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Hardwood
Floor - How to select the hardwood flooring that suits
your needs?
Hardwood
floors are suited to both casual and formal environments; they
feel at home with modern or traditional and will compliment the
decor of both modest and assorted designs. Your hardwood flooring
can be classic, rock, jazz, country, or hip-hop. Today’s
State-of-the-art technology linked with an almost infinite choice
of stains, finishes, styles and designs make wood floors one of
the most convenient and versatile choices available. Their beauty
is long lasting and like a fine glass of wine they mature with
age.
Nature
bestows the inspiration when designing with hardwood floors. The
abundance of natural species presents a plethora of wood grain
structures, each unique and each matching a particular decor.
Oak hardwood plank flooring is full of abundant ring patterns
and knots, and is best suited to traditional and rustic decors.
However, adding a high gloss finish to your hardwood floors can
make them graceful enough for any formal dining room. Maple, walnut
and birch wood flooring contain very little graining and hence
they provide well to contemporary and modern designs.
The
artistic and visual appeal of hardwood plank flooring is also
influenced to a large extent by mineral streaking, the presence
of knots in addition to color and shade variation. These features
assist in the classification of wood.
Hardwood
Grades
Clear
– This grade of flooring is free of defects though
it may have minor flaws. This category is most expensive, as it
tends to be very consistent with little mineral streaking and
knots.
Select
– This grade of flooring contains more natural
characteristics such as knots and color variations but it is almost
clear.
Common
grades (No. 1 and No. 2) have more markings than either
clear or select and are often chosen because of these natural
features and the character. These grades of floors have always
been the least expensive. But recently the revival of the antique
rustic look has resulted in prices skyrocketing.
Performance
is a very important aspect when selecting your hardwood floor.
Some hardwood species are less porous than others, making them
harder and almost invulnerable to denting and staining. To check
the relative hardness of numerous hardwood species used in flooring
the Janka hardness test is done. This test should be used as a
general guide, as the hardness is also affected by growth region.
There
are many more flooring articles in our flooring
section. There is more specific information in the links at
the beginning of this article. They can guide you where you need
to go.
Hardwood
vs Laminate
The difference is more than you think, or maybe not!
Good
Carpet is best!
There is nothing like walking barefoot on great carpet
Caring
for Hardwood is easier than you think.
Just vacuum and you are done.
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