Florida Hardwood Flooring | Orlando Wood Floor Boards
Your home makes a statement about you, your sense of style and taste, so it can be a difficult decision to choose the right flooring. You can always go with tile or carpet, but a fine hardwood floor is an excellent choice. Keep in mind that the word “hardwood” encompasses a range of products, so let’s review them.
Solid hardwood — Solid hardwood is exactly that, flooring that is sections of solid wood mated together to form a floor. Solid hardwood is typically purchased unfinished, with the final finishes added on-site after the floor is installed. Solid hardwood floors can be sanded and refinished in the future, allowing them to be restored to a like-new appearance if needed. Pre-finished solid hardwood is available, but many owners opt for unfinished to allow customization of the final color once the floor is laid.
Engineered hardwood — Engineered flooring is a newer product, using a thinner layer of hardwood over a substrate of materials designed to minimize expansion and contraction as the home environment changes. The advantages of engineered hardwoods include less installation labor as the floors are manufactured with a finish, the ability to install them directly over concrete which makes them useful for basements or enclosed porches, less expansion, and contraction with weather changes, and a wide range of color and finish choices. The disadvantages include the fact that the hardwood layer is thin and thus cannot be sanded and refinished later, and once installed it can be noisier than solid wood floors.
Urethanes versus oil finishes — Urethane or polyurethane finish is a synthetic chemical finish resistant to moisture and wear. It is also resistant to scratches but once they occur can be harder to repair. Oil penetrates the wood, providing a softer final finish. Oil-sealed floors require more routine maintenance to repair scratches but it is relatively easy to do. If you are putting a new floor in a higher wear area, opt for a polyurethane finish to provide a hard resistant barrier to wear.
Wood type and grain — Oak is the primary choice for hardwood flooring due to its hardness and ease of staining, but woods such as walnut, maple, cherry, and ash offer different colors and grain patterns. You need to decide what type of grain pattern you desire for your floor, as the grain differs depending on the wood and how it was sawn. Depending on your preference, grain can be relatively straight to wavy with arches and swirls.
Board width — Once again, this is a matter of personal taste. Older homes used narrow boards, but now tastes run to wider boards. Wide hardwood planks offer a rich look but will be more expensive. Wide boards also can distort over time due to expansion and contraction, because the changes are absorbed over fewer boards. Wide boards also look better in larger rooms, so choose carefully.
In summary, it may seem daunting to choose your next hardwood floor, but Flooring.org can help you in all phases of choosing your hardwood. We have an extensive inventory of a wide variety of woods, widths, and finishes, so call Flooring.org today before going anywhere else for a hardwood floor.
