Beautifying Living Spaces with Hardwood Flooring – the Easy Way!

Hardwood floorings have been in fashion for a long time. We have always been ‘floored’ by the high class feel that well-polished hardwood flooring gives to a space. With plentiful options coming to the fore, even you can get the same for your property.

Choosing the Best Hardwood Flooring

Ask your local trustworthy carpenter or your architect to choose the best quality of hardwood for your home. But if you still want to do it yourself, you may have to go through a lot of research in order to make your floors match with your existing or new décor.

• It should also be kept in mind that a proper calculation of the total area to be covered by the flooring should be done in order to not over-buy materials.

• Specifications about each and every kind of hardwood flooring are to be kept in mind since the climate of the place can affect its longevity.

• One should never opt for cheap products for they are cost incurring due to their short-lived usage. Go for the pricey ones, though a little heavy on the pocket, they will stay with you longer too.

Different methods of Manufacturing Hardwood floorings

Rotary-peel

This process is carried out by boiling logs of wood in water at a high temperature, and for a certain period of time. The peeled wood is pressed flat with the help of high pressure. A smooth finishing is given to the wooden sheets. The color of the flooring depends on the color that the log has, from the outside bark to the center. There is a problem of wood shavings curling back into their original shape, but then, they are engineered to give an appearance of plywood in the grain.

Sliced-peel

This goes through the same process as rotary-peel but the wood is carved in slices from the log. Here, the resultant sheets do not have the plywood grain appearance.

Dry solid-sawn

Instead of being boiled, the logs are dried in humidity controlled levels and sawed off. Then, the regular pressure technique comes into play for producing the sheets.

Types of Hardwood Floorings

Each type of hardwood flooring produced comes with a different set of instructions for installers. The supervisor of the installation should be knowledgeable enough to know the type of the wood and what it requires.

Unfinished wood flooring

Finishing is a must for every wooden product. This type of flooring comes without the protective layer that defends it against everyday wear. With this type of flooring, installers should definitely sand the wood, make it shiny, and apply the finishing layer on-site.

Factory finished floorings

This type comes pre-ready and just needs to be installed. The sanding and finishing are done previously from the factory itself, with the installer having less work to do. Unlike the unfinished flooring, which should be dry before one can walk on them; this is dry and ready to be tried out.

Solid wood flooring

This will be a solid piece of wood of ¾" to 5/16" that needs to be installed upright or on ground. It can be sanded and polished innumerable times, as per the need.

Engineered wood floorings

They are of real wood veneers of multiple kinds of wood. The woods are in different directions to make the flooring harder. These engineered wood choices can be placed above or below the ground.

Browsing till you get the Perfect Shade

You cannot simply watch the shades online to judge which color will suit a given room. Ask for your online service provider to supply you with original shade cards to help you come to a decision. Browsing through numerous stores can be a bit tiring; but then, matching the color of the flooring with your decors requires a bit of sweating. Sit down with numerous color catalogues for the flooring, because the end result will be worthy of all the headaches you get. Match the shade you like as closely as you can and ask about as many opinions as you want. Different views will help you in the long run.

How to Find Hardwood floorings Online

Go for hardwood flooring dealers who will send a representative to your house in order to match the color. If you order online, there may be a chance of the product being not what you wanted. What they show on online catalogues may be different from the real product. So, ensure that the online retailer is offering you the desired customer services.

Yes, as many others, you can be drawn in by the offers going on at online stores, but trust an expert and walk that small distance between your home and the departmental store too check out the products on offer. This will help you take the right decision.

Maintenance of floorings

Termites, dampness and daily wear-and-tear can do great harm to your beloved flooring. Keeping up its maintenance on a routine basis is very much required. With this in view, calling in experts from the company will be a better option than administering the cleaning yourself or through a domestic help.

• Don’t use oil based soaps; paste wax, or other hard household cleaning products on damaged areas

• Keep acid containers or corrosive elements off the floor, so as to prevent any accidental spills on the flooring.

• Avoid walking on this type of flooring with heeled shoes or with shoes with spiked soles.

• In case of termites, calling the professionals would be the best option before they spread onto the whole wooden flooring.

So, go for the flooring that changes your house for the better, you and your guests will love it!

Carpet Express is a distributor of a wide variety of carpets and rugs, offering latest designs in residential and commercial flooring. The company offers residential carpets in a variety of styles and colors, such as textured, plush.