Hardwood flooring is being increasingly used by homeowners foe the advantages it offers. Here’s a durable and easy to clean material. Though its installation is somewhat difficult, the final results are very satisfying and worth the effort.
Hardwood floors are amongst the most durable and are know to have lasted for generations. You can still come across more than hundred-year-old buildings with hardwood floors intact. A properly maintained, easy to clean hardwood floor can last for years in your home, and, yet continue to maintain its impressive looks.
Hardwood floors have unparalleled beauty and the ambiance they bring in to the décor of any home is difficult to be achieved with any other kind of flooring. Though installation of hardwood floors is a skilled job, it is not too difficult a project for a small square or rectangular room. For making a hardwood floor that wouldn’t buckle, squeak, crack or shrink and retains its alignment for years to come, you need to know a few tricks of the trade acquire skills for doing the needful.
A very common mistake that people make while installing hardwood floor is that they do not give it sufficient time to acclimatize itself with the temperature and humidity of the room where it is to be fixed. As a result, its shape and size undergo a change after installation, as hardwood characteristically attracts moisture from the atmosphere.
So, one of the prerequisites for installing a hardwood floor is that it must be exposed for sometime to the prevalent conditions of the room where you intend installing it. This can be achieved simply by leaving the flooring material in the room to be provided with flooring. Let it remain there for about ten days and acclimatize itself with the conditions prevailing therein.
With the availability of modern refinishing machines, the troublesome job of refinishing hard floors has become less taxing. No more you’ll get clouds of dust caused by sanding of floorboards and if you take proper care of your floor it won’t require sanding anytime later.
Application of many layers of urethane to hardwood floor further strengthens it. Invariably we forget that we are not really walking on the wood, but on these layers of urethane. So, you need to ensure that the layers of urethane are not wiped off. If you can ensure that you won’t be required to sand the wood. As high traffic areas are prone wearing faster, keep watch over there, and on noticing any signs of its wearing, add a new layer of urethane. You may not require it before it is three to five years old. Take care to lightly sand the old urethane layer before applying a fresh one.
One of the most often used varieties of wood for hardwood floors is oak. It’s durable and available in abundance that makes economical too. Another popular variety is maple that has much lighter grain than oak, but is durable. Be it cherry hardwood, ash, poplar or red birch, each wood has its unique appeal. Go for the one that most appeals to you and enjoy its beauty on the floors of your home.