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Why
Wood? Table of Contents
Why
Real Wood Floors?
Wood
vs. Plastic Laminate Flooring
(a.k.a. the "fake" wood floor)
Wood
vs. Carpet
Engineered
Wood vs. Solid Wood
Why
Real Wood Floors?
Real
wood floors made of Maple, Oak, Hickory, Pine, Beech,
Elm, and Pecan should be familiar to you as the countless
city streets that are named after these trees. Their
rich natural colors and handcrafted quality are what
we have come to expect in American homes. Now, Anderson
has taken wood flooring technology to a place it has
never gone before - with Best-in-Class durability.
Anderson's RhinoTuff™ and Mountain Classics™ real
wood flooring collections, for example, are up to
100% harder than oak lumber. They won't buckle, and
they are stain-resistant, wear-resistant, and carry
a 20-year finish warranty and a lifetime structure
warranty.
Some
quick reasons why you should choose real wood:
- Natural,
warm, authentic color.
- Simple,
yet decorative for any room in the house.
- Rugged,
yet charming.
- Durable,
yet easy to care for.
- Beauty
that's hard to tire of.
- Lifetime
guarantee.
- Adds
real value to a home.
Wood
vs. Plastic Laminate Flooring
(a.k.a. the "fake" wood floor)
Plastic
laminate flooring looks and acts just like a real
wood floor, right? Well, not exactly. The countertop
industry has entered the world of floor covering in
the past few years with a product called plastic laminate
flooring. While these floors have somewhat the appearance
of wood, upon closer inspection they can be seen to
be more closely related to cardboard. The printed
wood image can be as thin as a human hair and when
chipped it exposes the fiberboard core of the panel.
The
visual appearance of the printed wood pattern may
look great in a small sample, but in a large area
you will notice how the pattern of the flooring panel
repeats - usually about every five boards. Also, when
you walk upon a plastic laminate floor your footsteps
make a hollow, tip-tappy sound.
All
floor covering wears and when plastic laminates chip,
or when they lose their gloss due to wear, they must
be thrown away. Most real wood floors, such as Anderson's,
can be renewed by applying additional coats of urethane
to the surface. And with Anderson, all floors are
backed by a lifetime structural warranty. So why "fake
it" when you can have a real wood floor that
adds real value to your home?
Wood
vs. Carpet
Carpeting
is more economical, right? Actually, carpeting lasts
between seven and ten years under normal residential
use. Hardwood floors can last a lifetime and are always
in style.
Here's
a 30-year comparison test you can use when trying
to decide between carpeting or wood flooring. Say
you installed a hardwood floor. It would typically
last for 30 years. During that same period you probably
would have to install new carpeting four or five times.
At that rate, the hardwood flooring actually costs
less than the cumulative cost of all the carpeting
you would have to install.
Another
thing you need to consider is the cleanliness of your
home. A large American company that recycles old carpeting
has stated that most used carpeting it receives for
processing contains at least 35% of its weight in
household dirt. The families who owned this old carpeting
were actually walking, or crawling on dirt. Hardwood
flooring is simply cleaner. If it is dirty, the dirt
is plainly visible to the eye, not hidden within carpet
fibers. Hardwood flooring my be your best buy and
most solid investment.
Engineered
Wood vs. Solid Wood
It's
a well-known fact within the flooring industry that
engineered wood flooring is much more stable than
solid wood flooring in environments where moisture
is a concern. Wood and water, however, do not mix.
Damp conditions undermine all types of floor coverings.
Oak lumber floors, for instance, can have many problems
in the presence of moisture, including gaps between
planks, squeaking, cupping, buckling, and cracking.
Anderson Hardwood Floors' Cross-Locked Engineered™ planks
are eight times more stable than solid wood planks,
so there is no need to worry about squeaks or buckles
in normal indoor environments.
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