Hardwood flooring is popular among homeowners because it can make almost any room look great. Despite its versatility, however, it is crucial to know which type of hardwood floor suits your room best to ma
ximize its beauty and utility. For several decades, the manufacture of hardwood floors has skyrocketed alongside the rise in demand for them. Through these years, new production methods have been devised, allowing manufacturers to come up with better variations and improved quality. For this reason, hardwood floors come in varied types.
Unfinished Hardwood Floors. In its unfinished state, this type of flooring requires manual sanding, buffering, staining, and coating on the site where it is to be installed. Developers of apartments and property investors often use this kind of flooring for the apartment or home that they will be selling. This is to give would-be homeowners the free hand in matching the color and polish of the floors to their furniture and preferences.
Pre-Finished Wood Floors. This kind of flooring is the most sought-after by homeowners and is widely available in stores. All you need to do is pick a pre-finished hardwood floor according to your preference and, of course, one that goes with your room, then install it, without the hassle of sanding and finishing it. This saves you time and effort.
Solid Wood Flooring. Solid wood floors which are entirely fabricated out of lumber had been marketable many years ago. They come in three variations: plank, parquet and strip. These days, however, home builders are veering away from this type of flooring because it is difficult to install, detach and refinish.
Engineered Wood Floors. This kind of flooring offers versatility to the differing tastes and needs of homeowners. These floors are fabricated from a number of layers of veneer wood affixed together. In accordance to your liking and needs, you can put a different wood type per layer. For instance, let us say that your furniture is built of birch. You can opt for an engineered hardwood floor with the top layer made of birch to match the furniture, but with the bottom layers built of oak for durability.
This type of hardwood floors is also celebrated for its resistance against and ability to withstand the accumulation of moisture, rising humidity levels and temperature, and other severe environmental conditions. Thanks to this quality, engineered hardwood floors are perfect for cellars or basements, places where ordinary hardwood floors would easily get damaged.
Acrylic Impregnated Wood Floors. This relatively new type of flooring is a kind of pre-finished floor but is manufactured quite differently from other pre-finished floors. With the aid of high pressure treatments, acrylic and color is impelled into the pores of wood planks to produce an ultra sturdy hard surface. Owing to this process, color and pigment from this type of flooring is well-protected from wear and tear. This floor type is also highly humidity-proof, abrasion-proof, and scratch-proof, making it suitable for harsh conditions and is expected to be more durable than engineered hardwood floors. This type of flooring can often be found in commercial spaces and not so much in homes since it is not yet widely known. When a homeowner decides on the color and finish of his unfinished flooring, he can opt to have it undergo acrylic impregnation. If you opt to take this route, you no longer need to wax, stain and buff it. Instead, acrylic monomers are injected into the wood cell structure to give it pigment and to strengthen the floor.
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