Hardwood floors give classical touch, elegant style and awesome look. Its advantages over other contemporary floorings include long life time, easy installation, minimum maintenance concerns, and most importantly fit to any décor of the house. The traditional wood floors were not without limitations but the advanced technology has introduced innovative techniques that have decreased limitations on one hand and introduced many new types of wood flooring on the other.

Traditional wood floor is known as solid hardwood floor that is made of solid pieces of wood. It has no match in natural style and size but the only drawback of this type is that it expands or contracts when change happens in moisture or humidity. However, today engineered hardwood floors are also available in countless styles which are free of earlier limitations. They consist of two layers: lamella and substrate. Because the substrate provides a base, they do not need any sanding before installation; hence they can be called as “pre-finished wood floor”. Both of these types are manufactured in different sizes of planks or boards in order to make them installable at various parts of a house. Walnut, cherry, oak and pine are some of the sources of wood used for flooring purposes.

As for finishing, there are two common finishes for wood flooring: oil and polyurethane. Oil finishing is the traditional and old method which has further variations. For wood flooring, oil is applied in the direction of wood-grains which helps remove splinters. Polyurethane is the modern technique that has been increasingly adopted by carpenters. Then wood is sometimes externally painted in various shades according to the need of customers. The floor used in high-traffic zones, like hallway, should have heavy finishing. Sometimes, wood floors are impregnated with liquid acrylic and are hardened through certain processes. This is the best type for high traffic areas.

There are many installation systems including traditional “tongue and groove system”, “click system”, “connection system” and “glue-down system”. All have individual qualities and features. When it comes to price, hardwood floors are very much cost-effective; their price normally range from $2 per square foot to 9$. Unlike stone or carpet floor, these floors require little but regular mopping and in return they give persistent shining and last for a longer period of time. Instead of using oil soaps or detergents, the products recommended by the manufacturer should be used.DONOTCHANGE