Hardwood Floors vs Engineered Flooring


 
 
 
Solid hardwood flooring are natures made product mill from trees just as any wood type material, it will need to have a finish on, a protective coat that seals your hardwood floor against every day wear and will make your hardwood floors last forever, with a proper care and maintenance your wood floor can look flawless for years and years to come.

 When you're ready to buy your wood floors, think about of what you're getting, what you want to accomplish and for the future. There are lots of options when it come to hardwood floors, the best wood floor in the market if you want a wood floor that is going to last your lifetime, it will be the Solid Hardwood Flooring. These type of wood flooring is a product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring and it can be refinished many times.
 

Solid hardwood floor is a common choice as a flooring material due to its environmental profile, durability, and restorability. There are two types of solid wood floors that you can buy on the market an the thickness varies from ¾” to 5/16” and comes in different width, depending on what type of wood floor, affordability, or look on your wood floor you want to accomplish and these two types of solid wood floor are Unfinished hardwood flooring and Pre-finished hardwood floors.
 

Pre-Finished Solid Wood Floors

 

Pre-finish hardwood flooring are factory made finished solid wood flooring, pre-finish hardwood comes in different type of stained colors and natural look of the wood specie type. Since these floors have been factory pre-finished these floors require less time to install because the finishing process on the wood floor has already happened, these floors needs to be nail down.

Most likely it will take a day or two depending on how big the area is for the installation of hardwood to be completed, if you hire a professional or it can be a DIY project with the proper tools, some carpentry experience and some time to do it, why not! but we recommend to get a professional installer.
 

Unfinished Solid Wood Floors

 

Unfinished hardwood flooring must be install the same way as the pre-finish floors, but this time since there is no finish on the wood, all the process must be done on site and here is where the fun part begins. Unfinished hardwood flooring will have flaws, no matter whether marks have come from the machines at the mills, or it has become scratched or gouged during handling, or from wear and tear and there's no protective coat to seal the wood floor.
 

Sanding Hardwood Floors

 
 
If these flaws aren't sanded away, the finish that is applied to the hardwood will only highlight them and the finish product will look real bad plus there will be nothing to protect the wood floor. Today there are several types of finish that consist in oil-based, water-base or water-borne that can meet and beat factory finishes.
 

Dust-Free Sanding Process

 
Traditional hardwood floor sanding is typically an extremely dusty process – a dust-storm in your home, lingering dust in your air-ducts, and a cleanup headache that feels like it will never end.
With the dust containment systems a cleaner, healthier and faster hardwood floor sanding process, reducing dust far beyond what the traditional sanding and finish process generates. So when it comes to refinish your hardwood floors call your local hardwood refinishing services and ask about the dust contained system to get the most out of your wood floor.
 

Type of Finishes

 
The installer will sand the wood floor, stained your specific or matching color and apply at least 3 coats of finish weather is Oil-Based or Water Based Gloss, Semi-Gloss and Satin finishes on the job site. This is the best option if you are looking for a specific color or need to match existing hardwood flooring. or wanna have a custom seamless finish look on your wood floor stain your floor the way you want, that no one else can have since everything is done on site and by hand, but most important you can re-coat your wood floors every time they look thirsty rather than changing your floors again and the best part you can change the appearance over gain.
 

Moisture vs Hardwood

 

Solid hardwood flooring is sensitive to moisture and it is not recommended to install these floors below ground level, or
directly over a concrete slab due to  these areas having higher concentrations of moisture since wood is a natures made product it will absorb moisture and expand or shrink. Solid Hardwood flooring are for nail-down installations only, with the exceptions of a few manufacturers that state you can direct glue down 5/16 inch thick solid hardwood flooring.