A look beyond the promise and assurance of wood flooring - Part 1/2

Adherence to expectations is equally essential with huge purchases like flooring. This is quite true when dealing with hardwood floors. It is without a doubt that a new hardwood floor will incorporate a facet of aesthetic and warmth to your home. A lot of customers do not have an idea that wood flooring possesses extraordinary features that make it not the excellent choice for everyone.

Scratch on flooring

This article, which is based on two parts is by no means meant to discourage you from purchasing a hardwood floor, but you do require taking into considerations these four excellent facts in relation to hardwood floors before buying it:

I. Wood Floors are prone to scratches.

There are several finishes that manufacturers put on wood flooring in order to make them scratch resistant. The most famous finish to this date is Aluminum Oxide. Wood Flooring also pairs with a wear warranty ranging from five to fifty years. Wear warranties, however, basically only guarantee that the veneer of wood will not completely wear through. You cannot find ant-scratch warranties in the wood industry. All wood floorings, regardless of what the finishing or the wood quality is, will be prone to scratch. That being said, you have to ensure to prepare your home for a wood floor prior to installing. It is an excellent idea to utilize furniture protectors, area rugs, floor mats in guarding your wood against scratches. To add, you might want to mull over installing tile in your passage ways, since it is the busiest area in terms of traffic. If there are huge children or pets in your house, you have to consider laminated flooring which is more resistant to scratches.

II. There is a guarantee that wood flooring will Indent.

Wood floors are regarded as soft product, but they are prone to denting from drops or heavy use. No wood flooring is dent-proof, but several classes of wood have several hardness degrees as well. The Janka test is utilized to know the hardness or softness of wood specie. Using this kind of test, wood species are supplied a score in terms of a force needed to embed a steel ball into the wood itself. It is known that the higher the score, the better the wood is in terms of resisting wear and dents.  Northern Red Oak, the standard class of wood utilized in flooring, is the basic to which all other classes are measured against. It possesses an all-time score of 1290. There are certain classes that have a score of more than 3000 and while they wear better in terms of everyday use, they will still dent at some time, subjected to a heavy drop of load. If you are really paying attention to your floors ability to withstand dents, you can resort to other options. There are “wood-like” porcelain and laminated products that are high-pressure and a lot more resistant to wear and tear. To add, a hand scraped or distressed wood floor will perform an excellent job at hiding dents and other types of wear on your floor.