The types of hardwood flooring in your home determines if you’ll need hard work for its maintenance. Truthfully, hardwood always adds beauty to any home. As a buyer, you may be reluctant because of the initial price of hardwood flooring. But, in the long run, you’ll realize it’s cost-effective and an aesthetic plus to any home.
Whether for the building or renovation of a commercial or residential building, hardwood flooring fits perfectly. However, there are several types of wood to choose hardwood flooring. Each of these woods has its differences in terms of beauty, durability and maintenance.
Of course, you want to beautify your home or office, not to cause maintenance headaches. But what if you don’t need to worry about how to maintain hardwood flooring? How about we give you information on which hardwood floor is easy to maintain? In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of hardwood and easy-maintenance wood options for your flooring.
Advantages of Buying Hardwood Flooring
There are many advantages that the various types of hardwood flooring offer. Some of these benefits include aesthetics, durability, easy installation, beauty, and so many more. So, if you’re considering flooring options, don’t second guess hardwood flooring. Here are some reasons why:
Cost-effective
One of the best features of hardwood flooring is its long-lasting nature. If you can maintain your flooring well, it will last for over 50 years. Unlike other flooring options, you don’t have to replace hardwood every decade.
The cost may be a tad high at the start, but it’s a long-term investment. Firstly, with hardwood flooring, it’s possible not to need any flooring replacement again. Furthermore, depending on the types of hardwood flooring, the value of your property will increase. To cap it off, there are now inexpensive options for hardwood flooring.
Easy installation
When you choose hardwood flooring for your home, the fear of difficult installation disappears. Mostly, hardwood flooring designs are always accurate, and they fit into existing flooring quickly. Of course, employing the services of a professional assures that. Furthermore, some hardwood flooring designs come with easy removal in case of relocation.
Ease of maintenance
Mostly, hardwood flooring offers a low maintenance advantage. Once you keep your hardwood flooring dry and neat, then you’ve no worries. Unlike other flooring options, hardwood flooring seldomly accumulates dirt.
This means you don’t have to stress yourself over how to maintain your hardwood flooring. All you need is regular mopping and vacuuming, and your floor will last long.
Beautiful options
For hardwood flooring, there are several options for you to choose from. For example, if you need hardwood flooring in Toronto, you have options like oak, maple, and many more. You’ll be the one making your choice based on beauty, cost and availability.
In most cases, hardwood doesn’t have just one colour. And, if you so desire, you can always repaint to your taste. That gives you the freedom to express your creative thoughts.
Quality and durability
When you purchase high-quality types of hardwood, you can worry less about its strength. That is because standard hardwood flooring designs are strong and durable. Likewise, hardwood floorings never look old and rough regardless of their “age”. As a result, you will have confidence in the beauty of your home.
Related article: How to Maintain Hardwood Flooring?
What are the Hardwood Flooring Options with Easy Maintenance?
As much as hardwood flooring is beautiful and durable, you still need to maintain them well. Globally, there are many types of hardwood available. And, as expected, the maintenance needs for each one differs from the other. As a result, you need to carefully pick your hardwood to suit its purpose(s).
Some hardwood floors have a strong resistance to scratches, stains, and damages. While for some other types of hardwood flooring, you need to clean regularly and swiftly. So, the question is which hardwood floor is easy to maintain? We have answers to this question below:
Oak hardwood flooring
Of all the available types of hardwood flooring, oak stands out as the most common. It’s common in North America because it grows in abundance there. There are many types of oak wood, but the most popular is the red oak. Now, this popularity doesn’t mean oak is the most durable wood available.
Some other types of hardwood flooring have more durability than oak wood. However, most aren’t as available and affordable as this type of wood flooring. More importantly, affordability doesn’t undermine the strength and durability of oak wood. The hardness rating of red oak is about 1260.
Oakwood has grain-like designs that help to hide stains and scratches. However, you still need to maintain this wood overtime. Luckily, oak is relatively easy to clean and maintain. Here are some of its advantages:
- Available and affordable
- Durability
- Easy to clean.
- Allows for refinishing.
- It has resistance to scratches and stains.
Birch hardwood flooring
There are some types of hardwood flooring whose trees have multi-purposes, one of them is birch wood. Although not so popular, birch wood is also affordable. Just like oak wood, it comes in many styles.
The strength of birch wood depends on the parts of the tree. Usually, this wood has light colours but can have shades of yellow or red depending on the type. Mostly, people use birch indoors, and it’s almost always prefinished.
Maintaining birch wood is quite simple, as it’s resistant to water. Likewise, when finished, the surface always shines. However, it’s one of the types of hardwood flooring that can’t carry heavy loads. Here are some advantages:
- It’s relatively cheap
- Birch has low weight
- It also has strong elastic properties.
Hickory hardwood flooring
As the name implies, hickory wood flooring comes from the hickory tree. Although not so common, hickory is one of the most durable types of hardwood flooring. It has an 1820 rating in terms of hardness.
You can use hickory hardwood flooring in areas with massive traffic. That is mostly due to the strength and resistance to heavy load. However, hickory is one of the heaviest types of hardwood flooring, and this can make the installation daunting. You’ll be needing more labour, which means extra cost.
Notwithstanding, if you’re searching for low maintenance hardwood flooring options, hickory is a good pick. Naturally, hickory hardwood floors have colours, so there’ll be no need for extra colours. Furthermore, you don’t need to refinish hickory as regularly as other types of hardwood flooring. Here are some of its advantages:
- Strength and durability
- It’s beautiful and attractive.
- Load resistant
- Hickory has a lot of options for you to pick.
Maple hardwood floors
If you’re considering flooring that resists stain, maple hardwood should be one of the top choices. Usually, it grows abundantly in Canada and the United States. There are several types of maple hardwood flooring. For this reason, the properties and price of the wood vary.
Mostly, maple has a hardness rate of 1450. This strength gives it resistance to heavy traffic and weight. Just like oak wood, maple has grain-like patterns. However, it’s less resistant to stains due to its strength. This resistance makes maple hardwood flooring one that requires low maintenance.
The good news is, it’s very resistant to scratches and dents. Likewise, having maple flooring in your home removes the stress of maintenance. It’s one of the hardwood flooring types that need just regular cleaning. Some advantages of maple hardwood flooring include:
- It’s aesthetically pleasing
- Relatively cheap
- When well maintained, it lasts for decades
- It resists large loads excellently.
Bamboo flooring
Bamboo is grass and shouldn’t be amidst types of hardwood flooring. However, in recent times, bamboo has performed excellently well as a flooring option. It has excellent eco-friendly properties which make it popular.
There are so many types of bamboo, with some relatively soft and others hard. Although a newcomer in the flooring world, bamboo is just like every other type of wood flooring. Furthermore, bamboo has a suitable temperature and load resistance.
In terms of hardness, bamboo ranges between 1200 and 1400. Maintaining bamboo is similar to other wood flooring types. Although, they are a tad receptive to dust. Hence, there’s a need to clean it regularly.
- It’s quite simple to maintain.
- Although more demanding than other types of hardwood floorings, you can refinish bamboo to taste.
- It’s inexpensive.
Conclusion
Depending on your preference, choosing between the numerous types of hardwood flooring can be challenging. That is because each wood flooring has its specific advantages and properties. However, the factors you should focus on include cost, durability and strength.
Generally, hardwood floors last for decades before you consider refinishing. But to increase the lifetime of your hardwood flooring, you need to practice proper maintenance.
You don’t need to stress yourself over maintaining the quality of your hardwood floor. At LV Flooring, not only do we have beautiful wood options for you; we offer top quality that stands the test of time. You can buy hardwood flooring in Canada without leaving the comfort of your home. Check out our online store for hardwood floors to get started!
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