Solid Hardwood Flooring
Solid hardwood flooring is still the preferred choice of many homeowners. There is not many other interior capital improvements you can do that makes your house more aesthetically pleasing, easier to maintain, and at the same time more sellable in a local real estate market. Its like killing three birds with one stone.
Most of the solid hardwood flooring are manufactured from hickory, oak, bamboo, and maple trees. They are sold in individual pieces, or planks, that our rectangular in shape. The wood can be different shades and colors depending on the type of wood it is and its quality.
What are the major benefits to switch it over to hardwood flooring versus some of the other options out there? Let’s briefly name a couple of them.
The first reason that cannot be denied is the beautiful look solid hardwood flooring gives the interior of any house. It is well known that this type of flooring accentuates any furniture you have and give any home a more sophisticated and open look to it.
You can be looking at two rooms, one with carpet and the other with with hardwood flooring, both identical and square footage, and the room with the hardwood installed will look bigger and more attractive.
This type of flooring is also easier to clean and maintain than other types. Spills are easily wiped up and all it takes is hot soapy water to clean it. This can be especially appealing to the homeowners, deciding which option is to go with, have small children. You need a floor type in which spills can easily be rectified and it is cleaning is not too much of a chore.
If you purchase quality hardwood flooring (oak, bamboo, maple, hickory) you can expect it to last for decades as long as you do not install it in an extremely humid place or one with a lot condensation. If you live in an area where these conditions exist, or they exist in certain parts of your home, it is better to go with another substance like vinyl, tile, linoleum. Moisture seems to be the only thing that can really affect the lifespan of hardwood flooring because it makes it expand and contract constantly which causes gaps over time.
What one wants to install solid flooring in their homes they often have the choice of going with the real thing or choosing laminate. While there is nothing wrong with laminate flooring keep in mind that it is manufactured and not real. Laminate flooring does have many of the same benefits that hardwood flooring has including being very durable and easy to clean. In fact laminate flooring is easier to install and cheaper.
Having having said this a person who’s been in the business long enough or who have owned multiple homes with the different types of flooring can tell you that the feel and warmth of the real thing (genuine solid hardwood flooring) cannot be duplicated. Laminate comes close but it is still just a replica. Hardwood flooring is more expensive than the latter but at the same time it makes your home more valuable than one installed with laminate flooring. As they say it “nothing beats the real thing,” and flooring is no exception.
The great thing about choosing to go with hardwood flooring in 2010 is availability and price. So we years ago during the housing boom it was very difficult to find this type of quality flooring at a fair price. Homes were springing up almost overnight and all the premium ones were installed with hardwood. Now there is more supply than there is demand. You can get some fantastic deals that just several years ago were hard to come by. Start looking now. Hardwood flooring is definitely the way to go.