Elastic, flexible and delightfully elegant, hardwood flooring is fast becoming the much preferred choice globally. Any product that is made out of timber with a design fitted to meet decorative requirements, or plain structural, is termed as wood flooring. There are a few exceptions to this such as bamboo flooring, which in spite of being made of grass (read bamboo), is generally considered to be favorite.
There are a couple of types of flooring and are mentioned below:
- Solid Hardwood Flooring: These are available in numerous styles and dimensions. Each plank here is made from a single piece of solid timber wood. Earlier, these were meant to serve structural requirements and were positioned perpendicular to a structure's wooden support beams. However, today's construction techniques seldom have any use for wood in building frames. On the contrary, these floors are being used more than often only because of the aesthetic beauty and sheer elegance of their look.
- Engineered Hardwood Flooring: Two or more wooden layers brought together in the form of a plank make an engineered floor. The bottom layer providing the stability is called the core (or substrate) and the top layer visible after the installation of the flooring is known as the Lamella.
Veneer, vinyl and laminate floors, although distinctly different, are often mistaken for engineered flooring. Veneer enterprises of a thin wood layer bounded to composite wood core (typically, a highly dense fiber-board), plastic which is given the appearance of wood is vinyl and simply an image of real on its surface that is laminate.
Across the world, engineered hardwood flooring are the most popular and widely used. The demand for solid floors that made for engineered flooring only in North America.
Solid v / s Engineered Hardwood Floor covering
An assortment of engineered floor qualities makes the general comparison between the two very difficult. Engineered floors are better in appearance and generally come with more of a pre-finish than other. Solid hardwood flooring have less plank width and ranges to 'gap' (large space between planks) more. It also has a tendency of "crowning" (edges curving upwards with increased humidity) and "cupping" (higher plank height along its edges and a dish like appearance). These limits offer it much less scope of use.
On the other hand, solid floors come with a thicker surface and can thereby be installed with the use of nails. Solid flooring is cheaper to install than engineered flooring. In addition, engineered floors can end a significantly less number of sanding as opposed to solid flooring.
Apart from the aspects of stability of material and diversified usability, some of the other advantages of later floor types are its faster installation facilitated by patented installation systems and easy availability of boards for replacement. It also enables a 'floating' installation (planks are free of the floor or each other) thereby facilitating easy repairs and reduced installation time.
Caring Wooden Floors
To maintain a sparkling floor is you need to regularly vacuum, sweep and mop. Oil soaps are strictly hidden for such floors. Cleaning agents or products recommended by the manufacturers are the best bet.