Wood is one of the most popular flooring materials because of its decorative and practical benefits. Wood floors are not just warm and attractive, but they are also durable, solid, and easy to clean and maintain. In addition, wood floors suit just about any room and present neutral backgrounds to design and build around. There are different types of wooden flooring each with its own features, advantages, and disadvantages.
1. Solid Wood Flooring
Solid wood flooring comes in three main styles including plank, parquet, and strip wood flooring. Plank wood flooring features long wood pieces measuring three to eight inches thick. Strip wood flooring has the same features as plank wood flooring except for the fact that it is much narrower. Parquet wood floors are solid wood pieces that create repetitive geometric designs on the floor. The two main types of solid wood flooring are finished and unfinished.
2. Engineered Wood Flooring
This type of flooring is produced by gluing three to five layers of wood and plastic laminate veneer together. According to Metro Atl. Floors, “The wood layers in engineered wood flooring are switched so that the wood grains have alternate directions to give the flooring extra stability.” Engineered wood flooring is different from laminate flooring because laminate flooring does not have real wood.
3. Acrylic Impregnated Wood Flooring
As the name suggests, acrylic impregnated wood flooring is made using an acrylic material to seal the wood and give it some color. The acrylic is injected into the wood, a process that makes the wood solid, durable, and scratch resistant. This type of wood flooring is suitable for commercial use in high traffic areas.
4. Hardwood Flooring
The durability of wood flooring is determined by its density, strength, and hardness. Hardwood flooring has certain advantages over softwood flooring including being scratch resistant and resilient. One of the most popular hardwoods that can be used is a floor material is Northern Red Oak. This type of hardwood is dense, wear-resistant, and often used as the benchmark for comparing the hardness of other woods.
Hickory is much harder than Northern Red Oak and suitable for high traffic areas. Hard Maple is a popular wood flooring material in dance floors and bowling alleys. Other types of hardwood flooring materials include Brazilian Cherry and Brazilian Maple.
5. Composite Wood Flooring
This type of wood flooring has been engineered for special properties including durability and moisture resistance. This type of wood flooring is much easier to install than traditional wooden floors. In addition, it is quite difficult to distinguish composite wood flooring from other types of wood flooring.
Wood floors are popular in many homes due to their versatility. They can be used to accentuate a wide range of décor styles including classic, modern, urban, country, rustic and elegant. Choosing wood flooring requires knowledge of the basic features of the different types of wood floors.
