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Different Types of Hardwood Flooring
Floors manage all kinds of heavy traffic in your home and provide you with ease and solid ground. Don’t you think your floor should be smooth, elegant enough to attract praise, and durable enough to carry the burden of your family? So, choosing the right type of flooring for your home is a significant decision. People choose the right flooring based on durable materials and aesthetic look. If you also lie in this category, hardwood is the best pickup for your flooring. Hardwood floors are popular among people because of their timeless look and durability.
Well, the good news is that diversity also exists in the types of hardwood floors. Different types of hardwood trees, for instance, oak, cherry, walnut, and hickory, and other unique sustainable species like mesquite and bamboo make a real difference. Whatever your home’s aesthetic outlook looks, hardwood flooring turns your home into an inviting and pleasant oasis. This blog will explore the different types of hardwood floors along with their cost, benefits, and disadvantages. So, it would become easy for you to choose the right and best one for your home.
Types of Hardwood Floors
Get a Classy look with Oak
Oak is the most popular type of hardwood flooring that comes in red and white variations and gives a classy outlook to your home. It is durable and has spiral grain patterns that hide the scratches. It is cost-effective and costs $6-$11 per square foot. When it comes to its disadvantage, it usually turns yellow over time with sun exposure.
Experience High Durability with Hickory
Its popularity is mainly due to its exquisite grain pattern, versatile colors, and the highest durability on the Janka scale. Compactly arranged grain patterns help in hiding the scratches. It has high water resistance and requires low maintenance. However, its rustic look does not give your living space a contemporary look. So it is an ideal choice for cabinetry purposes.
Go Vintage with Reclaimed Wood
Reclaimed wood is a sustainable way of having stylish flooring in your house. Due to its durability, it always stands the test of time and comes either in a refurbished or original state. Tobacco flooring is a unique reclaimed wood type that comes in refurbished forms and gives an exquisite vintage look to your floor.
Barn-wood Flooring: Best for your Interior Space
Barnwood is a highly utilized hardwood, especially for your interior space. The planks are usually reclaimed from the old barns and buildings. The durability of the wood increases with the aging process. Such type of flooring is mostly used in the modern style farms and gives them a dirty or rustic flooring look.
Use Parquet for an Aesthetically Pleasant Look
If geometric patterned flooring has attracted your attention, you are looking at parquet. Parquet consists of small slabs of hardwood arranged in intricate designs, known for elevating the home’s decorative beauty. However, parquet installation can be fussy, and slight mistakes in installation can make the flooring prone to water damage, pests, and mold. Hence use the areas with low traffic and moisture content for better results.
Prioritize Sustainability with Bamboo
You must be thinking that bamboo is a grass, not a wood. Surprisingly, its durability is at par with hardwood, bamboo flooring gives a fine and lighter look to floors, unlike its counterparts. This natural material also has high resistance against moisture and doesn’t weigh heavily on the budget. More than just for flooring, bamboo makes for a durable material for chairs, tables, and other wooden fixtures as well.
Considering the Different Factors while Choosing the Type of Hardwood Flooring
Selecting the hardwood flooring type is more than choosing a wood type. Other factors like pattern, texture, hardness, and budget are important in elevating your flooring beauty. Let’s delve into these factors for a better understanding.
Type of Wood
Different types of wood exist in the market and are used in hardwood flooring. Pick the best wood after considering your budget, pros and cons, durability, design preferences, and level of use and maintenance.
Hardness
The hardness of hardwood flooring shows the withstanding ability of the floor against wear and tear. An instrument named the Janka Hardness Scale is used to measure it. The higher the rating, the more hard the floor would be.
Solid vs Engineered Wood
Solid wood is a traditional option, usually cut into the desired thickness. On the other hand, engineered wood consists of layers of wood arranged together. This wood is good in withstanding against moisture as compared to solid. Choose the one according to your home condition.
Grain Pattern
The grain pattern is the arrangement of lines within wood. It could be straight, spiral, and wavy. Select a pattern according to taste.
Finished vs Unfinished wood
If you want to embellish your home according to taste, finished wood is the feasible option for you. Otherwise, you can buy finished, already been painted at a manufacturing facility.
Conclusion
Hardwood flooring brings perfection, elegance, and quality to your home. The decisive point lies in the selection of the best hardwood according to taste, style, durability, and budget. To put you at ease, we have explored the different types of hardwood floors along with their characteristics and cons. Walk through all the options and decide. Ultimately, the best flooring for your home is one that meets your financial requirements and style preferences.