3 timber flooring considerations
When it comes to flooring options, homeowners have many choices. Carpeting, tile, laminate, engineered wood, and solid hardwoods are some of the most common possibilities, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. If you have decided on solid hardwood timber flooring, you will need to delve deeper into your needs to decide what specific timber flooring is right for your home.
What is the architectural styling of your home?
Solid timber flooring comes in many different grades. Some grades, such as select, have very few if any character flaws in the wood. Rather than having a noticeable natural design, select timber grade has a clean look with an understated grain. This makes it ideal for a home with modern décor.
Conversely, timber flooring that has a feature grade that is more suited for a casual or rustic home style and décor. Feature-grade flooring has an abundance of knots, a distinct grain, and other attributes such as burns or worm holes. Choose a flooring that will enhance your home's architectural style and décor rather than clash with it.
What colour stain do you prefer?
Look around your home and check out all the different wood finishes you currently have. Are your kitchen cabinets stained wood? Are they dark, light or somewhere in between? What about your home furnishings? What colour is that wood? How about the woodwork around the perimeter of the floor, the crown moulding, the windows and the door?
If you have dark woodwork, cabinetry, and furniture throughout the house, choosing a honey oak flooring may give a jarring feel and will probably take away from your overall interior design and décor. However, pickled oak timber flooring that is almost white could contrast quite nicely with the rest of your dark wood. You want to give careful thought to the stain and finish you choose on your timber flooring. Bring home samples to get a better feel for how the different options look.
What is your lifestyle like?
If you have dogs, you want a timber flooring that is durable and that will hold up to their nails, such as oak. You also want to have a heavy-duty protective finish on the flooring. If your dogs have light-coloured fur and shed a lot, you probably don't want a dark-coloured floor as it will constantly highlight dog hair.
Ask the flooring salesperson which hardwoods are best suited for your lifestyle needs. You don't want flooring that won't hold up or that scratches easily when your kids play on it or the dogs romp around.
To learn more about timber flooring, contact a flooring store.