Wood Floors: It's a Solid Choice
When deciding on the floors of the house that you’re building, or when re-flooring your current house, there are a myriad of options to consider. One of the options is to install solid wood flooring. However, this is not as simple as it sounds as there are a number of considerations to this option.
Wooden floors come in two different packages: solid wood flooring and engineered wooden flooring. There are distinctive differences between these two options, yet they both lead to beautiful wooden floors.
Solid wood flooring is manufactured from one, solid piece of wood and has a standard size of 5” (12.7 cm) wide and ¾” (1.9 cm) thick. The wood used for flooring is generally Red Oak Hardwood, White Oak Hardwood and Maple. Yet, depending on where you live and the timber available, there are many other kinds of Hardwood that can be used for solid wood flooring.
The wood can also be cut three styles: The commonly used flat-sawn style or two style, that look very similar because of the fact that there is only one side visible on the flooring: quarter-sawn and rift-sawn.
Often absorption strips are cut into the back of the wood to help prevent and reduce so-called cupping or buckling. Along with that the planks come with tongue and groove designs on the side to help fit the planks together during installation.
The final touch to installing solid wood floors is the way that they are fixed: Either with nails or with glue. Most floor specialists still prefer nails for wood floors to glue.
Looking at engineered floors, there are once again some considerations.
Firstly it is important to understand what engineered floors are. They are two layers of wood adhered to each other to form the plank that is used to make the floor: The top layer is called the lamella and the bottom layer is called the core. It is important to not confuse this kind of wood with floors that are laminated, veneered or made of vinyl. The laminated floor is merely an image of a wooden floor, while vinyl uses a veneer thin layer of wood with a core that consists of many different kinds of wood products (e.g. high density fibreboard). Vinyl, on the other hand, is merely plastic that has been made to look like wood.
Of course you then have to weigh up the pros and cons. Although not sold wood, engineered wood is easier to install. The installation techniques allow for easier maintenance and repair. The planks are installed without fastening the planks to each other which also makes for easier repair and replacement.
However, it is often more expensive than solid wood and the cheaper ranges often tend to be veneer rather than engineered wood.
Whichever one you choose, be sure that the choice is based on solid facts and your floor will be a lasting investment.