Buying Hardwood Flooring
Introduction.
If you are looking to buy wood flooring online you might be interested to know about developments in hardwood flooring options. Whilst the popularity of fitting wood flooring in UK homes continues to increase, more and more customers are turning to a hardwood look rather than the softwoods of pine or cedar that have previously been the bestsellers. Whist any wood flooring will look good a hardwood floor can transform a room from simply looking good to being beautiful. Up until quite recently the choice in hardwood flooring was largely limited to oak, maple, ash or birch. Now, due to increased imports of exotic woods you can have a floor covering from pale yellow in colour to a warm red or even a coffee brown, allowing you to create a truly individual style within your home moving away from the blandness of the neutral softwoods.
It’s not just about looks!
The exotic woods now giving consumers a wider choice in hardwood flooring are imported from Africa, Australia, South America and south-east Asia. They give the consumer options such as Australian Cypress or Brazilian Cherry or even African Cameron to choose from. All of the hardwoods are, of course, great looking. However, there is another reason for choosing a hardwood for your flooring - durability. Quite simply a hardwood floor will wear better than a softwood one, regardless of how it was manufactured. ie whether it’s a laminate, engineered or the actual hardwood itself. The hardness of a wood is determined according to the ‘Janka hardness rating’. Whilst a softwood like the Alaska cedar has a rating of 580, the White oak has one of 1360. That in itself indicates how more durable a hardwood floor will be compared to a softwood one. However, the Brazilian Cherry has a Janka rating of 2350 meaning that if it is used as a flooring material, it is highly unlikely that it would ever need replacing for many decades.
Installing a hardwood floor.
If you’re an experienced DIY person you may feel capable of installing a hardwood floor yourself. There are manufacturer’s instructions you can refer to and plenty of articles on the internet about this subject. However, as an old saying goes “Don’t spoil the ship for a ha’pence of tar”, if you’re in doubt their would be little point in investing money in a top quality floor covering only to end up with it not looking, or worse, not fitting, its best. A reputable supplier of hardwood floor coverings will be able to assist you in finding a recommended installer.
Looking after your hardwood floor.
As with any wood floor covering there are certain basic things to do in order to keep your floor looking great. Despite the higher durability of a hardwood floor the obvious ones such as not dragging furniture across it, cleaning spills or tracked in dirt immediately and having dirt catching mats at external doors etc all apply. Other than that there are just three rules to follow: sweep the floor regularly, use a dry hardwood floor mop with a swivel headed terry cloth cover and use only the manufacturers recommended cleaning products.
Hardwood flooring and the environment.
We are all more environmentally aware these days and the foresting of hardwoods, especially the exotic varieties has aroused concern from environmentalist groups and organisations. When buying hardwood flooring you can always ask the company you’re dealing with if their source for the wood being used is environmentally friendly. Some companies these days use reclaimed wood and others will have a replacement tree planted for every package of flooring they sell. Whatever your stance on environmental issues might be there are plenty of ‘green-stamped’ hardwood flooring companies with which you can deal. Given the huge amounts of energy needed to produce some carpet and vinyl floor coverings, a solid hardwood floor can be an environmentally friendly option as there is less pollution in its production and it is easily recycled.