Wood flooring is gaining more popularity as a great way to add an elegant look to the rooms.
Wood floors are long lasting, easily installable, cleanable and maintainable, and look beautiful and stylish with or without a carpet.
Wood floors are available in various types and styles that virtually give a good look in any room.
Wood Flooring Types:
By understanding the wood flooring types that are most popular, you can make a right choice and gain better flooring for years.
Currently, the popular wood flooring types are engineered, solid, and acrylic impregnated.
Wood Flooring – Solid Wood
This type of wood flooring is available in three types: Strip, Plank and Parquet. Each type of solid wood flooring comes in two versions: unfinished and pre-finished.
Unfinished flooring needs sanding, buffering, staining, finishing, curing and recoating of the floor after installation.
Pre-finished flooring needs only installation without any sand work.
Types of solid wood flooring:
- Strip flooring – It is linear wood flooring. It is indicated by the wood slat’s width and thickness. The thickness of the strip floor varies, but has a set width. The available widths of strip floor are 1.5”, 2”, and 2.25” and the thickness ranges from 5/16-3/4 of an inch wide. It produces a linear effect and creates an illusion of spacious room.
- Plank flooring – It is also linear wood flooring. It has set thickness with different widths. The available thicknesses of 1 plank floor are 0.5” or 0.75” and the widths range from 3-8 inches.
- Parquet flooring – It looks different from other wood floors. It is a series of small individual wood flooring laths made up of wood strips that creates a geometric design. It is laid by mechanical binding. It creates a striking substitute to linear flooring.
Wood Flooring – Engineered
This type of wood flooring is produced in various layers, i.e. about 3-5 layers. To increase the stability for installation, it is layered with grain interchanging in directions. It is mostly preferred in areas where solid wood floor products are unable to install.
Wood Flooring – Acrylic Impregnated
The floor products of this type have wood grain that is injected using an acrylic material to make it more resistant to moisture. It is scratch-free, tough, and durable and works well in busy areas. It is available in various colors and patterns and is less commonly used in home installation.
Wood Flooring – Species
The wood flooring species are available in two forms: Domestic and Imported. The most common domestic wood flooring species are White Oak, Red Oak, Pine and Maple. It is recycled to create a unique look. Tasmanian Oak, Merbau, Teak and Mahogany are the imported wood flooring species that creates a striking look.
Wood Flooring – Finishes
Wood finish protects the wood flooring from heat, dirt, moisture and gives a beautiful shine to the floor.
Two types of finishes are available – water-based urethane and oil-based urethane. Both finishes makes the floor water resistant, more durable, and maintainable.
Things To Consider While Selecting A Wood Floor:
- Select the room that apt the wood flooring.
- Set a budget range.
- Select the type of wood floor in accordance to the room.
- Determine the grade, cut, dimension, pattern, color and nature of the wood floor.
- Select the style of the wood flooring that matches and highlights the room decoration.
- Select a properly finished wood floor that works best for the traffic in the room.
- Prefer contacting a wood floor professional, because several technical concerns can affect the wood floor badly.
