New Hardwood Floors

• Hardwood Flooring
• October 14, 2022

Fall Is The Best Season To Buy and Install New Hardwood Floors

Choosing flooring is a critical decision for both design and functionality. When a homeowner decides to remodel a room or renovate an entire house, flooring sets the stage for personality and lifestyle.

Of course, you have different options. You may love the stone tile you’ve seen in your local decorating magazine. Or have loved the new carpet installed in a friend’s new media room. But is it the right choice for you? Will it serve all of your needs?

For homeowners today, there are a plethora of choices when it comes to buying and installing new flooring. But only one stands above the rest as one of the most requested and well-loved flooring choices: Hardwood.

If you’re dreaming of new hardwood floors in your home, the choices don’t stop once you’ve set your eye on the target of hardwood. All hardwood flooring isn’t created equally. Yes, color will be an essential choice. Yet durability and performance are equally important.

Where do you start? And what’s the best season to complete your flooring project? What should you know before you say “yes” to new hardwood floors?

Let’s start with when – What’s the best season for new hardwood floors?

Ask four people about the best season for installing new hardwood floors, and you’ll likely hear four different answers. And in most cases, they’d all be right.

For many reasons, fall is the best season to install new hardwood floors. That’s because autumn is the start of new beginnings. Most homeowners wind down their outdoor summer projects, and start looking for indoor activities. You have weeks until holiday festivities begin, which means a little more downtime. The kids are in school, projects at work seem steady and stable. Autumn is a great time for getting your rooms fixed up and ready for holiday company.

If autumn doesn’t work for you, don’t let timing hold you back. The main thing to watch out for is dry environmental conditions. Colorado tends to be dry throughout the year, which means humidity levels can be low inside your home. No matter when you decide to install new floors, it’s important to introduce the hardwood planks before installation day, and let them acclimate to your indoor environment. That ensures they are properly conditioned before they are placed inside your home.

Choosing new hardwood floors

Now that you’ve settled on the ideal time to install new hardwood floors, it’s time to choose the right materials.

Traditionally, hardwood floors were created from thick solid planks of timber. Today, you’ll have a variety of choices when selecting your final flooring.

Solid hardwood is still widely acceptable – it’s a choice many homeowners can’t imagine living without. Still, solid hardwood isn’t always the best choice for your situation.

Many companies now offer engineered hardwood that is equal to more traditional flooring choices. Engineered hardwood is created from planks with a thinner top layer of hardwood, bonded to other layers that provide strength and durability. It also offers options when hardwood flooring might not be the most logical choice.

Colorado homes almost always have basements. If you’ve ever had a flooring expert talk you out of hardwood planks, it’s for a good reason. Basements, condos, and apartment buildings are often built with concrete flooring. Traditional hardwood planks are typically installed over one or two subfloors, which raises the height of the flooring and can interfere with doors. Engineered flooring can be glued directly to concrete, meaning you won’t have to raise the existing flooring in order to have a subfloor to lay traditional planks down.

Engineered hardwood is also perfect for radiant heating. If you’re looking for a new way to heat your rooms, radiant heating is an efficient way to keep heat near the flooring. It’s also perfect for rooms where you might be hesitant on hardwood because you worry about stepping on it and bare feet in the cold winter months.

If you choose engineered hardwood, be careful with the width of the top layer. Some manufacturers create the top veneer level so thin that it can’t be sanded and refinished in the future. While engineered will never give you the longevity of traditional hardwood planks, higher quality engineered planks can be sanded and refinished several times, giving you a flooring choice you’ll be able to live with for many years.

Prefinished or site finished

Hardwood planks can be purchased in one of two ways: prefinished or site finished.

With prefinished planks, what you see is what you get. You’ll select the type, style, and color based on what you find on the showroom floor. You’ll be able to choose the finish with the stain and topcoat already in place, which means no surprises with a finished look you didn’t plan on.

By going with prefinished, your project will be completed in a shorter time period. Once the prefinished planks are installed into place, you’ll be able to get back to living immediately.

With site finished, unfinished hardwood planks will be installed. Then the stain and finish will be applied once all of the hardwood planks are installed into place. The advantage of site finished is the entire surface area receives stain and finish after installation. Because an installer can mix different colors together, the possibilities are endless for how your finished floors will look. This is the perfect way to do it if you’re trying to match another color.

Site finished also gives you the advantage of installing sealant after all planks are in place. This creates a tighter seal, protecting between the planks as well as the planks themselves. This can be especially important in a busy household where more messes become commonplace. While hardwood will never be waterproof, with the proper sealant, it can offer years of protection, keeping your floors looking good no matter what you or your family members dish out.

It’s here – the perfect season to install new hardwood floors

If you’re ready to install new hardwood floors, make today the day you move forward and do something about it.

While some would argue there’s a perfect season to install new hardwood floors, we’d say that the best time is when you’re ready for a change in your home.

How can we help you select the perfect hardwood floors?

• Hardwood Flooring
• July 14, 2020

Navigating The Purchase Of New Hardwood Floors

With so many options for flooring today, it’s no surprise that settling in on one choice can be difficult at best. Maybe you’ve already decided to purchase new hardwood floors. Maybe you have your dream flooring in mind.

But all that can be thrown out the window when you walk into our showroom and see all of your options. Even if you have a style or pattern in mind, just seeing the many different options can leave your head spinning. Why is this such a difficult decision?

It is until you remember one thing: walking across a great hardwood floor will give you pleasure for years to come.

And really, that’s all there is to it.

Don’t be wow’d by the options. There are dozens – hundreds of options because every homeowner is a bit different. But it’s fairly easy to settle in on your choices when you keep a few things in mind.

Let’s start with the hardwood – what does that mean?

If you’ve looked at flooring at all, you know there are a lot of different products available.

If you’re sold on hardwood, your first choice is between solid hardwood and engineered wood flooring.

Solid wood is as the name implies. It’s created from one solid piece of hardwood. Because of this, it pays to know the manufacturer you’re trusting when you purchase. Some companies pay attention to the overall structure of the timber, while others attempt to use every piece of wood that comes through their manufacturing plant. If you have envisioned keeping your flooring for decades, this can be a major factor in how well it holds up over time.

Engineered wood is created from multiple component layers, giving you an exact thickness and wear level. Engineered wood is often perceived as more stable, because every single layer is created based on manufacturers guidelines. Every piece is created equally to ensure stability of construction. Yet what is stable in one environment might not work well in others. Because it isn’t solid, it can also run the risk of wearing faster than a high quality solid hardwood plank.

When it comes to deciding the right flooring for your unique situation, lay all the facts on the line. One of our consultants would be happy to help you determine the right choice for your needs.

What do you want your flooring to look like?

For some homeowners, they see a solid surface area where the wood blends harmoniously together. For others, they see their flooring as a work of art; they’re looking for ways to stand out from the norm.

https://pro-flooring.com/why-are-hardwood-floors-always-popular/

That’s what we love to share with people who come in ready to purchase new hardwood floors.

In today’s world, you don’t have to settle for a neutral color with single planks all running in a row. Instead, the sky is the limit on potential.

Why not go with an exotic wood? You can create a color palette anywhere from the lightest to darkest woods.

Or how about changing it up with a larger plank size? Two to three inch oak boards might have been the norm once upon a time, but no more. Instead, you’ll find six, eight, even ten inch width planks or wider. That can really make your great room pop, or your bedroom to be just a little bit more luxurious. All because you changed it up a bit and made it unique to you. Those boards create drama in all the right ways.

Light or dark, it’s up to you 

Light or dark wood? It seems like an easy enough choice. After all, you probably have your preferences on the tip of your tongue.

We’ve all walked into a kitchen before and felt the “love it or hate it” from the moment we walk in. Do you like light, white, and airy? Or do you prefer the drama of dark wood and sophisticated lines?

The same thought process goes into selecting the right hardwood floors.

Often, you can just see yourself living with one or the other. Your ideal picture clearly comes with light or dark wood.

Dark wood floors have been popular for some time now. You can select many different shades of dark, or with unfinished hardwood installation, custom stain it as dark as you wish.

Dark wood works great with modern furniture and lots of color. It makes the color pop.

Dark wood also is a great choice if you desire to move towards a more rustic and casual feel. In some cases, you can find dark wood floors that bring out an aged look. That can blend in quite nicely with your farmhouse, country charm look.

Dark brings out the coziness wherever it’s laid into place. Picture a dramatic ski lodge in the heart of winter. Don’t you just want to light a fire and snuggle down for the evening?

Of course, dark wood does have a few drawbacks. You’ll see everything on the floor much easier with the darkness as a backdrop. And dark wood floors are more sensitive to the appearance of wear. While that can be perfect if you’re going for an aged look, it might not work so well with clean, modern lines. That’s where it pays to take your family and your lifestyle into consideration before making a selection.

Light wood, on the other hand, creates a light palette you can build from to show off a variety of looks. It makes the space look larger, brighter.

What we love about light wood is it goes with almost any decor. If you go with the more traditional oak or maple, it blends in well with whatever designs you create. Or you can go as light as possible – how about ash – and make your light hardwood center stage.

Just remember lighter hardwood often requires a little more maintenance, including the right sealer to prevent spills from turning into stains. And because light wood hides dirt a bit easier, that can work to your disadvantage if you really need a clean location.

What’s the best hardwood floor?

With dozens of choices, the purchase of new hardwood floors can seem intimidating at first, until you realize that deep inside you already know what you want.

Trust your instinct. Whether you want light or dark, wide planks or more traditional, there’s a right hardwood flooring waiting for you.