What Are the Best Features of Hardwood Flooring?

What Are the Best Features of Hardwood Flooring? 

Natural Material

Hardwood flooring is milled from trees of native or exotic origin. Natural wood is ideal for use as hardwood flooring, making it functional as well as decorative. Natural wood has been used for hundreds of years and is still very popular due to its beauty, durability, and ease of maintenance. Many home and business owners find that hardwood flooring adds an extra dimension of beauty and character to their property while others may still prefer to use carpet or a variety of other types of floor materials. Continue to read this article and learn more about the benefits of hardwood floors.

Longevity

Hardwood floors have been known to last well over 100+ years. It is important that you get the wood species that durable and strong and a good fit for its intended use. You would pick a species that can stand up to the traffic. This especially important for commercial properties. The more traffic a floor experiences, the harder the wood should be. The hardier species would be red oak, maple, ash, cherry, birch, and poplar. Not only are they durable but quite beautiful as well. You can always cross-reference the type of wood you like on the Janka hardness scale or consult with a hardwood specialist. They have been known to withstand wear and tear for decades with minimal effort.

Ability to Restore

Unlike any other flooring, solid hardwood floors can be stripped down to the naked wood and refinished to restore them to their former self, thus adding more years to their life. A hardwood floor can be fully restored 8-12 times in its lifetime. However, restoring a hardwood floor can be a little tricky and should be best left to a specialist.

Best Option for Allergy Sufferers

Doctors often recommend solid hardwood flooring to allergy sufferers because the wood is a natural material and does not capture dust, dander, pollen, and other allergens that build up in other types of flooring. 

Easy Maintenance

Hardwood floors are easy to maintain. What type of finish was used on the floor will determine how to best care for your floor. In general, mop up spills quickly, use a soft broom or vacuum to pick up dirt that could grind into the wood, and use a recommended wood floor cleaning solution once a week. The important thing to remember with hardwood is that moisture is the enemy.

Many Styles, Colors, and Installation Options to Choose From

Wood flooring planks can be stained to provide an array of colors to match any interior or left natural and untreated. As an example, unfinished birch or maple floors can be stained to give them a different color. The trick is to pick a stain that will work with the natural grain of the wood. 

Additionally, hardwood planks come in many lengths and widths configurations allowing the installer to design intricate patterns if desired or create a beautiful parquette floor. One is really only limited by one's imagination when it comes to hardwood floors.

Great ROI

 Although the initial capital outlay of hardwood is a bit more expensive due to the cost of on-site installation, hardwood floors provide a greater ROI than any other flooring. Not only increase hardwood floors the value of the property they also last for a long time as mentioned earlier.

On-Site Finish vs Factory Finished Options

There are certain advantages of purchasing factory-finished planks, especially if the finishing process on-site might be a potential health problem for you. From an aesthetic perspective, it is our strong opinion that there is no comparison to the beauty and warmth of unfinished hardwood flooring that is sanded and finished on-site.  However, there is no denying that prefinished flooring is a much faster process – you can walk on it right after it is installed. With that being said, we tend to think of new hardwood flooring as an investment in your home, and it is something that is going to be there for quite some time.  The hardwood floor that you choose is something that you will see, live with, and appreciate every day, and for those reasons, we feel that the extra days required for on-site sanding and finishing is of minimal inconvenience when compared with the many years that you will enjoy your new hardwood floors! 

We hope that you found this post useful. If you have reached the conclusion of getting hardwood floors for your home or business, give us a call at (707) 297-2476 to arrange for a visit to our showroom and look at our flooring samples and a design consultation. We look forward to assisting you soon.