What are the Benefits of Hardwood and Engineered Flooring

Types of Hardwood Flooring

Unfinished wood flooring:

 As natural as it comes, a contractor can fit and add finishing to your hardwood floors in your home .

Factory-finished flooring: 

 Just like it sounds, the factory applies the finishes before the wood leaves the warehouse, removing some of the steps that would otherwise occur in your home.

Engineered wood: 

 There’s solid wood traditional flooring, and then there’s wood flooring with different veneers. While some of this type of flooring can be sanded and finished, it cannot be done as many times as solid wood flooring, according to the NWFA.

Floating engineered wood floors: 

 Okay, so this isn’t entirely a separate floor type defined by the NWFA, but it is a way to think about wood floors beyond just nailing down boards. Floating floors offer a wood option for those who don’t want to invest the time and price of sourcing solid wood flooring. These boards sit above your current floor and fit together like puzzle pieces, with minimal shaping (except for along the edges). Such flooring can lie over concrete, ceramic tile, and other surfaces that may otherwise rule out traditional wood floors—or necessitate costly removal to make wood possible.

Hardwood Floors vs Engineered Flooring

 

Solid hardwood flooring are natures made product mill from trees just as any wood type material, it will need to have a finish on, a protective coat that seals your hardwood floor against every day wear and will make your hardwood floors last forever, with a proper care and maintenance your wood floor can look flawless for years and years to come.

 

When you’re ready to buy your wood floors, think about of what you’re getting, what you want to accomplish and for the future. There are lots of options available when it come to hardwood floors, the best wood floor in the market if you want a wood floor that is going to last your lifetime, it will be the Solid Hardwood Flooring. These type of wood flooring is a product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring and it can be refinished many times.

Solid hardwood flooring a common choice as a flooring material due to its environmental profile, durability, and restorability. There are two types of solid wood floors that you can buy on the market an the thickness varies from ¾” to 5/16” and comes in different width, depending on what type of wood floor, affordability, or look on your wood floor you want to accomplish and these two types of solid wood floor are Unfinished hardwood flooring and Pre-finished hardwood floors.

 

Pre-Finished Solid Wood Floors

Pre-finish hardwood flooring are factory made finished solid wood flooring, pre-finish hardwood comes in different type of stained colors and natural look of the wood specie type. Since these floors have been factory pre-finished these floors require less time to install because the finishing process on the wood floor has already happened, these floors needs to be nail down.

Most likely it will take a day or two depending on how big the area is for the installation of hardwood to be completed, if you hire a professional or it can be a DIY project with the proper tools, some carpentry experience and some time to do it, why not! but we recommend to get a professional installer.

Unfinished Solid Wood Floors

Unfinished hardwood flooring must be install the same way as the pre-finish floors, but this time since there is no finish on the wood, all the process must be done on site and here is where the fun part begins. Unfinished hardwood flooring will have flaws, no matter whether marks have come from the machines at the mills, or it has become scratched or gouged during handling, or from wear and tear and there’s no protective coat to seal the wood floor.

Sanding Hardwood Floors

If these flaws aren’t sanded away, the finish that is applied to the hardwood will only highlight them and the finish product will look real bad plus there will be nothing to protect the wood floor. Today there are several types of finish that consist in oil-based, water-base or water-borne that can meet and beat factory finishes.

 

Dust-Free Sanding Process

Type of Finishes

The installer will sand the wood floor, stained your specific or matching color and apply at least 3 coats of finish weather is Oil-Based or Water Based Gloss, Semi-Gloss and Satin finishes on the job site. This is the best option if you are looking for a specific color or need to match existing hardwood flooring. or wanna have a custom seamless finish look on your wood floor stain your floor the way you want, that no one else can have since everything is done on site and by hand, but most important you can re-coat your wood floors every time they look thirsty rather than changing your floors again and the best part you can change the appearance over gain.

 

 Installing New Hardwood Flooring

Cost, noise and time can play as much of a part in this decision as the environment or looks. Sure, you could refinish the floor, but do you have the time to do so? Renting tools so you can DIY the new floor could bring the project cost close to that of a good contractor, not to mention the time involved for someone who doesn’t do this for a living. If you’re fairly handy and the floors appear in good shape, buffering, stain and some finish—one weekend, or even one day, of elbow grease depending on the room size—could handle the issue. A local, well-stocked hardware store could help you here. But if you aren’t sure how to install hardwood floors or how to refinish wood floors yourself, your living room boards may thank you for hiring a Hardwood Flooring Expert

Moisture vs Hardwood

Solid hardwood flooringis sensitive to moisture and it is not recommended to install these floors below ground level, or directly over a concrete slab due to  these areas having higher concentrations of moisture since wood is a natures made product it will absorb moisture and expand or shrink. Solid Hardwood flooring are for nail-down installations only, with the exceptions of a few manufacturers that state you can direct glue down 5/16 inch thick solid hardwood flooring. 

 Benefits Of Engineered Flooring

Engineered  Flooring consists of several cross-stacked strips of wood that are more stable and resistant to humidity and moisture than solid wood floors. Engineered hardwood flooring is a product made up of a core of hardwood, plywood or high density fiber (HDF) and a top layer of hardwood veneer that is glued on the top surface of the core and is available in almost any hardwood species. Unlike solid wood, engineered hardwood doesn’t shrink or expand  as much of solid wood floors due to temperature and humidity changes and can be install on concrete slab and wood subfloor, it can be install anywhere in your home by gluing it down or nail down. It also allows for longer and wider planks–providing not only a more desirable look, but also resistance to the bending or bowing that can occur with longer solid planks.

 

What’s more, the total thickness of an engineered floor is only 3/8 to 5/8 inch, so it can be installed over an existing floor — say, during a kitchen renovation — with a minimal increase in level. Most engineered flooring is available in tongue-and-groove strips which must be stapled or glued to the subfloor. Engineered hardwoods are the most common of the wood flooring types that are glued down during installation. Engineered hardwoods have more flexibility and can endure the wear and tear over time. This type of installation is not recommended for the novice, but you can always take the challenge, with a little guidance from the experts, why not? But it takes a lot of floor preparation and can be quite messy…