels of the home.

What are the types of Hardwood Flooring

There are two main types of wood flooring

solid wood and engineered wood. Solid wood flooring is made from solid planks of lumber.
Engineered wood flooring has a lumber veneer over a synthetic, reinforced underlayment made of something other than wood

American walnut:: American walnut is a soft, dark wood that has a distinctive look of swirled grain. This makes this kind of wood a striking design choice, but it is susceptible to denting and scuffing and should not be used in high-traffic areas of a home.Bamboo : Bamboo flooring is made up of compressed strands of bamboo, which means that it is not natural wood. However, it is considered wood flooring because it has the appearance of wood. It is also two to three times harder than most natural woods and cheaper by the square foot. Bamboo is also a fast-growing plant, making it eco-friendly and widely available. Bamboo isn’t as easy to stain as real wood, home improvement stores often sell it prefinished and in a number of color variations.Cherry:: Cherry wood is a popular flooring material, but one that is more expensive because of its enviable appearance. It has a versatile, light reddish-brown color with visible, swirling grains. However, it is highly photosensitive and liable to darken in the first few months after installation. It is also the softest natural wood flooring material, and it is highly vulnerable to scuffing, denting, staining, and warping.Maple:: Maple is another popular hardwood that grows in the Northern US and Canada. Maple flooring is usually harder than oak and is often used in bowling alley lanes, and other underfoot areas.Oak: Oak is the most common hardwood species used in flooring in the US because it is durable, affordable, and easy to work with. Red oak (which has a darker red appearance) and white oak (which is golden brown) are popular flooring choices. White oak flooring has a hardness level of around 1360, making it durable to high-traffic areas of your home.Parquet:Parquet flooring dates back to the parqueterie courts of 1600s France. It is not a type of wood, but a fashion of laying wood plank flooring. Parquet flooring involves arranging small panels of one wood into a geometric, angular mosaic. Parquet floor patterns include square parquet, chevron parquet, or herringbone parquet. Parquet flooring requires frequent upkeep, but also highlights the natural beauty of the grain pattern and adds value to your home.Pine: Pine is a relatively soft wood, abundant in the US and Canada making it a cheap and sustainable flooring option. Pine is not always great for refinishing, as it dents and scratches more easily than other hardwoods. However, the charming grain and versatile white and yellow hues of this wood make it a popular decor choice.

What is the most realistic Hardwood Flooring?

Oak:This is by far the most popular species of hardwood flooring. “At least 70% of the floors we put in are oak,” says Maria Ramos, head estimator at All Boro Floors, a New York City-based company specializing in the installation and restoration of hardwood floors. Whether red or white oak, the species is durable, well-priced and its light hue means it can be stained virtually any color. “Oak also has a naturally strong grain pattern that masks abnormalities such as scratches, dents, nicks and other small flooring mishaps,” adds Agnieszka Wilk, CEO of Decorilla Online Interior Design, noting that many of her clients have high-traffic households with kids and pets that might make a mess of softer woods.Maple:: Like oak, maple is widely available and as a result a good choice for budget remodels. Not that it looks cheap or underperforms. Especially if you choose sugar maple, so named because it produces sap, the result will be an exceptionally dense, durable wood floor with a subtle, yet attractive grain parent. Maple’s tones range from creamy white to reddish brown, so in most cases you will be able to stain it just about any color.Ash:: If you’re looking for something different than oak or maple, but don’t want to go as far as an exotic hardwood from another continent, consider domestic ash. It’s even harder than oak, making it suitable for high-traffic areas. “It’s what baseball bats and axe handles are made of, so you know it’s resilient,” says Walter Lourie, an expert in sustainable, all-natural wood floors. He adds that the species is becoming more available, and hence cheaper because, sadly, many ash trees are being wiped out by the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle from Asia. Like oak, ash has strong graining and light to gray color tones.Walnut: Domestically grown Black Walnut is a popular choice with people who are looking for mid-tone wood floors, which tend to make a room feel warmer and cozier. Walnut’s grain pattern is mostly straight and open, but it can have some movement to it, depending on the cut. “It’s a gorgeous species,” says Lourie, “but supply is becoming tight, so it tends to be a lot more expensive than oak and ash.”Cherry:Though nowhere near as popular as it was at the start of the century, cherry is making a comeback with homeowners who still want the luxurious look of dark floors. Manufacturers also tell us that the species is beginning to see new life as a retro-inspired, nostalgic choice in flooring. Another point in cherry’s favor: the domestic species resembles many exotic tropical hardwoods, which are particularly hard to come by these days because of global supply chain issues.

Hardwood Flooring – Where to Install?

Best rooms for Hardwood:Living Room, Entry way, home offices, playroom and basements.
Worst rooms for Hardwood:bathrooms, Laundry rooms

Hardwood Flooring – Benefits

Enhance Aesthetics / Appearance of the room and it’s Easy to Clean

Wood floors not only add a touch of elegance to your home, but also a bit of warmth. Hardwood Flooring makes a great first impression. Hardwood floors are incredibly easy to keep clean. They can be swept, steam-cleaned, or vacuumed to remove any dirt or debris that has accumulated. What makes wood floors even easier to maintain is the fact that they are significantly more stain resistant than carpets. If you spill something, all you need to do is wipe it up. One of the primary benefits of wood flooring is its versatility to adapt to almost every interior design theme in your home. No matter how often you are inspired to change the accents or other decors in your home, the floors will always look good and fit your desired theme.

Strong & Durable

Due to its durability and ease of maintenance and cleaning are the reasons why homeowners choose to upgrade to solid wood floors. With proper maintenance wood floors can last many years.

Increase Home Value

Adding new Wood floors will increase your home value. Having hardwood floors buyers will pay more for the house with hardwood floors than carpet. Many home buyers tent to replace the carpets after purchasing the house as they do not want to have old carpets in the home which is the reason why they will pay more for hardwood floors as they look great and they are maintenance free.

Can Be Refinished

Unlike carpets and tiles hardwood floors can be refinished rather than replaced. This is a game changer as the cost to refinish hardwood floors is much less then installing new floors. This empowers the homeowner to change the flooring décor at a very minimal cost. Changing the color is as easy as sanding the floor color off and stain it with a new color of your choice it is that simple and significantly cheaper.

Choose the type of Hardwood Floor Installation

Nail Down-Nailsare used to fasten the wood to the subfloor. This method is often used with thin wood flooring.
Staple Down- Staples are used instead of nails to attach the floor to the subfloor. This method is simpler than the nail down method.
Glue Down-Engineered wood floors and parquets can be glued down. The wood is adhered to the subfloor with a strong adhesive.
Floating-This is the fastest and easiest method of installation. Floating floors are not attached to any subfloor, they simply float above it. Either adhesive is applied to the boards to keep them together, or the boards are made to simply snap together. Usually a pad is placed between the wood floor and the subfloor to protect against moisture and reduce noise. Floating floors can be installed over almost any surface.

Caring and Cleaning of Hardwood Floors

When it comes to cleaning the various layers of your carpet you have options.

Vacuum

The easiest and most convenient way to clean your carpet. If you see debris on your carpet, you can use your vacuum cleaner to get rid of most of it. Regularly vacuuming your carpet is a great way to maintain a clean surface appearance and avoid developing deeply penetrated stains that are harder to clean.

Daily schedule – dust / sweep

Giving your floors a good dusting with a microfiber mop or cloth will be your best daily defense against scratches and surface damage. Microfiber cleaning pads often use static electricity to trap dirt, particles, and other household allergens. Using a broom to clean can be effective as well, but it usually just pushes the dirt around. When you want to clean wooden floors without damaging them, avoid lifting your microfiber mop up from the floor when you clean – this way you keep the dirt trapped on the pad.

Weekly schedule – Vacuum / mop

Weekly maintenance will deal with harder-to-reach areas that a daily dusting can’t reach. Vacuum cleaners and wet mops are ideal for getting dirt out of problem-areas, like corners and the spaces between hardwood flooring. However, you should take extra care when using vacuums and mops to avoid damage. If your vacuum has a beater bar, make sure that it doesn’t hit the bare floor. Also, the wheels on a vacuum might damage the floor – so watch out for that. When using a mop, remember that water and wood don’t mix! Avoid putting excess liquid on your floor. Lightly misting your floor with a natural hardwood floor cleaner will be enough to give it a great clean. In other words, keeping a gentle touch is one of the best ways to care for wood floors. When your floors are in need of a thorough clean, use a deep cleaner developed for wood floors to get rid of heavy dirt build-up, stuck-on messes and stains.

Monthly schedule – polish

Polish wood floors every 2-4 months, depending on the traffic in your home, to add extra shine and protection. Hardwood floor polish renews and refreshes the finish that protects your floor. With floors that have a protective sealant, it’s the finish that’s getting the most attention when we clean – and not the actual hardwood itself. When you polish wood floors, you fill in microscopic scratches, and even out a floor’s protective surface. Using hardwood floor polish is not a difficult task and can be done with a minimal amount of effort.

Yearly schedule – deep-clean

With all the foot traffic we put on hardwood flooring, consider giving your floor a deep-clean – or even a sand and refinish every 3-5 years. Refinishing your floor completely removes the old protective finish and replaces it. If your floor has some deep scratches or gouges, sanding and refinishing can repair the damage, leaving you with immaculately clean hardwood flooring. Lovely.