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Hardwood floors can add beauty and warmth to any room in your home and can be a wise choice if you are remodeling or building an addition. Hardwood floors can last for decades so selecting the best hardwood floor for your particular needs is important. Here’s some things to think about if you are considering installing hardwood floors in your home.

1. Type of hardwood flooring. Believe it or not, there are countless types of hardwood floors. The first thing to do is to choose amongst the various types.

2. Price. Not everything that is expensive is of the best quality. Most often than not, the price of flooring depends on the cost of materials from which it is made and how it was transported from the manufacturing plant to the present store. If the flooring is imported from another country, chances are it might cost a lot, but is not necessarily sturdier.

3. Maintenance. Various types of hardwood floors require different forms of cleaning to maintain the original look. Though the usual sweeping and waxing will do, specially formulated cleaning formulas are available depending on the type of flooring and different kinds of woods may have different cleaning restrictions and needs.

4. Repair. Not all wood floors lasts forever. Proper repair and maintenance of damaged floors can preserve the original grandeur, but you must be sure that the appropriate materials will be on hand years down the road.

5. Method of payment. If one is short in cash, look for stores that accept credit card payments. Since there are still some home depots that do not accept specific types of credit cards, it would be best to check first if ones credit card is acceptable from where one has decided to purchase. If the only place where ones preferred hardwood floors is available does not accept credit cards, it would be best to first save the needed cash since it would be unlikely that they would run out of stocks until such time that funds are accumulated.

6. Not all hardwood floorings are of the same color. Choose the shade that best suits the general motif or shade of the house and its furniture for a more coordinated look

7. Consider the rooms where the hardwood floor will be installed. Naturally, if one prefers their bathroom floor to be made of wood, this would entail a special type one since it is common knowledge that wood and water don’t mix.

8. To purchase unfinished or pre-finished wood flooring. Hardwood floors can be bought in its unfinished (not subjected to any treatment) or pre-finished (has several coating of UV-cured polyurethane) state. Installation of pre-finished hardwood floors would result in lesser odors and dust, thus requiring little time for clean up.

9. Installation. Hardwood floors may be nailed down, glued or floating. If the current floors are covered with ceramic tiles or vinyl the floating form is the best. This also cuts the cleaning time since it would only be assembled on top of the old flooring Choose which best suits the type of under floor one has or the capability of the one doing the task.

10. Choosing between engineered and solid woods. Engineered ones are much easier to install since they can be glued or nailed down. Solid woods on the other hand cannot be subjected to sub-standard installations.

Whatever type of hardwood flooring one chooses, you are sure to end up with a handsome element for the room that is both functional and durable.

Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.refinishing-hardwood-floors.com where you can learn more about different types of flooring as well as choosing a hardwood floor that is perfect for you.

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Laminate floors range in price from 0.89c s/f to as much as $7.99 s/f. So why should you spend the big bucks, when at the end of the day they all look the same?

First let us analyze the warranty factors. An entry level laminate floor which sells for in the region of 0.89c s/f to $1.39s/f probably comes with a warranty ranging from between 10 to 15 years, as opposed to a better quality laminate that sells for more and carries a warranty ranging from 25 years to lifetime. A comprehensive laminate warranty covers the following aspects of the floors performance: factory defect, normal wear and tear, fading, staining, denting and water resistance. A lower end warranty might not cover all of these aspects, and although the advertised warranty states ten years, this might refer to manufacturer’s defects only, whereas the performance aspect of the warranty might only cover a five year period. Also consider that although the wear and tear aspect of a laminate warranty covers a certain period, this does not reflect the fact that the floor might start to show wear and tear or loose its original luster after a few years of use.

Today, most laminate floor surfaces are treated with Aluminum Oxide, which makes these floors highly durable in terms of scratching and denting. However not all floors are created equal in that certain laminates receive up to nine coatings of aluminum oxide, whereas a lower quality floor might only be treated with a few layers of Aluminum Oxide. This translates into a scenario where these few layers of Aluminum Oxide will wear through in a short period of time, and conversely a floor with additional coatings will perform better when subjected to heavy foot traffic, and for a longer period of time.

Laminate floor cores range in thickness from 7mm to 12mm, with a thicker core offering more stability, making it less likely to buckle if subjected to high levels of moisture in the air, as well as offering a floor that is quieter to walk on. The other aspect of laminate floor cores is the ability of the floor to resist swelling when affected by water and sub-floor moisture. A good quality laminate floor core is treated with water repellent chemicals, which protect the floor from swelling when breached by water or excessive levels of sub-floor moisture. A good core should be coupled with a tongue and groove configuration that is also treated with water repellent chemicals, such as impregnated wax, which will prevent topical liquid spills from penetrating through to the laminate core.

Joint integrity refers to the ability of the tongue and groove locking mechanism to withstand the weight of heavy objects, as well as perform over the life of the floor. The locking mechanism of a good quality laminate floor is designed to withstand the weight of heavy household furniture and fit tightly together negating gapping or separation. Since the advent of glueless laminate floors, many manufacturers have invested large sums of money in research and development in search of a locking mechanism that will not fail even when subjected to abnormally high levels of impact force or weight. The most successful configurations, in terms of binding strength and durability are patented and sold to other manufacturers.

Lastly, when purchasing a name brand laminate floor, one is not paying merely for the name, but for the quality of the materials, precise levels of engineering, and many years of research and development invested in the design and manufacturing process.

This flooring article was written by Barry H. Get more tips and techniques at: Online Laminate Flooring Resources

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I’ll admit it, I have floor envy. I was over at my sister’s house the other day, and she just had new floors installed. Her kids, much like my own, had destroyed her carpet. Now that they are over the “spilling everything on floor” stage, she took the plunge and installed brand new bamboo flooring. I’m practically sick with envy.

My carpet is well vacuumed, but looks pretty miserable. Life with a toddler and dog can be hard on something as absorbent as carpet, and the worn walking trails don’t help. My child is definitely not out of the spilling stage. I can’t help but imagine my house with bamboo flooring now, too. Believe me, it is daydream I’m ready to actually invest in.

I’ve taken my musing so far as to actually visit a flooring store and see what options are available. As it turns out, there are many. Bamboo flooring comes in a huge number of shades and patterns with grains running both horizontally and vertically. The selection is enormous, and so very tempting for dreamers like myself.

Armed with little other than a fancy, I made further inquires. It seems bamboo flooring is not only beautiful with vast selections, but also incredibly durable and affordable. Bamboo is also a waste product of clearing farmlands for planting in Asia, so its use in flooring is considered very eco-friendly, or ‘green’. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be very much working against the bamboo flooring, at least according to the salesman.

Of course, being the resourceful consumer that I am, I didn’t take anything he said at face value. I, like any other red-blooded skeptic, rushed home to fact check everything online. As it turns out, it is all true. Bamboo is a cane that replenishes quickly, thus no harm is done to the natural world while creating the flooring. It is also incredibly resistant to wear and tear. Finally, the salesman is right, it is extremely affordable.

This is all well and good, but I still have a dog and toddler to consider. How will bamboo stand up to the ultimate test - the leaky sippy cup? As I continued my research I learned that the sealant applied to bamboo flooring is water resistant, and so long as I follow my child with a paper towel, my bamboo flooring wouldn’t warp from drips, spills, and the occasional muddy feet.

So if bamboo flooring is affordable, beautiful, environmentally friendly and resilient, why did my sister wait so long to install it? For that matter, why did I? This is a problem that just had to be solved. Hey, I gotta go, my new bamboo floor has just arrived!

You too can go ‘green’. Visit http://www.bambooflooring.biz to discover the stunning bamboo flooring options available to you.

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