Everyone loves a nice new hardwood floor.  But if your looking at installing a new hardwood floor in your home or office it can be a tough decision to make.  With so many wooden flooring options, choosing the right wooden floor for your home can be a difficult decision.

How to choose a hardwood floor

When you’re planning a renovation choosing the right flooring is a simple but incredibly important decision.  The wrong choice could make or break your remodel. It could increase the value of your home dramatically or not.

Not all wood flooring is the same, some suite some environments better than others.  There are a number of factors that contribute to both the life and look of the wood.

Step 1: Choosing between solid or engineered hardwood 

For a long time, solid hardwood was the only option for most people.  While solid hardwood can be beautiful, with simple natural elegance, it may not be the best in all environments.  Some of the engineered hardwood blends can survive longer and hold their nice new shine longer especially in damp, moist or humid environments.  Humidity can not only be damaging to the wood but also your health. With a porous natural solid wood, you may not want it in a humid space like a basement or poorly ventilated area.

Step 2: Prefinished vs Custom Finish

This is really all preference here.  But it’s an important choice to make early on.  Choosing a prefinished wood has some clear benefits. 

  • It’s faster to get started
  • You know exactly what the wood will look like

However many people want a unique custom finish on their wood.  Who doesn’t like a custom job, it really makes your home stand out.  The only downside is you’re rolling the dice a little bit. You don’t actually know what it will look like with 100% certainty.

Step 3: Choose your finish

There’s a variety of finishing products to choose from.  I’ll just go over a few of the major options:

  • Oil/oil hybrids: these give a soft, more natural look to the wood.
  • Polyurethanes: more scratch-resistant, with a harder sheen
  • UV resistant urethanes: Great for rooms that will get a lot of light which could damage other types of wood

Step 4:  Choose your wood!

Now we get to choose our wood!  This comes down to personal preference.  Things to consider are:

  • Grain pattern
  • Plank width

Come visit us at Central Mass Hardwood or contact us today and our professionals will help you get the hardwood floor of your dreams!