Wooden Flooring Info

What’s your reason for choosing wooden flooring over carpeting?  Is it allergies?  Maybe just aesthetics?  Or maybe you have kids, and don’t want to worry about stains?

Regardless, it’s a good bet that you’re considering oak wooden flooring if you’re looking at any wooden floors.  Oak wooden flooring is an old standby in the United States because the oak tree is such an ever present symbol of solidity and durability.  Oak wooden flooring in its natural color is also a nice, light color, lending an air of space, even in smaller rooms.  Just be careful when shopping for your wooden floor, though.  There are a few things to watch out for.

First, if you’re looking at particularly cheap wooden flooring, it’s probably laminate.  Laminate flooring is made up of a thick resin, coating a picture of a wood floor, which sits atop more manufactured materials, all with a wood chip mixture as the base.  There is very little real wood but, many times, it’s hard to tell the difference between laminate and solid wood floors.  Laminate is initially scratch and scuff resistant.  However, if a scratch or scuff does occur, you’re stuck with it until you can swap out entire boards.  Since oak wooden flooring is quite tough, there’s almost no real advantage to using laminate over real…except for price, of course.

Second, you have engineered wooden flooring.  Price wise, engineered sits between laminate and solid, although it’s not uncommon to find wooden flooring sales in which engineered is either comparable to or cheaper than laminate.  The top layer of engineered wooden flooring is actual, solid wood.  However, that layer is quite thin.  The rest of an engineered floor is mostly wood as well, though not solid.  Engineered oak wooden flooring can give you the solidity of an oak wooden floor while keeping the price down.  It can even be buffed a few times if there are any scratches or scuffs, though deep scratches or dents can sometimes require replacing boards.

Then there’s your solid oak wooden floors.  There are those who will choose solid wooden floors because they’ve done their research and decided that it’s the best option for them, but I suspect that the vast majority will choose solid simply because it’s “the real thing”.  With real oak wooden flooring, things like worm holes and scars are considered normal, sometimes even desirable.  There are levels of scarring, but to get the kind of smoothness you find in laminate, you’ll pay quite the ridiculous sum.  There’s also “wormy” solid wood, in which there are a copious amount of scarring and worm holes.  This is great for log cabins, but not so good for multi-million dollar suburban mansions.

Keep in mind: just because it’s “the real thing” doesn’t mean it’s best for you and your home.  Look at all your options before choosing your oak wooden flooring, and consider any wooden flooring sales before you make your final decision.

by James Mcdermott

There has been an increase in demand for bamboo flooring, turning what was once cheap wooden flooring into a still reasonably priced hot commodity. Part of this can be attributed to an increase in environmental awareness of consumers. Despite this, most people don’t think about purchasing bamboo flooring for their home projects. Nevertheless, bamboo flooring has many advantages over more commonly used flooring surfaces, and is popping up more and more in wooden flooring sales.

Bamboo traditionally comes from Southern Asia. It is grown in extremely fertile lands that are able to produce larger amounts of bamboo than most assume. In America, many people think that it is an extremely rare substance. However, this particular plant can be produced in large quantities.

Bamboo can reach maturity after four years. However, oak, lumber, and other sources of wood can take about 65 or more years until they are full grown. This makes bamboo flooring much more economically friendly because it is so easily replenished.

Deforestation is causing a severe loss of natural resources. These are the same resources that people rely upon for hard wood surfacing. For this reason alone, purchasing bamboo flooring is a less environmentally harmful option that more common wood surfaces such as oak and teak wood.

Bamboo flooring has another benefit over traditional wood floor materials. Because it is so easily attainable and fast growing, it is relatively inexpensive. Luckily a lower price does not mean a low quality product. Bamboo is very aesthetically appealing, and always increases the quality of the room it inhabits.  It is also long lasting. Typically you can expect a 20 year life span from bamboo flooring if it is maintained regularly.

Make sure that you pre-measure your surface correctly before you install bamboo flooring. It must also be an even surface. These are the two greatest things to consider before you decide to use bamboo as a floor surface.

It is also advised to install in an area that is not susceptible to drastic water contact. You can use water to maintain bamboo flooring as you would for any other surface. However, flooding can cause deformation of the surface.

Because of its economic advantages, reasonable price, and beauty, this cheap wooden flooring is an excellent addition to any decor. Make sure you consider using bamboo when you decide to install a new floor.

Solid oak flooring can add a beautiful touch to your home. Attractive and durable, this floor will bring personality along with it. Solid oak flooring is made from planks that are joined together at the edges. Traditionally, the edges are square, and that’s what you will see in most homes. Some people, however, prefer something a bit different than a straight line, and for those they tongue and groove edges. That’s right; even the edges of the planks of your solid oak flooring can have character.

There are three different grades, or qualities of solid oak flooring; Select, Country, and Wormy.

All solid oak flooring will have some imperfections in it; that’s the nature of wood flooring in general. Select solid oak flooring, however, will have the fewest by far. The planks for these wood floors are chosen from the best of the best of all the solid oak flooring planks available. They have the least worm holes and scars. They’re also generally more expensive, and not necessarily desirable to all customers. Be sure to consider the look of the rest of your home before assuming that select solid oak flooring is the best option for you.

Wormy solid oak flooring is the exact opposite. Don’t worry, there’s not any actual worms in there, it’s just filled with worm holes, scars, and sometimes even nail holes. Wormy solid oak flooring has real personality. It would be impossible to find any two planks that looked remotely alike, and that is the main draw to the wormy quality of solid oak flooring. This style would probably be best in an older home with a rustic theme, or maybe something like a log cabin. Although select solid oak flooring would fit in just fine, wormy solid oak flooring would look really silly inside a multi-million dollar mansion. Unless that multi-million dollar mansion happened to have a very, very rustic theme, in which case the wormier the better!

The other type of solid oak flooring is called country. Country solid oak flooring is basically a good, healthy compromise between select and wormy, having much the same character as the latter but without going overboard with it. Most people who choose solid oak flooring will likely go with the country quality of wooden flooring, as it very much maintains the rustic charm of the wormy wood floor, while at the same time being a bit less enthusiastic about its marks and holes.  Most wooden flooring sales will comprise of country quality product.

If you’re looking for cheap wooden flooring, you’ll probably be limited to country or wormy, depending on current supply.  If that’s not cheap enough for you, though, you may have to look at engineered wooden flooring instead.

 August 17th, 2009  admin   No comments