With the variety of wood, colors and finishes available nowadays, choosing a wooden floor is not at all easy. That’s why we have created this practical guide that will help you with this choice.
Type of wood floors
There are basically 4 types of wood flooring: floors, ready or engineered floors, tacos and laminates.
The floors are made of solid wood and are long boards that need finishing after they are installed.
The finished floor can be the same type of solid planks, but already provided with protection varnish finish, requiring no further finishing. Ready-made floors can also be multi-laminated, multi-layered or multi-structured, consisting of processed wood that receive layers of 3 to 6 mm of noble wood creating a super-resistant coating.
The wooden tacos were used a long time ago, being a period without use and recently has been gaining again the taste of the consumer.
The last and very popular nowadays is the laminate floor that is a processed wood that receives a finish in formica, giving a great finish, good resistance and with a price below the finished floors or floors.
Type of finish
Same species will generate a totally different result in case of applying a hardwood floor refinishing with high gloss varnish compared to a non glossy varnish for example. Other forms of finishing like coating with a patina and others can also totally transform the look of a wooden floor. Engineered floors are finished in several layers of factory veneer, applied in fully controlled environments causing a very interesting appearance.
Cost and Installation
The cost of wood floors depends on the type, the species of wood and the finish.
Traditional floors and ready-to-install floors are usually installed with sub-base fixings, but nowadays a sheer amount of dowel or glue system allows the floor to just “float” over the existing floor. Flooring tacos are glued to the floor with specific products and finally the laminates that also do not have fixing system getting also with the aspect of floating above the existing floor.
I am Jeffrey Blain and my love is writing about home improvement. I write mostly about home ideas, but also share some tips and tricks that can make your life easier when it comes to getting things done in the house.