How to Pick Wood Flooring

More and more professionals these days are choosing wood flooring over tile and carpeting. There are so many options to choose from: solid hardwood, engineered wood, and reclaimed antique wood all available in a variety of styles. But making the right choice for your tastes and circumstances is not as hard as it appears. Here are some factors to consider, along with some useful advice from the experts.

Which Wood-Flooring Type Should You Choose?
Solid Hardwood: This wood expands and contracts and sometimes creaks, but its natural beauty add value to your home. Even better, it can be re-sanded and refinished, so it retains its value.

Engineered Wood Floors: They construct these floors at the factory, gluing together thin sheets of wood and refinishing them. This results in a more stable product than solid wood, because it resists buckling and warping. Whereas solid wood can only be nailed to a subfloor, engineered wood floors (although developed to be glued over concrete) can also be nailed or floated.

Reclaimed Antique Wood: For customers with a unique vision, this is the best flooring option. Reclaimed antique wood is custom made one plank at a time according to customer specifications. This flooring type is especially stable, because it can cut from the center section of a beam.

Finished vs. Unfinished
If you’ve chosen to install solid hardwood flooring, remember that it’s available finished or unfinished. This is really helpful if you’re trying to match an adjacent floor. Then you can go with an unfinished option and stain it to blend. Finishing the floor on site will insure a more uniform color and finish. Remember, however, that an unfinished wood floor may take several days to install, stain, and finish.

Whether solid or engineered, finished wood is factory sanded, stained and finished, so it’s easier and faster to install, not to mention much less messy because there’s no on-site sanding or finishing. Finished wood is durable and is therefore a great option for high-traffic areas. And don’t forget that it’s less expensive than unfinished wood.

Important Things to Consider
More and more people are installing radiant heating in their homes, where the heat source is under the floor. If this is your heating system, then engineered wood would be a better choice than solid hardwood because of its durability. The National Wood Flooring Association backs up this claim, recommending quarter-sawn or rift-sawn wood in this circumstance, again because of durability. The NWFA claims that strip flooring is preferable over plank flooring, because when there are changes in temperature and humidity, narrow boards expand and contract less than wide ones.

Stoddard recommends engineered wood flooring for seaside homes, because it’s scratch-resistant—and less like to be damaged by tracked-in sand—and requires less maintenance. For cottages, summer homes, below-grade installations, and any other interior that’s not environmentally controlled, engineered hardwood flooring is a clear choice.

Some Simple Design Tips
Pay attention to the understated details when personalizing a room. Use a lighter wood and add a dark border. Or drop in a maple medallion that looks like an area run.

Mixing woods from room to room is becoming more common. Choose darker woods, like walnut or cherry, for a den or a bedroom. Kitchens, on the other hand, need lighter, brighter woods such as maple or birch.

Darker wood is a better fit for homes that are formal, traditional, or historic, whereas country, casual, and contemporary homes are better suited to lighter woods. Be sure to choose flooring that will complement all your fabrics, furnishings, and accessories.

Current Trends in Wood Flooring
The latest options in the flooring market include hand-scraped wood and "exotics" from far-off lands. Brazilian cherry, Santos mahogany, and Amendoim all boast delightful grains and colors, and conveniently are available in solid hardwood or engineered wood.

The old look and simplicity of woods such as Old Groove Eastern White Pine is becoming increasingly popular among owners of historic homes on the Eastern seaboards. For owners of historic homes on the Eastern seaboard, woods such as Old Groove Eastern White Pine are prized for their old look and simplicity. Walnut has fast grown in popularity as dark woods become more and more "in."

DIY & Maintaining Your Wood Floor
Installing a wood floor yourself is definitely an option. Almost 30 percent of homeowners do it themselves. Anyone who can operate a nail gun and a saw can do it. There are also many resources to help you available online and at your local bookstore.

A great benefit of wood flooring is that it’s extremely low maintenance. If you keep a step-off mat at any doorway to collect incoming dirt, then a regular schedule of sweeping and vacuuming is all you really need. Clean up any standing water immediately; it should never be left on a wood floor. It’s advisable to keep an extra box of wood in case you need to replace a strip.

Natural hardwoods stand up to many household mishaps much better than any laminate or synthetic flooring, since the grain and pattern of solid hardwoods go all the way through. Scuffs and burns that would be permanent in a synthetic surface can be repaired with relative ease.

Oak Dining Room Furniture
Elegant American made oak dining furniture is a perfect compliment to your home's wood flooing.