September 23, 2020
Wood is warm, clean, and natural, and amongst the flooring options for your home, it is by far the most attractive. There are many imitations but nothing is quite like real, hardwood flooring . But choosing the right hardwood flooring for you Arlington Heights home can be tricky, and sometimes, a little daunting.
The type of wood, its rich coloring, and the overall grain texture, can entirely reshape your interior aesthetic. You need the right hardwood flooring installation in Arlington Height that will not only compliment your home appropriately, but also not throw off your decorative scheme, while recognizing the resale value implications.
It’s a lot to think about. So lets start simple. Solid hardwood or engineered? Not simple enough? Then let us elaborate.
Solid Hardwood is as the name states, a solid piece of wood, milled to perfection, cut right from the tree. Engineered hardwood is a laminate overlay cobbled together for many different pieces of wood. It is still 100% wood, it is just formed into a laminate plank. Between the two, engineered is the less expensive option, but it doesn’t have the same elegance as solid hardwood flooring in Arlington Heights.
Both solid and engineered wood flooring comes in plenty of color options and wood species, but the bigger factors as to which will go into your home is pricing, the overall size of the boards themselves, which species of wood, difficulty of install, the subflooring (concrete, etc.), and the room in which it is to be installed.
When considering solid wood flooring, you have two options: finished and unfinished. Unfinished is less expensive, but requires sanding, staining if you don’t want the natural color, and a clear top coat to protect it. Finished comes total done and ready for install.
Engineered is a very popular option because of its ease in install. Anyone can do it. It snaps in place and floats atop a thin rubber underlay. There are no special tools necessary, no nailing, and no drilling. A whole home can be done, once the original flooring is out of course, in a long weekend.
