When it comes to your floor design and style, today’s market has many options that you can consider.
One design you should consider is a style that’s becoming a hit these days. It’s the incorporation of hardwood and its natural design to your floors.
As the trend has taken over the market, multiple manufacturers have taken hold of the concept.
Thus, multiple companies that use different materials like tiles, vinyl, and more can be seen toting hardwood floor design.
However, nothing beats the authenticity and feel of real hardwood floors. As such, there’s no sign of it slowing down or stopping.
If you want to get into the new hardwood craze, here’s a guide to help you along the decision-making process.
What Is Hardwood Flooring?
There are two types of trees commonly used for building floors or houses: softwood and hardwood trees; each has its advantage and purpose.
First, softwood is a fast-growing tree that allows the logging industry to harvest and plan it sustainably.
However, due to the speed of its growth, the resulting wooden planks are less dense.
On the other hand, hardwood floors consist of wood from trees with much denser wood fiber, making it hardwood.
As a result, planks from these trees are stronger but take much longer to grow and harvest.
Apart from rigidity, hardwood flooring provides a unique design to the board compared with softwood trees due to the age of the trees.
Ring patterns are added to the trees as the latter ages. Thus, hardwood flooring is the best option if you want to go with wooden floor designs.
1. Types of Hardwood Flooring
Now that you’re more familiar with hardwood in general, it’s necessary for you to learn of the different hardwood flooring types.
As some options might not be ideal for your setup, it’s best to be informed and choose one that suits you perfectly.
Here are the most popular choices you can consider:
2. Finished or Unfinished
Both finished and unfinished hardwood flooring are good buys.
When you want an easy-to-install hardwood floor, choose a finished hardwood flooring.
As it has undergone a staining process, the finished hardwood floor is covered and coated with paints and finishing.
With such, you can simply nail it down to your floor.
As for unfinished hardwood flooring, you may want to choose this if you want an opportunity to customize it with your preferred design and color.
3. Engineered or Solid
Before purchasing a hardwood floor, know the difference between solid and engineered hardwood flooring.
That way, you’ll buy the best one for your place. Here they are:
- Solid Hardwood Flooring: This is entirely made out of hardwood and nothing else. However, it has the disadvantage of being susceptible to different climates, especially in humid areas.
- Engineered Hardwood Flooring: This is made up of layers of plywood underneath a thin layer of hardwood. As a result, the design allows ample support without the adverse effects of susceptibility to humid conditions. Thus, it would be best for you to look at engineered hardwood flooring solutions, especially when you live in humid places.
Considerations When Buying Hardwood Floors
After choosing what type of hardwood flooring your project needs, it’s important to assess certain factors before actually buying.
By taking the following into consideration, you can prevent any issues in the future.
Furthermore, this will also help you be more confident in your decision-making.
1. Is Hardwood Good for Kids and Pets?
Although hardwood floors, just like tiles, are not entirely scratch-resistant, you can use professional help to choose hardwood floors with high tolerance to scratches.
Additionally, hardwood floors provide more grip than tile flooring, causing fewer slips and falls for your pets and kids.
There are many kinds of hardwood flooring with water-resistant solutions, and this is one of the many ways to keep your family safe at home.
2. Select Common Grade
Aside from types, hardwood flooring has two grades commonly used by household flooring: #1 common grade and #2 common grade.
The #1 common grade is the most commonly used hardwood flooring grade.
Mainly, it holds the trademark design and style of hardwood floors but can still provide comfort and usability.
However, #2 common grade is much more unique compared with the first one.
That’s because #2 common grade takes advantage of its imperfections in swirls, knots, and burls; it’s considered to have a bolder look compared with #1 common grade.
3. Benefits of Hardwood Flooring
One of the most important considerations you need to take is whether hardwood flooring is beneficial for you or not.
As hardwood floors consist of real natural material, it doesn’t come with harmful particles and chemicals, providing you and your household a clean and renewable source for flooring.
Moreover, if you do your research and purchase from eco-friendly companies, you’re not only building a beautiful home, but you’re also helping the environment.
4. Downside of Hardwood Flooring
Although there are many benefits of using a hardwood floor, you should also consider its downside.
One is its price. As other types of flooring use manufactured chemicals or cheap materials, hardwood flooring is considerably more expensive.
You’d really have to shell out money for value.
Furthermore, as explained above, hardwood flooring will always be susceptible to environmental changes due to its natural makeup.
Moreover, even engineered hardwood floors have their downsides.
Because it uses an adhesive to combine the layers permanently, there’s a slight tendency that the chemicals used in the layer will leak and harm your health.
However, this can be easily managed if you purchase engineered hardwood flooring that uses natural compounds safe for humans.
Conclusion
Despite all the downsides, you can’t neglect the sturdiness of a hardwood floor compared with anything manufactured at a factory.
With that in mind, you should look for the right hardwood flooring that suits your needs and ideals.
Hence, don’t settle for less than what your dream home demands.
Moreover, so long as you follow this guide, you can be confident that you’ll find the right flooring solution.
