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Remodeling with Hardwood Flooring Tips
Are You Finished?
Caring for your new hardwood floors is essential. Almost every wood floor is treated with a urethane finish, so vacuuming and sweeping should be all you need to do to keep you floors in great shape. However, be sure to use a vacuum that has clean wheels and does not have a beater bar head. This can damage your floor’s finish. Oil-treated floors use specific oils that harden once they’ve seeped into the wood grain. Clean these floors with liquid paste or wax. Varnished floors, too, require waxing. You can tell what kind of finish your floor has by dragging a fingertip across the finish of your floor. If you see a smudge on the board, your floor has been oil-treated or varnished. Urethane coatings leave no mark.
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Mix and Match Your Hardwood
When you begin your remodeling project, take into account the concept of balance in a room. There are three elements to think about: floor, walls (and what's on them) and ceiling.
Mixing and matching complementary hardwood species and/or colors is a great way to add depth to a room. For example, when remodeling your kitchen, you may choose a hardwood floor design in a dark oak. It's grounding and solid, giving your room a sturdy visual foundation. Your kitchen cabinets could then be a lighter shade, giving a sense of space to the room, even if you have a lot of cabinets. Moving from dark to light to the ceiling, which can be white or a light cream color, completes the visual shift and balances the room nicely.
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Decorating with Light Hardwood
Simple room designs are best complemented by light tones. Casual and minimal decorating styles are the best match. Avoid using light-toned wood in formal rooms, such as formal dining areas and sitting rooms. Heavy-grained woods, such as oak are an excellent choice to show off casual interiors, while lighter grains (like maple) draw attention to bold wall colors that are popular in modern interiors.
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Parquet Flooring
We can thank the French for the invention of parquet flooring, which they used regularly, beginning in the 17th century. It wasn't until the 19th century that North Americans picked up on the style for their own flooring. And even then, it was only in the nicest of homes that this floor design made its appearance.
Parquet flooring design involves short planks which are arranged in various patterns. The older versions of these floors probably had each plank individually placed, but today’s flooring is done with 6- to 12-inch tiles. The fact that parquet flooring is non-structural means it needs extra support. This can be achieved by laying the tiles over a sturdy base, such as plywood underlayment and at least a 3/4-inch subfloor.
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Decorating with Darker Hardwood
Mid-range and deeper hardwood tones are a great choice for nearly any interior, from traditional to contemporary. Warm rooms with a natural look are easy to achieve with these tones. Choose planks that have grain patterns, knots or other distinguishing marks to really accentuate the rustic energy of the room. Or, go exotic and choose a deep-hued floor and pair it with multi-colored deep tones on the walls and multi-textured fabrics in windows and for area rugs.
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What Does Your Floor Say About Your Home?
The décor of your home is an important factor to consider when redecorating with hardwood floors. Take some time to review each room in which you plan to install the flooring. What style is it? Traditional? Urban? Retro?
For traditional rooms or more formal styles, consider cherry, oak or maple hardwood flooring. They all have old world elegance. Take a look at hardwood floors in oak or cherry if you have a formal or traditional look in your home. Dark maple is another great choice to compliment the traditional décor. Urban homes may lend themselves well to the popular bamboo flooring now quite hot on the market. Retro or more eclectic homes can mix and match fun styles and looks by installing exotic floors, laminate flooring that mimics any style of wood, and also marble or stone. The only limit is your own creativity!
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Directing Your Planks
The direction in which you place the pattern of your hardwood floors plays an important part in creating a certain energy for the room. For example, planks should run in the direction of sunlight coming into a room from the window or patio doors. Likewise, you can place planks in any direction you want o your guest’s eyes to focus, such as a mantel or fine piece of art on the wall. The size of the planks also makes a difference. Large rooms can be made to feel more cozy by using wider planks. For uneven walls or odd-shaped rooms, consider diagonal plank installation to draw attention away from the off-balance feel.
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Wood Flooring and Your Health
Remodeling with hardwood floors is not only good for your home (it looks great, lasts a long time and raises your property value), it’s good for your health! As long as you keep them clean and free of moisture, wood floors do not harbor dust mites or mold spores. Wood that has been treated with urethane finishes are often solvent-free which means they are hypo-allergenic. Perfect for environmentally-sensitive people and even asthmatics.
Depending on what part of the country you live in, you spend more than half of your day in your home, so remodeling with hardwood floors and keeping them free of pests and spores can prevent illness later on. In fact, even the American Lung Association endorses the installation of hardwood flooring in your bedrooms and living areas.
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Site-Finished vs. Pre-finished Hardwood Flooring
So, you've decided on your hardwood flooring. Now you need to ask one last question: Do you want your flooring site-finished or pre-finished? Here are a few facts that may help you decide:
Site-finished Site-finished hardwood flooring means that professionals add the final protective coat to your flooring after its been installed. The floor can be sanded afterwards to smooth out imperfections. You also get to choose from a wider variety of stain colors. On the down side, on-site finishing and sanding can result in fumes and dust. Also, you’ll have to wait for the floor to dry thoroughly before you set foot in the room. This can be inconvenient for busy households.
Pre-finished The alternative is to have the final finish applied to your flooring before it even gets to your home. Factory finishes, as they are also called, are a great way to avoid complicated installations. There’s no fume, no mess and the planks are dry, which means you can use the room immediately after the flooring has been installed. In addition, a pre-finished floor often carries a warranty of 15 to 25 years (as opposed to a site-finished floor warranty of 3-5 years) since factory finished urethane coating is stronger and longer-lasting.
