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The Best Hardwood Floors Add Richness And Warmth
You want to find the best hardwood floors to purchase that coordinate perfectly with your new kitchen design. From the gold standards of oak or maple has come a almost endless array of wood options and styles.
In addition to solid wood flooring, the choices for engineered hardwoods have stretched the playing field to provide a wide range of prices to fit your budget. For the best prices and one of the largest selections click here.
Hardwood flooring is well suited for the kitchen but excessive exposure to water should be avoided at all times. Water spills should be cleaned up right away.
Choosing which hardwood floor is best for your project starts with an overall plan. The style needs to work well with your cabinet finish and counter choices. It also needs to have an ease of care for finish that fits your lifestyle.
Solid or Pre-Finished
Solid hardwood floors come unfinished and pre-finished. The unfinished version has to be installed first and then sanded, stained and sealed. The final sealing process should include multiple layers to give your floor the protection that you need.
A pre-finished hardwood comes finished from the factory and simply laid in place.
While pre-finished floors offer less mess, installing an unfinished hardwood allows you a greater range of stain options.
The flooring finisher will be able to custom mix a stain on site that will be just what you want. They will often put stain samples on the floor for you to approve.
Or maybe you want to match existing hardwood flooring in your home. The best hardwood floors will have a continuous flow throughout your space and tie everything together.
How do you narrow down the choices for the best hardwood floor? Oak and maple have been favorites for their ability to take a range of stain colors. Both are very hard and easy to care for when finished properly. Cherry and walnut are also known for their richness in color and grain.
Exotic Hardwood
The new exotic styles of hardwood floor are branching into species that come from South America or Africa. Brazilian cherry, Tigerwood, African Wenge, and teak are just some of the options that are known to be the best hardwood floors. Bamboo, which is made from a grass, is also very popular.
Exotic woods are very unique but for most homeowners, staying with standard wood spices makes for a safe and beautiful choice.
Most woods are chosen for the patterns within their grain and for their depth of color. From rustic finishes to sleek and modern styles, there will be a hardwood floor to fit your kitchen’s personality. Plank size is also important to the overall look.
The wider plank floors are very popular for today’s larger kitchens, as the scale fits the size of the room better. Narrower planks will make a smaller space seem larger and wider planks will make a larger kitchen appear smaller and more intimate.
Plank sizes can vary anywhere from 1/2” up to 8” wide. Keep in mind that the wider the board size, the more expensive the flooring will be in most cases.
Smooth finishes versus options such as hand scraping and distressing are another of the popular features for the best hardwood floors. Hand scraped and
distressed hardwood floors
are created by techniques to make them look old and well worn.
The surface is more uneven and each plank will have a unique appearance like it came from a time in the past when machine sanding was not possible. Hand scraped hardwood floors are turning up in modern spaces just as much as they are in traditional homes.
Learn about different hardwood floors in this video
Hardwood Finish
The finish on hardwood is perhaps the most important detail to a proper installation. You will want something that resists scratch and is durable. While hardwood floors will scratch and show wear marks over time, it should take years before the floors need to be refinished.
Strong polyurethane or similar finish coats should be applied either by hand on raw wood or at the factory for pre-finished wood. It is standard for job-finished floors to receive three coats of finish on top of the stain coat.
As far as maintenance goes, you can simply clean with a vacuum or damp mop. A mild solution of water and white vinegar is an eco-friendly means of cleaning hardwood and is a good cleaning agent for many wood species. It is best to use a damp mop with as little water as possible.
The best hardwood floors remain as one of the most valuable improvements you can purchase for your home. Hardwood adds warmth and beauty in addition to being versatile in working with many
kitchen decorating themes.
Whether you do it yourself or have it installed, hardwood floors will be one of the longest lasting options for your kitchen’s floor.
There is such a large variety of great kitchen flooring material out there today that it takes quite a bit of time to see it all. Fortunately, with the Internet, you can see your choices online in the comfort of your own home.
Click here now to to see some great hardwood selections for your kitchen at the lowest prices. See something that you like? Just put it in your cart and get free samples (of many of their flooring types) sent to you!
A pre-finished hardwood comes finished from the factory and simply laid in place. 