Hardwood floors add a beautiful and natural touch. They also add value to your home and are highly praised in the resale home market. Today's hardwood floors have made advances in style, durability, maintenance and care, making them more widely usable throughout the home. With simple sweeping or vacuuming and occasional spot cleaning, wood floors will last a lifetime. There are hundreds of choices in style and color with today's options spanning into exotic hardwoods. Most wood floors are available in several grades in a wide range of prices.
Wood floors are available in a number of popular species, both domestic and exotic. For complete information and images of each specie, please click below.
There are two constructions of wood commonly sold. "Solid" wood is milled from one piece of wood. "Engineered" wood consists of three or more layers in a cross-ply construction. Solid wood construction is generally used when installing over a wood sub-floor where the hardwood will be attached to the sub-floor. Engineered floors can be used almost anywhere in the home and are particularly well-suited to installation over concrete sub-floors.
Woods styles come in strips, planks, or parquet tiles with numerous edge treatments such as square, micro, and beveled edges. You can choose from a wide range of stains to complement your décor and from several types of finishes including unfinished.
Another factor that determines the appearance of wood floors is the angle, or “cut,” of the grain. No matter what the specie, construction or finish of a wood floor, it comes with one of three cuts: plain-sawn, quarter-sawn or rift-sawn.
 Plain-sawn is the most common. A plain-sawn board contains a more open and varied grain patterns because the angle of the cut shows the growth rings more prominently. Quarter-sawn cut wood is done at an angle that produces less board feet per log than plain-sawn, therefore it can be more expensive. As for appearance, quarter-sawn wood is tighter-grained for a more consistent look, which many find more desirable. Another benefit of quarter-sawn wood is that it tends to twist and cup less and wears more evenly. Rift-sawn wood is similar to quarter-sawn in cost and benefits, but is cut at a different angle for a slightly different grain pattern.
To keep them in good shape and looking new, it is necessary to clean a wood floor with a soft broom or vacuum. To maintain its luster, use the manufacturer's recommended cleaner with a dry mop and a terry cloth cover. Urethane floors should never be buffed. Pensacola Floors also sells products designed for the care and maintenance of hardwood floors.
|
|
|
HOW MANY STYLES?