How To Choose Solid Hardwood Flooring

Do You Need Some Help Selecting The Right Solid Hardwood Floor For Your Home?

There are many long-term benefits of installing hardwood floors in your home as they provide a beautiful living environment, a timeless elegance and solid investment if you ever decide to sell your house. If you want to get the maximum value of your investment, here are 5 important factors to consider when choosing hardwood floor installation:

1. Style of your Home, Style of Hardwood Floors

hardwood-flooring-in-home

When selecting a hardwood floor, one of the first considerations is the style of your home. You should take all interior elements of your home into account, including cabinets, trim work and any other design elements that should match the floor. Keep in mind that shades of hardwood that mix darker and lighter pieces go well with a traditional style. There are many popular combinations that are commonly suggested by designers, but you might be able to come up with different ideas for some unique results!

Much of the style that goes into hardwood flooring will be decided by the species or width of the flooring that you put into your home. A natural Maple floor will be a quiet, unassuming choice that allows other decor to take over the room. If you choose a Natural Hickory floor, like our American Home from Bruce, be prepared for the floor to command all of the attention in your area. Picking out a wood floor is a much bigger deal than just finding a great deal!

Many home owners prefer the look of wider planks, but we have to be careful here. In the solid flooring business wide floors are much more likely to experience problems with buckling and cupping, which is caused by moisture changes in your home. We do not recommend using solid wood flooring planks wider than 5" in any hardwood species. If wider planks are important to you, select an engineered hardwood with a thickness of 1/2", as thinner floors do not offer the stability needed for wide plank installations.

2. Staining and Finishing Options For Hardwood Flooring

Some the most important considerations for hardwood flooring installation are the staining and finishing options. While hardwood floors are certainly beautiful in their natural form, a stain can add color to the wood, highlight the grain pattern of the interior wood and enhance its aesthetic appeal. Finishing can also be beneficial as it affects the maintenance of the floor and prevents it from getting dirty. You can apply nearly all stains and finish to most types of wood, so simply make your decision based on your style preference.

Depending on the grade of wood flooring that you choose, naturally finished wood will generally present a less formal or contemporary look than a stained floor. The reason for this is that the natural floor will exhibit more variation in color as well as natural defects, whereas a stained floor will offer a more consistent color. The darker the stain, the less contrast you will see in the wood flooring that you choose.

The exceptions to this rule of thumb are the high grades of wood flooring like Select and Clear. These grades of wood will have much less character and contrast than their lower-graded hardwood cousins like Cabin, Tavern, or Builder grade floors.

3. Your Everyday Lifestyle

dog lying on hardwood floor in house

Another factor to consider when choosing hardwood floor installation is your everyday lifestyle in your home. For example, if you have kids or pets in your home, your floors might undergo significantly more wear and tear. If that is the case, you should choose a type of wood species that is more durable. Many homeowners prefer Red Oak as it is very heavy-duty and the prices are quite reasonable.

Also, hardwood flooring that features a texture of some kind might be your flooring choice for your room. Wire brushing is a popular addendum to the surface of most real wood floors. This is a result of the manufacturer applying brushstrokes to the surface of the wood before the finishing process begins. These brushes remove a small amount of the pithy grain from the wood, allowing it to have a timeworn appearance in your home. Wirebrushed floors will show less abrasive wear over time than typical hardwood flooring due to the slight texture.

Another very popular surface treatment in the flooring business is handscraping. When a floor is handscraped is gains the appearance of being hand hewn. Besides being a beautiful look on flooring, handscraped wood floors come pre-abused! Because of the dents and gouges that are applied before it is installed in your home you won't have to worry about the effects of abuse while you enjoy life on your flooring.

4. Type of Subfloor in Your Home; Wood or Concrete?

You may want to install a particular type of hardwood flooring based on the subfloor in your home, which is normally plywood, particle board or a concrete slab. If you have a plywood subfloor, you can use both solid hardwood floors or engineered hardwood floors. However, if you have a particle board subfloor, you will need to replace it with plywood before adding solid or engineered wood floors. Concrete slab floors also require plywood installation prior to adding solid wood floors.

5. Extent of Natural Daylight

natural light shining on hardwood floor

Also, one thing that many homeowners typically forget when considering hardwood floors is the amount of daylight in their space. After all, natural daylight and the colors of your walls may either ruin or enhance the appearance of your hardwood floor! If you want to install the hardwood floor into a room with plenty of natural light, dark floors provide a better contrast. On the other hand, if the room has a minimal amount of natural light, you should select a light-colored hardwood floor.

Now You Can Choose The Perfect Hardwood....From ReallyCheapFloors.com

Now that you know about the factors that you should consider when choosing hardwood floor installation in your home, check out all of the flooring products from ReallyCheapFloors.com! We look forward to doing business with you soon!