Walnut Exotic

Simple Flooring Tips For Your Home

Interior designers and builders agree that the first element to consider when beginning to finish a room is flooring, because it sets the mood.

Many more professionals these days are bypassing tile and carpeting, and going with wood. What kind of wood should you choose? Beyond the basics of solid hardwood, engineered wood, and reclaimed antique wood, there are many options to choose from. There are a lot of options out there, but making the right choice according to your tastes and circumstances is easier than it appears. Here are some factors to consider, along with some useful advice from the experts.

Which Wood-Flooring Type Should You Choose?
Solid Hardwood: Although solid hardwood expands and contracts and sometimes creaks, its natural beauty will always add value to your home. Even better, it can be re-sanded and refinished, so it retains its value.

Engineered Wood Floors: They construct these floors at the factory, gluing together thin sheets of wood and refinishing them. This results in a more stable product than solid wood, because it resists buckling and warping. Whereas solid wood can only be nailed to a subfloor, engineered wood floors (although developed to be glued over concrete) can also be nailed or floated.

Reclaimed Antique Wood: This flooring option is custom made one plank at a time according to the customer’s specifications. It can cut from the center section of a beam, which makes this flooring option very stable.

Finished vs. Unfinished
One of the benefits of solid hardwood flooring is that it’s available finished or unfinished. Go with an unfinished option if you want to match an adjacent floor. Then it can be custom stained to blend. You will be pleased with the uniform color and finish you can achieve in your floor by finishing it on site. But do take into account that an unfinished wood floor will probably take several days to install, stain, and finish.

On the other hand, finished wood (both solid and engineered) is factory sanded, stained, and finished. Thus it’s much easier to install and requires less time, not to mention that there will be no on-site sanding and finishing. If you’re installing flooring in a high-traffic area, finished wood is the way to go because it’s so durable. Another plus is that it’s less expensive than unfinished wood.

Important Things to Consider
If you have radiant heating in your home, where the heat source is under the floor, then engineered would be the better option over solid hardwood because of its durability. The National Wood Flooring Association backs up this claim, recommending quarter-sawn or rift-sawn wood in this circumstance, again because of durability. According to the NWFA, strip flooring is preferable over plank flooring, since narrow boards expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity less than wide ones.

Stoddard recommends engineered wood flooring for seaside homes, because it’s scratch-resistant—and less like to be damaged by tracked-in sand—and requires less maintenance. Engineered hardwood flooring is clearly the best option for any interior that’s not environmentally controlled, such as those in cottages, summer homes, or below-grade installations.

Some Simple Design Tips
Pay attention to the understated details when personalizing a room. One nice option is to use a lighter wood overall and then add a dark border. Another great idea is to drop in a maple medallion that looks like an area rug.

Mixing woods from room to room is becoming more common. For a cozy room such as a den or bedroom, a dark wood like walnut or cherry would work well. But a lighter wood, like maple or birch, would brighten up any kitchen.

If you are going for a formal, traditional, or historic look, then darker wood is the way to go. Country, casual, and contemporary homes are better suited to lighter woods. Be sure to choose flooring that will complement all your fabrics, furnishings, and accessories.

Current Trends in Wood Flooring
The latest options in the flooring market include hand-scraped wood and “exotics” from far-off lands. Brazilian cherry, Santos mahogany, and Amendoim all boast delightful grains and colors, and conveniently are available in solid hardwood or engineered wood.

The old look and simplicity of woods such as Old Groove Eastern White Pine is becoming increasingly popular among owners of historic homes on the Eastern seaboards. For owners of historic homes on the Eastern seaboard, woods such as Old Groove Eastern White Pine are prized for their old look and simplicity. Walnut has fast grown in popularity as dark woods become more and more “in.”

DIY and Maintaining Your Wood Floor
Almost 30 percent of homeowners install wood flooring themselves. If you’re handy with a nail gun and saw, then you can do it. There are also many resources to help you available online and at your local bookstore.

Once your floor is installed, you’ll be pleased to discover that wood flooring is extremely low maintenance. A regular schedule of sweeping and vacuuming is all you really need, a chore that will be made much easier if you keep a step-off mat at every doorway to collect any incoming dirt. Remember to never leave standing water on a wood floor. It’s a good idea to keep an extra box of wood in case you need to replace a strip.

Natural hardwoods will survive a household accident much better than laminates and synthetics, since their grain and pattern go all the way through. Even those scuffs and burns that would become permanent in a synthetic floor can be repaired with relative ease.

Avo Barsoumian has been part of the interior design and flooring community for the past 25 years. He is the owner and manager of a popular flooring installation company in Orange County. The carry the best in elegant hardwood flooring, beautiful laminate flooring and plush carpeting. So whether you’re looking for flooring carpeting for your new home or carpet showrooms
to makeover your older home then Carpet Wagon carries everything you need.

Spaun 7×14 Birch Snare – Exotic Walnut Burl