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Solid
Hardwood Flooring
Solid
hardwood floors are just that—solid hardwood.
Therefore, before you purchase your solid
hardwood floors, there are some facts that you should be
aware of. First,
over half the homes today are constructed on a concrete
slab, and you should know that solid hardwood flooring
should never be installed over a concrete slab or below
ground level, (below ground level).
When hardwood flooring is installed over concrete
slabs, or below grade, large gaps between the planks
often appear that is caused by the wood contracting and
swelling due to changes in humidity. Secondly, you should never install solid wood planks in wet
areas such as bathrooms and kitchens as excessive
moisture will cause the planks to buckle or cup.
When installing hardwood flooring, you have to
make accommodations for the hardwood floors to swell and
contract. To
do this, enough space has be left between planks and
around edges, in addition, the flooring has to be
allowed to acclimate to the room where it will be
installed before installation.
When
shopping for solid hardwood flooring, you’ll quickly
notice that hardwood flooring is divided into three main
categories: strip flooring, plank flooring, and parquet
flooring. The
width of the wood is the only difference between strip
flooring and plank flooring.
The width of strip flooring ranges between 1-½”,
2”, and 2-¼” whereas the width of plank flooring
ranges between 3” and 8”. Parquet flooring on the other hand is comprised of several
wood strips, which are laminated together to form a
geometrical pattern.
You will
also hear the term hand-scraped or hand-planed, which
describes handcrafted hardwood floors.
This process is available in both engineered and
solid flooring. When
hand planning, thin wood shavings are produced as the
edge of the plan iron is pushed forward over the surface
of the wood resulting in a smooth surface.
However, when purchasing hand-planed flooring be
advised that many flooring companies advertise and sale
distressed hardwood flooring, which has machine made
marks that resemble hand planning as hand planed
flooring. Because
hand planned floors are hand made, they are extremely
beautiful as well as expensive.
When comparing distressed hardwood flooring, to
hand-planned flooring, the hand-planned planks will have
marks that vary whereas the distressed planks will have
a more uniformed pattern.
Once your solid hardwood floors have been installed, it
will be, up to you to keep them looking new. Start by purchasing and using only cleaning products
recommended by the manufacturer for your floors.
Next, you should keep your floors clean, by
vacuuming or sweeping your floors regularly.
This will remove dirt, mud, grit, that can mar
the finish. In
addition, consider placing doormats at the entrance of
your home for people to wipe their feet; this will
reduce the amount of dirt tracked over your wood
floor’s finish. You
have to be careful when moving furniture.
You should never push or shove furniture across
wood floors as the leg can scratch and mar the flooring.
Always lift the furniture when moving it across
the wood floors. In
addition, consider placing furniture coasters or felt
protectors under all furniture legs.
When cleaning your wood floors, never use paste
wax as this will harm the polyurethane finish and always
quickly clean up all spills.
Moisture is the number one cause of damage to
hardwood floors, if you follow these simple steps, your
hardwood floors will look new for years to come.
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