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The Hardwood Hardness Scale: Your Buying Guide to the Right Floor
You’ve decided to add natural beauty and value to your home with new hardwood flooring. Congratulations on a very smart decision! Wood floors are one of the best home improvement investments you can make. Besides being tasteful and timeless, hardwood floors are strong and durable . . . and can beautifully carry the footsteps of family life for generations. There are many species of wood available, each with its own characteristics. Color, grain pattern, the presence of knots or a smooth, closed texture are some of the aesthetics you’ve...
read moreJanka Hardness Scale Ratings for Popular Hardwood Floors
Last time we looked briefly at the history of the Janka Hardness Scale and how it works. Let’s continue the subject and show you how to use this tool to find a hardwood floor that fits perfectly in your home and lifestyle. When you’re shopping for hardwood flooring, there are many choices. It’s really handy to have the Janka Hardness Scale to help you make comparisons. Not all hardwoods perform the same! We know red oak is the Janka Hardness Scale benchmark against which all other hardwood species are compared. Red oak is hard, but...
read moreFind the Perfect Laminate Floor for Your Kitchen
No doubt, the kitchen is the hub of your home. Kids, pets, family and friend meals and get-togethers, cooking and kitchen spills – it all takes a toll on your floor. So when you weigh options for a new kitchen floor, laminate is the clear standout for its durability, easy care and budget-friendly price. Laminate also comes in so many colors, styles and natural designs – designs so realistic that they’re hardly distinguishable from real wood, stone and ceramic tile. All in all, laminate flooring is the perfect floor for your...
read moreGet the Hardwood Flooring Look You Want with Laminate Wood Flooring
Traditional hardwood floors have a look that says quality, warmth, lasting beauty . . . and pricey. If you love the hardwood look but can’t handle the price tag, get ready to make your design dreams come true. Laminate wood flooring offers the realistic look and feel of true hardwood flooring right down to the distinctive wood grain – for a lot less! Laminate wood flooring selections are impressive. From the traditional look of domestic species like oak and maple to the exotic African makore and South American rosewood, if you can find...
read moreFind the Perfect Laminate Floor for Your Bathroom
When the time comes to find a new floor for your bathroom, you’ll probably seek out design ideas and advice on choosing the perfect floor. No doubt, you’ll hear or read something somewhere that advises against installing a laminate floor in high humidity areas, such as the bathroom. Well, this just goes to show how you can’t believe everything you hear or read because a laminate floor is the perfect floor for the bathroom, as it is for any other room in your home. Laminate flooring has evolved over the years with new technologies...
read moreWhat You Need to Know About Prefinished Hardwood Flooring
Decisions. Decisions. Like any other decorating project, redoing a room with genuine hardwood flooring always starts with paring down a long list of options. Hmmm . . . do I want light or dark hardwood? Oak, maple, walnut, hickory. . . or maybe Brazilian cherry? Traditional or wide plank? Beveled or square edge? And just when you thought you checked off that last option . . . . Prefinished or unfinished hardwood? Homeowners often ask What are the advantages of prefinished hardwood flooring? Prefinished hardwood flooring has many...
read moreThe History Behind the Hand-Scraped Hardwood Look We Love
How we love the look of old wood floors! Those one-of-a-kind, character-rich beauties polished by generations of feet and mellowed by the experiences of daily living. These are floors that have withstood the test of time in both durability and style. Wood as a flooring option was first seen in the U.S. about 200 years ago. With the abundance of dense forests, early settlers had a readily available and inexpensive building material for their homes. Wide planks (8 to 15 inches) were installed in rooms with heavy traffic, while narrow strip (2...
read moreThe Power of Beautiful, Versatile Hardwood Floors
With its natural beauty, lasting durability and low maintenance, hardwood flooring goes beyond the scope of merely pleasing the eye. Of all the design elements you blend together to make your home a reflection of good taste, only hardwood floors deliver the total package: style, comfort, beauty, strength and performance. This is why hardwood floors, considering all the flooring choices available, are preferred by homeowners. Regardless of lifestyle, hardwood flooring handles just about anything you can dish out – kids, pets, entertaining....
read moreWhat the Pros Want You to Know Before Installing Hardwood Flooring
Even if your DIY experience level is advanced, when it comes to installing hardwood flooring, this is one project where it’s best to call in the pros. A seasoned professional who installs hardwood flooring for a living knows the idiosyncrasies of different wood species and how to minimize errors, mess and waste. They also have the tools and expertise to produce a beautiful, efficient and correct installation. That doesn’t mean you can’t roll up your sleeves and be part of the project. In fact, it’s important for you to understand...
read moreConvince Your Better Half It’s Time to Install a New Floor
You know it’s time to install a new floor when . . . Guests wistfully remark how your living room floor reminds them of grandma’s house. You can’t remember a time when your kitchen floor wasn’t cracked, split or curling up at the edges. When foot traffic has worn a trough so deep that you worry about runoff when it rains. You know it’s time to install a new floor, but how do you convince your reluctant better half? Here are common objections and how to head them off at the pass. “Why do we need to install a new...
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