When buying a house, most people look for one with hardwood floors. Buying a home that doesn’t come with this amenity can be more costly since hardwood flooring services can cost a relatively high price. Other flooring materials are also harder to maintain than wood flooring.

Usually, hardwood flooring is available in three different kinds, including strip, parquet, and plank. When it comes to wood strip flooring, the individual segments are typically 1 ½ to 2 ¼ inches wide and plank flooring strips are significantly wider. Parquet floors, on the other hand, comprises single squares that form a geometric pattern.

Hardwood floors are long-lasting and incredibly durable. Homes that exist for over 100 years can still have the same flooring if it is properly maintained. What makes hardwood floors amazing is that you just need to vacuum or sweep them and have a reliable wood floor cleaner who will clean it occasionally.

Less Expensive Than New Carpet

Most home buyers are ready to shed money to acquire homes that come with hardwood floors. Also, homes that have hardwood floors are typically faster to sell compared to homes with wall-to-wall carpeting. The mindset of builders is that hardwood flooring is a home upgrade. Besides, they don’t charge more for the carpet.

One of the best advantages of hardwood flooring is its versatility. It can work excellently with different styles of decoration, whether it is modern or traditional. It comes with various wood types including cherry, oak, as well as walnut. If prefer, you can sand and stain it to match your taste and style. As time goes by and trend changes, you can enhance or change the aesthetics of your hardwood floors through hardwood floor refinishing.

My Floors Were Embarrassing Me

All I wanted when I moved into a house was to have clean, warm hardwood floors. Sadly, the house I ended up with had carpet throughout it. My budget was so tight when I moved in that I decided to just live with it for awhile. Recently after having some friends over, I realized how they all noticed my floors, and not in a good way. I was a little embarrassed when I took an objective look at how miserable my old carpet was. The next day, I went to my back bedroom, detached a corner of the carpet and pulled it back. There was a decent looking wood floor there. That same day I cleared out the whole room, then, as I rested, I googled hardwood floor refinishing Arlington Heights, and found a professional in my area.

Less Expensive Than New Carpet

I cleared a small corner in every room in the house. Just to have a comparison, I stopped in at a carpet store with some rough dimensions of my house. They gave me an estimate of what it would cost to put in all new carpet. I made an appointment with my hardwood flooring contractors. They determined that my entire house had old growth oak floors. When the hardwood refinishing professional handed me the estimate, I was relieved to see how much less it was than the estimate for carpet. We signed a contract and they did my house in two sessions so I could clear the rooms without removing all the furniture from the house. Even with that, the whole process took less time than I expected. My floors are now shiny, rich, warm and inviting. My house looks completely different! Best of all is how easy to clean they are.

How can you possibly make a decision on which type of hardwood flooring installation to get? That decision is difficult, but have you considered an equally important decision: whether to get solid hardwood flooring or engineered hardwood flooring? If you’re like many first-time flooring shoppers, you haven’t. Here are some helpful tips.

• Price. Engineered hardwood flooring is often less expensive than solid hardwood flooring, but that is not always the case. When it comes down to it, the cost of hardwood flooring comes down to the quality and wood species. Exotic solid hardwood is likely to be more expensive than hardwood floor. However, when it comes to more common hardwoods, solid hardwood flooring may be cheaper.
• Location and Ease of Installation. Engineered hardwood flooring is often easier to install. Solid hardwood flooring is permanently nailed to the subfloor and should only be installed on the ground floor or higher. It can only be installed over plywood, wood, or oriented strand board subfloors. Engineered floors, however, can be installed in a floating installation above concrete.
• Durability. Both are durable. Engineered flooring has more moisture resistance.
• Refinishing. Both can be refinished. Solid hardwood flooring can be refinished more often than engineered hardwood flooring.