Hardwood Flooring 101: Choosing Your Hardwood Floors Carefully

Steeped in tradition and tested throughout the years, hardwood flooring is the epitome of what great classic flooring is. Beautiful lines and grain patterns, time-tested durability, and rich colors keep hardwood flooring at the top of the flooring game. Homeowners who want to achieve a look of longevity and opulence look to wood in order to get that effect. Hardwood flooring is also a very versatile flooring option as it can be installed in almost every room in your home.

Your Choice of Hardwood Flooring Species
You should also consider other factors when deciding on the right hardwood flooring to use in your home. First on this list is the species of wood that you want to install. Check if that particular species is apt for your intended application. Will it take stains and finishes easily? Is the location fit for that hardwood flooring? What special preparations do you need to do prior to installation?

There are many hardwood flooring species to choose from to use as flooring in your home, chosen for their hardness, beauty, and durability. Among them are:

- American Cherry – a photosensitive wood species, a quality which renders it into a deep, rich color as time passes, this hardwood is very easy to work with and possesses a Janka hardness rating (a test determining the hardness of wood) of 950 which is a great choice when looking to balance hardness with workability.

- Brazilian Cherry – this is a very hard and durable wood species that ages into a rich burgundy color. It has a Janka rating of 2345, making it one of the hardest hardwood species available.

- Oak – a very popular hardwood flooring option due to its durability and legendary hardness. Oak comes in two species, red and white, and appear generally pale in color. It should be noted that due to oak's natural hardness, this hardwood flooring could be quite difficult for the inexperienced to nail and saw. White oak is the slightly harder of the two. White oak's hardness rating is 1360, while red oak's is 1290.

- Black Walnut – this species' rich color, beautiful grain, and smooth finish, together with its durability make it one of the popular hardwood flooring options today. Very durable, and grows even more beautiful as time passes, with a darkening of its original color over time. It possesses a hardness rating of 1010.

- Ash Hardwood – light colored and has great shock resistance. While it takes finishes well, it is a seldom-stained hardwood due to the fact that it has large pores that don't take very well to staining. Janka Hardness Rating: 1320.

Consult the experts should some of these questions stump you. They are more than glad to help and give you the hardwood flooring that you have long dreamed about.

Some Considerations When Choosing Hardwood Flooring For Your Property
As you would have known by now, installing hardwood flooring in your home comes with a price, but you shouldn't let the price alone determine your choice of which flooring to install. The price should be a factor – after all, you have your short-term budget to consider. But quality flooring is a long term investment, adding value to properties as a whole which often justifies the short term expense. And most quality hardwood flooring, when installed professionally and in the right environment, will actually save the cost of replacing flooring of an inferior quality.

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