When thinking about renovating a home there is more to consider than just the walls – there is also the floor that you have to make decisions about. Nowadays there are many different kinds of flooring, and this is why it is difficult to distinguish the high quality ones.
The solid wood strip floors or the prefinished hardwood floors, as they are mostly called, are usually 4 inches wide or less and the kind of flooring that is wider than 4 inches is usually poorly designed. The disadvantage of the prefinished flooring is that it shrinks during the winter and you can’t screw or peg a prefinished floor.
In the first instance, you should consider looking for 2 ¼ inch and 3 ¼ inch sizes of the strip floor. When buying this kind of flooring, you should ask the salesperson to allow you to open a box of flooring and to assemble it on a table. There are some people that are reluctant about allowing you to do so, but you wouldn’t buy a car without testing it first, right? This is just the same thing.
When assembling, you should look out for certain aspects, like the way the pieces fit together. Is it easy to assemble them manually? Take a look at the edges after they have been fit. In case there is a bump, it is an indicator that the pieces aren’t well done.
Another thing that you should be looking out for is for the ends to have a little bevel. If they have it, you can be sure that your socks won’t get caught up with the flooring.
In the case of hardwood flooring you shouldn’t look for the best bargain. Consider investing a bigger amount of money and you can be sure that you will have the same flooring for the rest of your life (provided you make a good decision).
When considering the materials that you are looking for, it is useful to know that the flooring made of oak tree could last for up to 80 years. For example you should take the time and look for ambience oak flooring that would last until the end of your days.
Also when you are picking out the flooring, it shouldn’t be enough to take a look at the pieces that have been exposed, because most probably those are the best. You should also take a look at the pieces in the boxes and make sure they carry the same quality as the sample displayed for the buyer’s viewing.
