Considerations before buying Hardwood Flooring
Author: Shannon Bivens

Hardwood Floors are a beautiful addition to any home, but there are certain things you need to think about before making your purchase.

Is hardwood right for your home?

Do you have an unusual amount of traffic in your home that will make a hardwood floor look really worn in a short period of time? Big dogs? Kids? Heavy traffic of people? Equipment that needs to be moved on a continuous basis? A room that is a play room, where kids skate or skateboard or practice their tumbling exercises? It is important to consider all these types of uses.

You can of course have all these existing conditions in your home and still own hardwood floors. But, just know this, Hardwood flooring is beautiful, but it is a natural product that scratches very easily. Some manufacturers say that their finish is “the best finish on the market, the toughest finish, no scratch finish” etc. But, let me tell you, there is no such thing when you have hardwood floors. They do scratch if you abuse them.

If you have high traffic areas like these, here are some suggestions.

There are products that are called hand-scraped or rustic. These products start off looking slightly used, and that is part of their charm. They hide normal wear and tear in heavy type traffic situations.

Another suggestion; put area rugs in your highest traffic areas. Entrances, or hallways or kitchens.

Also; you might consider making your home a no shoes home. This helps reduce scratches and the dirt that comes in to your home. Last; protect your hardwood floor from your furniture! The moment you have the new floor installed, put furniture protectors under all furniture legs. Learn from my mistake, and don’t go through the agony I did. I had just finished installing my mother’s hardwood floor, it looked beautiful. I was moving the furniture back into place. I pushed the couch across the floor and to my distress, noticed huge scratch made by the couch legs. I can’t tell you how upset I was, being that I had just finished the installation the day before and the floor was brand new. So, please learn from my mistake, so you don’t have to rush out like I did and buy a floor repair kit!

The second consideration when buying hardwood flooring:

What type of climate do you live in? Do you have tons of humidity? Are there extreme changes in temperature between seasons? Do you live in an environment that you like to keep the doors and windows wide open to feel the ocean breeze? Do you have lots of snow and wet snow shoes coming in your home? Do you have a pool or an ocean near you where there is water from wet people coming in a lot?

First off, let's talk about the humidity. You can have hardwood flooring in an area where the humidity is high, but the most recommended type of flooring is an engineered hardwood. It is manufactured specifically for this type of situation. Engineered hardwood is not a laminate. It has several plys of wood underneath, with a real wood layer on the surface. The wood plys are glued together in opposite directions, so that the product expands and contracts less with humidity. The main thing to consider is the wear layer when buying a product like this. Look at the wood wear layer and make sure it is not paper thin. You can of course use a solid hardwood floor in this type of situation as well. But, be prepared for the trouble you might experience. All of our installation business is right on the coast in Florida with high humidity. We take all the precautions we can when installing a solid hardwood, but we have still had swelling and buckling problems when people do not take care of their floor properly. Many people don’t know this about Hardwood. You have to manage the temperature. You can’t let it get up to 90 degrees in your room, you can’t let it get extremely cold. That means, you can’t leave the windows wide open all the time to feel the air outside. Because, many times these situations cause hardwood to swell, expand, contract, etc.

The last point I want to make is about water getting on to hardwood. If you have a pool and you have kids running in and out that constantly get the floor wet, you will have problems. Wood absorbs moisture. And, when it gets wet, it gets ruined. This seems a silly thing to mention, but many people do not take this in to consideration. I would always suggest you have an area (main entrance) that has tile, rubber, vinyl. Use this area to dry yourself off before coming in to where your hardwood flooring is. Once you get hardwood flooring wet, it is ruined. It will not dry out later, then be ok. It will have to be replaced.

I could go on forever and ever about Hardwood Flooring, it is my area of expertise. If you have any questions that you would like me to answer directly, you can go to my flooring blog. Here is the link: http://designerstouchflooring.com/WordPress/index.php
I am dedicated to helping people make informed choices about flooring. If you post a question here, I will answer your post within 24 hours, unless I am on vacation. Thanks for listening and good luck on your home improvement project. Kim Black, Designer’s Touch Flooring.

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