Choosing the Right Solid Hardwood Flooring for Your Home
Solid hardwood flooring, such a simple idea shrouded with complex decisions. If you have ever visited a flooring showroom, you know that choosing your perfect hardwood floor isn’t as simple as it sounds. We suggest keeping these six elements in mind when choosing your solid hardwood floor:
1. Wood species – The first step in choosing the right hardwood floor for your house is choosing the right wood species. Cherry, oak, and maple are some of the most common choices due to their durability and affordability. Selecting your wood species will also depend on the wood grain and natural aesthetic of the wood.
2. Hardness – Wood hardness is most often measured on the Janka Hardness Scale, which indicates the “force required to embed an 11.28mm(0.444 in) steel ball into wood to half the ball’s diameter.” If your family consists of active children and pets, the harder the floor the better.
Image Source: Lowes.com
3. Textures – As you look at more flooring options, you’ll notice a variety of textures and glossiness they have. You can find sanded floors that are smooth to the touch, with nearly no signs of aging or wear. On the other hand, many flooring producers can/will distress or hand-scrape wood to give it a more antiqued look. If you are worried about scratches or imperfections being visible, your best option is to go for the hand-scraped wood look. You’ll never see those dog nail scratches or dings in the floor from dropped bowls.
4. Board width – When it comes to choosing board width, you have three standard choices: narrow strips, wider planks, or parquet squares. Narrow strips are no larger than 3” in width and are commonly found in older homes. Parquet floors are often sold as squares of flooring, made of varying strips of wood. Typically speaking, people either LOVE parquet floors or HATE them. Wider plank boards can vary between 3” – 8” and are often chosen to add warmth and rustic charm to a room.
5. Colors – Your hardwood floor can range from the lightest blond color, to a weathered grey, all the way to black. With some wood species, you can get a more interesting look that features multiple colors on each plank, like Tigerwood, Bamboo, or Acacia.
6. Finish – The finish of your hardwood floor protects the surface and gives it a definitive glossy aesthetic. You can typically choose between three levels of sheen: matte, satin, and gloss. Gloss looks more elegant, but scratches and imperfections are more noticeable. Matte floors give a more authentic representation of a natural wood floor, and satin is the in between balance of both.
Remember, solid hardwood floors require a fair amount of maintenance, including cleaning, polishing, and sealing. With that being said, hardwood floors add a lot of value to your home.