Hardwood Flooring Choices
If you are a home owner considering redesigning your home or you just bought a house that needs new floors, then hardwood flooring is definitely a good choice. There are some hardwood basics you need to know about. The best case for installing hardwood flooring can be classified in three ways: profound sheer beauty, excellent strength and pure durability.
You can be sure that genuine hardwood flooring will add significant beauty and quality to the value of your home. A hardwood floored house possesses the rich look and smooth feel that can never be possible with any other flooring material. Unlike the other flooring materials, the value of your Hardwood floor if maintained properly increases with time. And it will be amazing to see your house value increase tremendously just because you installed wood floors.
In hardwood flooring there are two types, the solid hardwood and engineered hardwood. Solid hardwood flooring is a single piece of a 100 percent solid wood that is easily sanded and refinished. It is a 100 percent Wood product. On the other hand engineered hardwood flooring is a higher-performance product made by bonding several wood layers with the featured species showing distinct designs. Numerous, but not all engineered wood floors can be refinished.
To begin with you must think like a designer as you have options to choose the colors and textures of the hardwood. Hardwood colors range from cooling yellows, to warm reds, to neutral umbers or naturals. Most hardwood floors will change color overtime, so you can select your own color according to your taste and match it with your home. The show off of your floor will depend on the lighting system in your home. You can choose low gloss, satin gloss or high gloss as finishing touches.
Some hardwood floors come in rustic, hand- scraped or smooth tailored contemporary styles. You can use hardwood flooring styles throughout your house to get that special magnificent style. The surface texture and the natural designs on the hardwood will definitely add to the decor of your House. It is desirable to use solid wood at or above ground level so that you can avoid damages occurring due to moisture. Engineered wood can be utilized virtually anywhere, even over concrete.
So now you have the facts, selecting hardwood as your flooring will add magnificent beauty to your house while providing a true sense of increased value to all that visit your welcoming home.
Great Flooring Ideas for Your Home
Usually, the color of the floors is chosen after the color of the walls is chosen. However, in many expensive houses, where beautiful custom designed flooring such as tile, marble and parquet is installed, the flooring material is an integral part of the original architectural design, frequently requiring that the color choice of these expensive materials be made early in the design process. There may be some room for flexibility; for example, elaborate mosaic floors are used in limited areas and wood floorings are in natural colors that blend with any color scheme. Natural wood floorings even from the lightest to the darkest can blend with most color schemes and because of their tone become almost neutral with a strong color scheme. Some may even consider this a negative feature of wood flooring, since flooring can be considered such a strong feature of a room, combining the appearance of strength with the ability to blend into the background.
This is what makes the choice of flooring one of the most difficult in decorating a house. This may also explain why rooms that are decorated in lighter colors work better with hardwood flooring than rooms decorated in darker colors. A well installed wood floor should never be covered with another material; wood floors are clean, easy to care for, a good value and can complement almost any decorating theme. Yet, its very unobtrusiveness usually requires some additional treatment to give it some drama and carry through a certain style. The best solution is a combination solution. that is. cover the flooring with a rug that reflects the decorating scheme of the room but. at the same time leaves enough of the beautiful natural feature of the wood flooring showing through. A few smaller rugs might achieve the same effect, depending on the size of the room and the placement of the furniture in the room.
The main idea is to make sure that the colors and decorating theme of the room is carried throughout on the floors, walls and furniture. If the room is very large. or the decorating theme requires a more luxuriant feel to it, more of the wood floor area will have to be covered. Bare wood floors convey a minimalist feel, so a room that is decorated in a luxurious style would need more of the wood covered.
The design and colors of the rug or rugs must complement the scheme of the entire room, but once that requirement is met, a great deal of variety can be added to the design without ruining the overall result.
Wood Flooring Can Be Very Expensive
You may not want wood flooring and all the cost that is involved in the installation unless you are going to stay in your home long term. There are several important factors that go into choosing the proper flooring material for any situation. This particular article will look at real wood flooring and some considerations to make before taking the plunge.
Wood flooring is very nice and there are many types to choose from like Bamboo flooring which has become a very popular choice with builders and home owners alike. The cost is very good and the durability is also a real plus. However, there are some great alternatives that you should think about as well.
Laminate flooring is a great second choice and one that should be thought about if you are planning to re-sell your home in the near future. There are two reasons why you should consider laminate wood flooring and they are; the cost of materials, and the cost of installation. Both of these factors are less expensive than real wood flooring material.
If you plan to stay in your home for several years then by all mean you should look into real wood surfaces. You will find that the many styles and materials that are available can be a bit confusing. It may be best to consult a flooring installer before getting too far ahead of the game.
The flooring sales person at your local dealer may only tell you the benefits of their company and products. They may be good points, but obviously you want to get other opinions. By seeking advice from someone who installs the wood flooring for a living you can get a non sales pitch opinion on what fits your needs the best.