By Robert Thatcher
Different kinds of flooring evoke different kinds of ambience and emotion.
Flooring available today comes in a wide array of materials that could be used
for any lifestyle and function. Many floors that we see now have ceased to be
the floors that we see in old photographs and historic houses. The flooring can
be very decorative, elegant, artsy, functional or practical that could suit to
any individual’s style, taste and budget. But no material evokes as much warmth,
sentiment and a sense of history as the good old-fashioned wood flooring.
Homes with natural wood flooring can be found in any town that in spite of
all the advances in fashion and technology for other types of flooring material,
the wood flooring has not lost its place in the hearts of many house
builders.
In spite of the rise in the prices of wood and increase in other choices for
flooring, wood has no substitute in creating homes that has a homey feel to it.
Wooden floors, even the traditional cuts do not fail to enhance décor and
personal statements of tastes.
A House builder who opts to have a floor with a more modern touch opts for
the parquet in place of the quarter-sawn wood flooring popular during the past
decades. The new prefinished hardwoods are excellent viable choices even for
homes ranging in design from the traditional, country, ranch, Victorian to the
contemporary. Color choices and materials are amazing making it adaptable to any
look that an individual would want a room to have. The darker finishes are
suitable for formal settings, and the lighter the shade become, the more casual
feel the wood flooring evokes. Local popular choices like the Ash, Oak and Maple
can be combined with varieties of Teak, Brazilian cherry and Bamboo creating a
look and texture that has never been reached when wood flooring (aside from
concrete) were oftentimes the only choice.
The engineered hard wood of today are designed to perform better than the
traditional ones as they are cross layered on top of each other providing a
durability and capacity to hold more weight that was never achieved before.
Engineered hardwood flooring is not synthetic wood but is made form real
hardwood. Engineered hardwood is much easier to maintain doing away with
old-fashioned waxes and pastes as these are already treated with several coats
of urethane and is IV cured with aluminum oxide. Engineered hard wood will only
require occasional mopping with a wood cleaner to maintain its luster.
The most popular flooring options include:
- Oak as flooring is very durable. It has a tight dark grain that is very
appropriate for dining rooms and places that requires more subdued and formal
atmosphere.
- Ash has beautiful texture and grain uniformity.
- Pine can
be found in old houses. This flooring evokes a sense of history. Pines are
considered as softwood but they can be very durable and can last for hundreds of
years.
- Birch. Also a soft wood with a more playful texture
- Fir is
another softwood patched with decorative dark grains
- Bamboo technically is
a grass but when harvested in season and treated well can be more durable than
most hardwood flooring.
- The more expensive and elegant wood flooring are
the walnut, cherry and teak.
Whatever the choice is, wood for flooring has a timeless quality to it that
will never be easily substituted even by the most modern materials available
today.
Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He
publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides flooring resources
on http://www.just-flooring.info.
