Choosing Hardwood Floors: What Factors You Should Consider

When it comes to choosing your home’s hardwood flooring, there are several factors you have to consider. Regardless of whether you’re going to conduct a DIY or hire a contractor like Handyman Connection® of Lexington-Nicholasville, it’s a job that should be thought through. Now that the topic has been breached, you’re likely wondering what these factors to consider are.

In this post, Handyman Connection of Lexington discusses what you have to consider when it comes to choosing your hardwood flooring.

Solid or Engineered Flooring

One of the first things you have to think about is this type of hardwood flooring. Usually, hardwood flooring comes in thick planks of timber. While solid hardwood is available nowadays, many companies also offer engineered flooring. This is where the planks are made with a thinner top layer of hardwood to prevent the floor from shifting. In essence, it restricts the wood’s natural movement.

Prefinished or Site Finish

Planks can be purchased with a raw face that can be finished by a professional after being installed, and prefinished wood arrives with the stain and topcoat applied. With prefinished wood, you know exactly what you’re getting, and it takes less time to install. Site finishing, on the other hand, allows for a level of customization that may be more appealing to the homeowner.

Wood Type

Oak is a popular choice among homeowners. This is because it has a lovely natural grain, and it’s durable and widely available throughout the region, which leads to reasonable prices. When it comes to the subspecies, white oak is more popular than red oak. However, there are other options, such as walnut. Due to its deep color, walnut flooring is ideal for rooms where you might prefer a darker finish. Other species of hardwood include hickory, cherry, maple and ash.

Type of Finish

There are a lot of finishing products with most of them falling into two categories: they’re either oil or polyurethane. Oil isn’t as impervious to stains and damage compared to polyurethane, but it tends to scratch more easily. These scratches are less noticeable, however. Polyurethane, on the other hand, requires you to replace a board or buff the entire section of the floor. With oil, you have to maintain it more often while polyurethane requires you to be more involved in the maintenance.

If you have any home remodeling plans this spring, turn to Handyman Connection of Lexington-Nicholasville for your home improvement needs. We are your leading provider of carpentry and maintenance services. Give us a call at (859) 274-4477, or fill out our contact form to request an estimate.