Carpet appears as a safe type of flooring, but it is less attractive for your home. Hardwood flooring gives an ordinary home a unique character. Although several species from domestic white oak to exotic tigerwood and Brazilian cherry are available, finding the right shade and patina is only part of the process of choosing hardwood flooring. Before any wood is added or bought, see which type of flooring is best for your home. With solid and engineered hardwoods and laminate flooring put together to appear like real wood, a few options are available for your home or building.
The peak and most sought after type of hardwood flooring is solid. Consider this a type with no additives or changes. Fully from the same tree, solid hardwood flooring is sturdy, but is not for all homes. The wood may warp in a building with a radiating heat source.
Engineered hardwood flooring, on the other hand, is best for homes and buildings with a radiating heat source. 100-percent natural hardwood, engineered flooring is actually a combination of two types of woods. The top portion of a board is the wood that is visible, be it red oak, hickory, or Brazilian walnut, and the bottom is birch. The ratio of the visible hardwood to birch is three to 13. Like solid hardwood, engineered is still sand-able and durable.
A third option is laminate flooring. For homes are not fit for any type of natural wood, laminate is an affordable and attractive option. Some of the more well-known brands of hardwoods, such as Armstrong and Bruce, even carry their own laminate lines. This type of flooring, however, contains no natural wood, and instead has a core of high-density fiberboard. On top are a high-resolution photograph of wood and a glossy coat of resin-coated cellulose or melamine. Additions such as enhanced texture make laminate flooring seem more like natural hardwood.
Installation is another factor for hardwood flooring. Are you replacing a large area or only part of the room? For the former, prefinished wood reduces the time spent adding flooring and finishing, while unfinished wood is best for matching new flooring to older materials.
