What are the characteristics of hardwood flooring?
There’s nothing like a hardwood floor for natural beauty, warmth and ease of cleaning. Its distinctive grains and swirling burnished figures add a classic touch throughout your home. Hardwood’s rich character never goes out of style. Good looking, long lasting and a great investment in your home’s overall value, hardwood flooring is the perfect marriage of practicality and elegance when it comes to home improvement.
Oak and maple are the most popular. New: pre-oiled exotic woods, available with semi-gloss and gloss finishes.
Wood flooring is available in several styles:
Strip Flooring
The flooring comes in strips with widths that range from 1 1/2″ through 2 1/2″ and thicknesses of 5/16″ through 3/4″. Strip flooring creates a traditional look, and can produce an illusion that a room is larger than it is.
Plank Flooring
Plank flooring also comes in strips, but they are wider, usually from 3″ through 8″. Plank flooring can be used to create a more rustic or earthy look as well as a historical appearance with antique applications.
Handscraped Flooring
Handscraped hardwood floors have become one of the most sought after looks in flooring today. Replicating the look of reclaimed wood or of centuries of lived-on wear, handscraped hardwood floors beam with character and charm while boasting today’s most enduring urethane finishes.
Wire Brushed Floors
Wire brushed floors imitate the lived-on charm of handscraped hardwood floors with a less obvious level of distress applied to the faux wear markings. These floors, too, offer the enduring beauty of today’s innovations in urethane finishes.