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Hardwood Flooring 101

Posted December 30th, 2008 by admin

When buying or installing hardwood flooring in your house, there are some things you should know. You may be wondering after all what you have spent for your money, time and effort is not really what you wanted or desired.

Many, if not most, hardwood flooring manufacturers or dealers have their showrooms to get the attention of customers. Samples in the showrooms are good but they may look a little different with that something you bought or installed. Why are they not the same? One simple reason is that, samples in the showroom are exposed to different environmental factors like heat, wind and light. Over time the components may cause the color and durability of the materials to diminish. You can ask any expert from a hardwood flooring store to show you the original and what color changes you should expect over the years.

When choosing hardwood flooring, consider how visible scratches could be. There are types of wood that show scratches more prominently. Define with the manufacturer or dealer if scratches are covered with the product warranty because most of them do not. Avoid any disappointment on your part when you see scratches on your hard earned hardwood flooring. Warranties usually cover the wear layer or veneer only and not clearing scratches on your finish installed floor. Two of the hardwood flooring that show prominent scratches are maple and high gloss finishes.

Hardwood floorings are temperature sensitive. Hotness or coldness in temperature could cause the floors to swell or shrink. These effects could give your floor gaps. Gaps depend on the moisture content of the temperature. What was installed as flawless hardwood flooring could have gaps over time. Micro beveled hardwood flooring may seem to have unparallel and unsmooth edges but these kinds of flooring show lesser gaps. On the other hand, highly engineered hardwoods could also make your flooring good as new and without gaps when installed correctly even though your house faces different weather conditions.

When your budget is low in installing hardwood flooring in your house, expect that there are many short pieces. These are especially made to cover the gaps between the bigger pieces of wood. However, you should not worry about these short pieces. As long as they are installed correctly and maintained regularly, your wood flooring could still last through the years.

If you are planning to stay in a house over a long period of time and have decided to install hardwood flooring it is best to use engineered hardwoods with thicker wear layer and plies. These factors enable you to refinish the flooring when parts of it are already worn out. Typically, during the presentation of hardwood flooring, manufacturers and dealers do not discuss how many times a certain product can be refinished. As such, do not forget to ask them. Thick wear layers with ½ inch or more in measurement could be finished two to three times.

Hardwood flooring is a big money investment. However, many people may still want to install hardwood flooring amid low budgetary cost. With that low budget, can they still have the hardwood? Yes they can. However, there are few considerations that they need to take. Lower priced hardwood flooring may not be as good and as durable compared to the engineered ones and may not have warranties. In that case, engineered hardwoods with thinner wear layer and lesser color are cheap and could be put into the list.

Tags: flooring, hardwood, hardwood flooring, hardwood floors, home, home decor, Home Improvement