Posts Tagged hardwood floors
A Hardwood Floor For Your Home
Perhaps it’s time for a remodel and updating of your home. How about a remodel that will transform your home, add lasting value, beauty and elegance, and be something you will be proud of? Think about hardwood flooring.
Generally hardwood floors come pre finished, this is when the manufacturer applies a finish at the factory. This finish is generally at least four coats of ultraviolet cured urethane resin. Hardwood floors are generally easy to clean with a simple sweep of a dust mop or vacuuming. You will need to protect your hardwood floors from scratches as much as possible. Putting protective rugs under your furniture is an excellent way to prevent scratches on the floor. Hardwood floors are meant to last a lifetime.
You will want to choose a color of hardwood floor that will accent your home and home furnishings. As a rule lighter colors go with country, contemporary and casual settings. Darker colored wood floors are for formal or traditional interiors. But, of course, anything goes! Your decision should be based on your visual preference.
Lighter wood would be a white ash, sugar maple or southern yellow pine. Darker colors are beech, birch, red oak, heart pine and mesquite.
You want to make sure that your hardwood floor will be able to withstand denting and wear. Of the woods mentioned above mesquite is the hardest wood, and a southern yellow pine would be the softest. In the middle of these fall the yellow birch, heart pine and beech.
If you are going to be hiring and contractor to install your hardwood floor make sure you ask for references. Go take a look at a floor that he has installed. Make sure that he is comfortable working with the type of word floor that you want installed.
Make sure that you thoroughly inspect the hardwood floor after the installation. Look at the floor from a standing position and with normal lighting. The finish on your floor will not be that you would find on fine furniture. Deep swirls or sander marks or splotchy areas may mean that the floor wasn’t finished properly. There will however be some irregularities on any wood floor. However, these irregularities won’t seem obvious and will only add to the character of the floor.
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Bamboo Flooring Information
For a unique look in flooring, with many additional benefits, the popularity of bamboo flooring in on the rise.
Most bamboo flooring is imported to North America from China where there is an abundance of this fast growing plant. Bamboo is actually a grass, even though most peoplke think of it as a tree.
Due to the fact that bamboo can reach maturity in as little as four years, it has become an excellent product to use for flooring.
It has many of the features of hardwood floors, with its durablilty and warmth, yet is more cost effective.
Bamboo floors are excellent for high traffic areas because it is considered harder than some of the other popular hardwood floors.
This is partially due to the process by which bamboo floors are produced, where the wood is dried first, and then cut into strips. These strips are then shaped before being laminated together and stained to form an extremely hard, colorfast surface.
As with any home product there are various different standards of product quality and more often than not, the cheaper discount products will give you a less than desired performance rating. If the bamboo hasn’t been processed correctly, you can have problems with color fading and in some cases a surface that is below par for wear and tear.
It is always essential that you deal with a reputable bamboo flooring dealer when building or renovating your house to ensure that you are getting a quality product that will service your needs for many years.
One other major benefit from the increased use of bamboo for flooring is the fact that it is saving the rainforests that take so many more years to replenish than bamboo does.
Not only will you have a beautiful floor but you will also be helping the environment.
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