Nowadays, flooring comes in a wide range of materials that could be used for any lifestyle and function. Many floors that we see right now are the ones we see in old photographs and historic houses.
The flooring in these photographs and houses can be very decorative, elegant, functional or practical – they could fit any individual’s style, taste, and budget. No material evokes as much warmth, sentiment and a sense of history as wood flooring.
A Timeless Choice
Even as trends have come and gone, you can always find wood flooring anywhere. Wood flooring has not lost its place in the hearts of many house builders; even with the rise in the prices of wood and increase in other choices for flooring, there’s nothing quite like it when creating homes with a homely feel. Wood floors, even the traditional cuts, do not fail to enhance decor and personal statements of tastes.
A House builder who opts to have a floor with a more modern touch opts for the wooden floor in place of the quarter-sawn wood flooring popular during the past decades. The new finished hardwoods are an excellent choice even for homes ranging in design from the traditional, country, ranch or Victorian to the Modern ages.
Color choices and materials are adaptable to any look that an individual would want for a room. The darker finishes are suitable for formal settings, and the lighter the shade becomes, the more casual touch the wood flooring evokes.
The most popular flooring options include:
Oak
As flooring, oak is very durable and has a tight dark grain that is appropriate for dining rooms and places that require a serious and formal atmosphere.
Ash
Ash has a beautiful texture and provides consistency.
Pine
Pine floors is a softwood that can be very durable and last for hundreds of years. This type of flooring provides a sense of history and you can find it in old houses.
Birch
Birch is also a softwood type of flooring, but with a more playful texture.
Fir
Fir is another softwood type of flooring with decorative dark grains as patches.
Bamboo
Although technically a grass, bamboo can be a great flooring option when harvested in season and treated well. It can even be more durable than most hardwood flooring.
Other wood flooring options include walnut, cherry, and teak. These choices are more expensive and elegant than the previous ones.
Also, you can combine local popular choices like the ash, oak, and maple with varieties of teak, Brazilian cherry, and bamboo to create a look and texture that stands out from the rest.
A Performance Above the Rest
The design of today’s engineered hardwood performs better than the traditional ones. The reason for this is that they are cross layered on top of each other, providing a durability and capacity to hold more weight that was not achieved before.
Engineered hardwood flooring is not synthetic wood, but real hardwood. It is much easier to maintain and avoids old-fashioned waxes and pastes, as these are already treated with several coats of urethane and is IV cured with aluminum oxide. In addition, it will only require occasional mopping with a wood cleaner to maintain its luster.
Whatever the choice you make, wood flooring will always remain a classic. Even with all the other flooring varieties on the market, wood flooring has still maintained its popularity.
