How to choose the most durable hardwood flooring for your budget?
When it comes to furnishing our sweet home, each one of us tries to make the best decision for enhancing every single corner of our house, and one of these decisions is surely regarding the type of flooring to make our floors look beautiful and elegant. The newer technologies and progressions for a healthy and comfortable lifestyle have brought us closer to the quality products best suited for us.
Making these choices becomes more tough when we have a variety of options to choose from. Giving our floors a premium look requires the best type of material to be used. But what about the budget? Here we are going to discuss the most suitable flooring options to explore, under your budget, which perfectly suits your style and the way of living.
5 things to be considered while choosing a hardwood floor
Importance of hardwood flooring
Stylish and Comfortable
The most important feature of installing a hardwood floor is none other than elegance. It not only gives our home a stylish look but also makes it a comfortable and a beautiful place to live in. Wooden flooring is a part of nature’s resources which one chooses as their home decors for adding warmth to their living spaces.
Reliable
Wooden floors are considered the best when it comes to reliability and durability of the flooring, as the living spaces are the places where almost a complete generation is going to spend their life. They are long lasting and create no trouble or harm if properly maintained.
Cost effective
Hardwood floors are budget friendly and cost effective because once installed they last for decades and prove to be a good decision for a long-term investment on flooring options. No doubt one needs to keep a proper maintenance but they are crack resistance less-costlier than marble floorings.
The most durable types of hardwoods
Pine
It is considered to be a soft wooden flooring which is available in the form of wooden planks. This is one of the best-choice among other options to be kept at the top. It sometimes gathers scratches because of its softness if heavy furniture comes in contact with it.
Bamboo
Bamboo is a very sustainable type of hardwood which gives our floor a quirky appearance. It could be an eco-friendly option which is flourishing as a modern-day trend opted by the people because of its hardness and durability.
Oak
A type of wooden flooring which is available in two colors, red oak and white oak. It has now become the most installed hardwood flooring in the houses of the United States, where people tend to choose this because of it’s toughness and graceful patterns varying from red to brown shades of colors.
Maple
One of the most popular wooden flooring available in light to dark tan colors. As compared to solid wood it costs a bit less than that. Apart from this it is popular because of its resistance towards wear and tear and a long-lasting environment friendly hardwood which can also hold a good foot traffic.
Comparison among Solid and Engineering Hardwoods
When it comes to choosing among the hardwoods the most effective options come up as: solid hardwood and engineered hardwood. Let us have a close look on the pros and cons of each of them.
Solid hardwood
A solid hardwood flooring is considered as one of the most durable wooden flooring options as it has a longer lifespan as compared to engineering hardwood. One of the dis-advantage of installing a solid hardwood is that it is not as comfortable with the humid climate and extreme temperature changes. Apart from it, this flooring is a bit noisy in case of foot traffic.
But proper maintenance and upkeep makes it the best version of others. The strongest of the species of solid hardwood are oak, pine, maple and cherry.
When it comes to the cost, solid hardwood is costlier than engineering one because of its characteristics that are durability and resistance. We should use a sustainable type of hardwood which is environmentally friendly and keeps nature happy.
Engineering hardwood
An engineering hardwood is the most affordable type of wooden flooring which comes to our mind when we think of installing a wooden floor in our home.It is more suitable in humid climatic conditions and resists temperature changes. It goes with all types of rooms where solid hardwood cannot go with.
One of the cons of engineering hardwood is that it is not a waterproof hardwood and the lifespan is even shorter than the solid one.
All this makes it a cheaper kind of wooden flooring having less features. But apart from it, this hardwood can be a better option for those who are planning a renovation for their house or trying to give it a modern look.
Finishing matters a lot
When it comes to wooden floorings, the finishing is what creates a lot of difference. Whatever be the type of hardwood, solid or engineered, oak or pine, when it is seen at its finished state become even more adorable than its unfinished state.
Talking about bamboo, it is consider to be soft and this characteristic of it makes bamboo hardwood not so durable or long-lasting, may it be cheaper than others, it is also popular because of its sustainable nature, being an environment friendly hardwood. Once it is chemically treated during its installation process it also makes it hard and reliable and proves it to be a good choice for the wooden flooring.
There are different types of finishing available that are hand scraped finish or oil rubbed finish, etc. which completely change and enhance the look of the wooden flooring giving it a glossy finish. A prefinished flooring can also be an option which gives a matte finish to our floors. It also comes along with the warranty which encourages people to buy and get it installed in their house as their wooden flooring decors.
Different types of shades available in the hardwoods given a perfect finish, provides a modern look to our house. A house is a living space where almost a generation resides till its life, so why not choose the perfect things for making it feel like a heaven on the earth, and wooden flooring give it an adorable finish.
It is a long-term investment
Let’s make a budget friendly choice….
Flooring is considered to be a long-term investment, which we make while making our home. So why not make a choice which perfectly suits our lifestyle, comfort and most importantly our budget.
Picking up an engineering hardwood can be a budget friendly option. It is not only cheaper but also perfect for the climate shifts.
Looking for it in a long term view, solid hardwood, though costlier but is very much opted by the people because of its durability and hardness. Once installed gives a perfect finishing to our flooring.
Being a part of long-term investment solid hardwood lasts for decades. Wooden flooring should be properly maintained and treated depending upon the type of wood used.
Conclusion
House, a place where we spend most of our time, a place where we host gatherings and chills with our family and friends, and flooring is a most eminent part of all that follows.
Being a part of the modern world with newer inventions almost every day in different fields, wooden flooring has played an important role, where people tend to choose them over marble flooring nowadays. So, it should be a time taking and good decision for our floors.
Referring, the above mentioned information will surely help you to make an appropriate choice for your floors with respect to the wooden flooring choices available to you, making it hard to decide, because of the variety they have in them.