Over the years flooring can become dull in appearance and in some cases damaged. Many external forces can deteriorate a floor, such as water damage or high traffic areas that have lost their finish.
Deciding to actually invest money into your homes flooring is only half of the battle. Once you have decided to do something about it you still have to decide to either refinish it or to completely replace it altogether.
Many older homes have wonderful old flooring that can be sanded, repaired and sealed over and over again. This type of flooring offers a unique patina only found in lumber that has been aged through time. While you may be able to potentially bring an old floor back to its original glory, most old homes have repair issue’s that have to be addressed first.
After decades of changing seasons a home will “settle” and the building joists can begin to sag ever so slightly. As a home settles the wood floor can sometimes either begin to show cracks or signs of warping. A home in this condition can make repairing the wood floor very difficult.
As soon as a home has had all of its underlying issue’s corrected the floor can then be refinished. In some cases it cannot be refinished more then a couple of times. Engineered flooring is made up of multiple layers of wood that are glued together. Once the top layer of wood is sanded away the underlying wood plies will become exposed, effectively destroying the wood.
A popular replacement material is oak engineered wood flooring. Oak engineered wood flooring not only offers unsurpassed beauty, but also provides durability under extreme conditions. Choosing an engineered wood floor over solid planks will not only save thousands of dollars on installation costs, but oak engineered flooring will last several generations before needing to be replaced again.
If you have ever thought about replacing or refinishing your homes wood floor yourself, you may want to think again. Floor refinishing or replacement takes hours of back breaking labor. From all of the different refinishing tools needed, to the time involved to planning the repair, floor repair is a lot of work!
Do your research first! With all of the resources online you can easily learn about all of the top manufacturers and all of the different kinds of products available. Once you have done your research and have located a type of wood floor that you like you can begin looking for a local flooring contractor to order the wood floor and install it for you.
Installing and refinishing wood floors is the number one home improvement. Newly refinished floors not only add value to the property, but will create a unique atmosphere specific to your homes vision. The best home improvement you can make to your property!
