How To Choose & Install Hardwood Floors

April 24, 2023 Dharani Natarajan

Choosing the right hardwood flooring for your home can have a significant impact on both aesthetics and performance, with factors such as color, grain pattern, durability, and moisture resistance all to be kept in mind.

How To Choose Hardwood Floors?

1. Select Solid or Engineered Flooring

Engineered real wood flooring is excellent for covering real subfloors and second-story additions. It offers a comparable aesthetic to solid wooden flooring because it is manufactured with a fine coating, it doesn’t require as much elbow grease during installation or adjoin the height of the floor and ceiling space below.

2. Choose Prefinished or Site Finish

If you’re planning an update, consider hardwood flooring’s warmth and timeless appeal. Purchasing prefinished hardwood planks makes the installation process easier and faster, thanks to its quick dry time and ability to be installed tighter than raw face material. This results in fewer seams and gaps between planks, protecting your floor from dirt and moisture.

3. Choose the Type of Finish

There are many types of coating but they generally fall down into one of two types: coated with oil or polyurethane. These two finishes offer durability and protection, but they also differ in their application and maintenance requirements. Oil has a softer feel on the copse and covers any scratches easier than its polyurethane counterpart; however, it is less flexible to damage. Polyurethane will give you a harder finish on the side of the wood, making it more resistant to damage.

4. Consider Wood Types

Oak has been a staple in the wooden flooring industry for centuries. It is durable and stainable, with an essential grain that’s appealing. If you want to achieve a comforting tone and looking for a dark color, Walnut might be a good choice.

5. Pick Your Grain Pattern

The wooden floor pattern in your hardwood flooring matters because it defines the look and feel of your room’s floor. These floors are cut from logs using three different techniques to produce three different types of the wood grain. A traditional floor will feature common cathedrals and other patterns created by the dominantly spiral grain. If you’d like something more casual, rift and quarter sawn can be used to create a calmer look with less sweeping lines that give way to more linear pieces of wood.

6. Determine Plank Width

A floor board is composed of fewer boards than a narrow strip of wood flooring, so it may be more susceptible to fluctuations in the wood such as expanding and contracting. It is also possible that the seams between the planks could turn up more prominent over time.

How to Install Hardwood Floors

Tools and Materials

Before installing your new real wood flooring, it is significant to have all the necessary equipment ready. It depends on the type of flooring that you have decided on, you may also need some additional tools like a pneumatic drill, hammer, and, nails,

1. Determine the Installation Method

Installation of real wood floors is a fairly straightforward process, but it’s important to do it correctly. Choose the right technique for the floor you have selected. You should also select finishes and stains carefully and consider the maintenance they require down the road.

2. Let Your Floors Acclimate

Acclimate your flooring design by moving it into the house where it will be fixed up and keeping it heightened off the ground for some days. Once the humidity of the wood has adapted to the home’s environment, you can start fixing it up.

3. Prepare Your Space

Make your place ready before installation by gathering all the equipment and cleaning materials mentioned in the guidelines. Make certain the basement is fine, dried, and smooth. Also, be aware of any hazards such as inflammable or lead-based coatings on the floors you’re replacing.

4. Install the Flooring

Install wood flooring by giving an installation guide, which will show you how to measure and cut the planks. Make sure to mark all corners, then nail each plank to the subfloor in its final position. You will need spacers or other materials to determine distances between rows.

5. Add the Finishing Touches

To ensure that your floor project goes smoothly, you have to add up the final touch. If the last row is build-up, then use the mentioned guides in guidelines to trace rows of cuts that are required to be manufactured and fitted.

Related Topics: floor design for home