Hardwood floors are one of the valued features for homes. If a property has an existing hardwood flooring, the main concern when floor cleaning it is its wood age. Usually, if it's mature, it requires hardwood floor refinishing or hardwood repairs (minor renovation).
Hardwood flooring has three existing types in the market with three varieties to choose from. The hardwood floor varieties are the strip, plank and parquet: the wood strips are usually about 1.5 to 2.75 inches wide, the plank sizes are wider than the strips, and the parquets are composed of individual squares that make up of a geometric pattern. If you have sized-up the scale of your floor plan, you can now choose which type of wood flooring to install - whether the solid hardwood, engineered wood or the laminate flooring is fit for your interior furnishings and house style.
Engineered wood flooring is an alternative to solid hardwood flooring embraced by more and more interior professionals. This type of flooring is a sandwich of finish wood and plywood. The finish wood is what you see and walk on; underneath it is the plywood that comprises about 80 to 90% of the engineered wood flooring each giving dimensional strength to the sandwich.
If solid hardwood is not ideal for usually moist areas, engineered wood flooring can be best installed in basements and bathrooms.
Another great thing bout engineered wood is the range of installation options. The thinner varieties can be nailed down; the thicker kinds can be installed as floating floors. Floating floors are the great boon to do-it-yourselfers--no heavy staplers to lug around, no sub-floor. As long as your existing floor is level and stable, you can install the floating floor right on top.
Engineered wood flooring's greatest weakness is its thin top layer. Remarkably, this 1/16" to 1/8" finish layer can be sanded. But only once or twice - three is pushing it. In any case, I strongly recommend you seek the advice of a reputable hardwood installation company before doing a project. Unlike solid hardwood, deep scratches and dents in engineered wood cannot be sanded out, but can be refinished depending on the flooring company.
Laminate flooring, and what you really have to know, is not a real wood. It is comprised of a thin top layer of resin-infused paper, all on top of a wood-chip composite. Technically, it is a wood but if you are to really take a closer study on it, it is just paper-like: the resin-infused layer is essentially a photograph of wood.
Among the advantages of laminate flooring are its scratch-resistant feature and that it works very, very, very much in moist areas like bathrooms and kitchens; and it's easy to install. On the other side of the coin, laminate flooring cannot be sanded.
Solid hardwood floors come either unfinished or pre-finished. This type of wood flooring is solid all the way from top to bottom. Unfinished hardwoods are a bit inexpensive to purchase and it requires immediate sanding, optional staining, and sealing after installation, which will require you at least 48 hours for the sealant to dry. With unfinished hardwood, the advantage is you can stain it and seal it to your liking, however, with pre-finished hardwoods, the advantage is easier to install and less down time. Pre-finished hardwoods are factory-completed product, which means there is no on-site sanding and finishing.
Since solid hardwoods are prone to scratches and dents, you need to pay special attention to its species (i.e. Oak, Maple, etc.) and how to better take care of it. But the great thing about solid hardwood floors is that it can be refinished or re-sanded numerous times, extending its life literally for years to come.
Solid hardwood floors are easy to maintain. They are durable and can withstand time. The value of hardwood floors is evident to homes that are decades of age. Upscale homebuyers are willing to pay top dollar for homes that have solid hardwood floors.
If you think that hardwood floors are for sophisticated homes, think again. Hardwood floors are creatively designed to blueprint contemporary-styled houses. With so many types of woods like oak, cherry, maple and walnut, and different options to style the wood from staining to sanding, there is always something fit for your style.
Hardwood floor installation, and hardwood floor cleaning and maintenance are costly, but they are worth it. Trust Me!
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DHORJ ESCUSA is a web copywriter for a web design company that build websites and increases visibility through optimization and promotion.