Solid Hardwood Flooring

Solid Hardwood Flooring Guide

When you choose solid hardwood floors as your flooring of choice, you have a lot of decisions to make. Today, hardwood flooring comes in a variety of colors, widths and thicknesses. Following are some tips to make sure that the floor buying experience is a good one.

Once you have determined with you are going to install your new floor, you will have to measure the space to get the square footage. With solid hardwood, you will most likely want to have a professional installer.  Have them do the measuring to ensure the measurements are correct. They will also add extra for waste.

When choosing the thickness of the hardwood, make sure it will fit in the height of the room. That is to say, if there was Berber carpet in the room before, you will need to account for adding ½” product when opening and closing doors.

Do you want finished or unfinished woods? Unfinished wood will require sanding and staining after the job is installed. This would be for instances where you were unable to find a stain to fit into the rest of your decoration. Unfinished wood is less expensive to buy, but keep in mind that by the time it gets sanded and stained, it may be just as, if not more expensive, than its pre-finished counterpart. If you opt to get pre-finished hardwood flooring, the job will be complete once it has been installed. 

A factor that will come into play that sometimes gets over looked is who lives in the house with you? If you have small children or dogs, go with a harder wood such as Brazilian Walnut and Brazilian Cherry. If you go with cherry, make sure is the Brazilian species, as the American counterpart is soft. Other woods that will be more modestly priced and may work, depending on finish, are the Maple and Oak. Stay away from Pine- it is way to soft to stand up to life that involves more people than just you.

The next big decision to make is whether to hire an installer or do it yourself. It is advisable to hire an installer because they will have installed hundreds of floors and, chances are, this is your first one. An installer will know what kind of solid hardwood flooring will fit your needs and budget as well as whether you should go with ½” or ¾” thickness.  Also, how the flooring should be installed for your situation - nail down, glue down or float? Additionally, a professional installer will be able to take an accurate measure and included waste- usually 15-25%- in your final square footage needs. Make sure you know what the installer is recommending for you and that you agree with it.

Make sure you shop around, as pricing will vary. Also, remember that if you are having the floor installed professionally, that you ask each store what they charge per square foot for installation and add that to the price of the floor itself. Also, make sure you get glue or nails, trim pieces to match your new floor and any other materials needed.