What You Should Know About Selecting Real Hardwood Flooring

* Hardwood floors are available in a variety of widths from 2 1/4 inch, which is the most common, most produced, most stocked, cheapest option available. More sizes in 3” through 12” offer the home owner a wide variety of style and patterns. You can put down a single width for a uniform look or multiple widths for a more random look.

* Hardwood flooring is now available in cabin grade and clear grade. The most common floors are select or clear grade. These floors contain none of woods naturally occurring character marks. Cabin grade is hardwood that displays all natures imperfections; knots, grain and bug trails all help to give cabin grade hardwood is warm and inviting characteristics.

* Today’s factory finished flooring can be installed today and entertained on tonight with very little mess. With prefinished flooring each plank is allowed to move independently with humidity changes in your home. This makes those seasonal separations in your floor less noticeable.

* Your floor will loose its “sheen” or luster and require refinishing long before you ever wear through the finish. The best way to make a floor last is to vacuum it often to keep away abrasive material that might scratch your floor. Remember a lower sheen floor shows less wear.

* Many companies are offering hand scraped, distressed and reclaimed flooring. These floors have a classic look and add great value to upscale homes. They do not show much wear or scratches since they have a great deal of character interest to draw attention to different parts of the floor. These floors will be a guaranteed conversation piece and are often the focal point at luxury home tours.

* Nothing adds value to your home like real hardwood floors. Real estates agents and interior designers will tell you that nothing will add value to your home like real hardwood floors. Although the initial cost can be significantly more than laminate flooring nothing out lasts real hardwood floors.