How can a decision look so simple yet so complex? The choice of flooring for your home is something you believe you have figured out. But when the time comes, you realize there are other flooring options better than your initial choice.
The confusion begins; should I opt for hardwood floors or go with the tiles? If you choose hardwood floors, you’ll need to make other choices based on the available options. There are many options for hardwood flooring like wire brushed hardwood floors, vinyl floors, amongst others.
Deciding on the best flooring option is a tough decision because it’s a long-term one. Not everyone has the luxury and funds to remodel their flooring yearly. Hence, your flooring choice has to be durable while also meeting style demands.
This blog will be focusing on wire brushed hardwood flooring. You’ll learn about the pros and cons of wire brushed hardwood floors. And with the information in this guide, you can comfortably decide whether you want wire brushed hardwood floors for your home.
Pros of Wire Brushed Hardwood Floors
Wire brushed flooring refers to hardwood floors that undergo a final finishing step known as brushing. The brushing process aims to give the flooring a natural and traditional look.
The finishing step happens thanks to a brushing action that pulls wood grains away. Wire brushed flooring’s unique finish will expose the wood and give it a rough but beautiful outlook.
This unique manufacturing procedure is responsible for the benefits that come with using wire brushed hardwood floors. Some of these benefits include:
Beautiful Appearance
We all have unique definitions of the word “beautiful.” Some prefer smooth floors like plywood that are aesthetically pleasing. If you fall into this category, then maybe a wire brushed hardwood floor isn’t for you.
On the other hand, if you’re a lover of the traditional look rough flooring provides, then wire brushed hardwood floors are the best fit.
When the brush passes through the wood, it pulls out the top grains from the wood itself. Hence, making wood grains more evident and beautiful. It also gives some grit to the texture of your floors. Some people refer to this look as the European look.
Texture Flexibility
Generally, texture is a huge talking point when choosing hardwood floors. Some hardwood floors have a soft texture that’s not suitable for heavy materials. Other types of hardwood flooring have a harder texture that can take considerable weight and regular foot traffic.
With most hardwood flooring options, you don’t have the liberty of varied texture options. In our opinion, this can be limiting because not every room in your home will carry the same load. The paucity of options means you won’t enjoy uniform flooring across your home.
This problem of limiting textures is why you should install wire brushed floors. There are three options of wood used to create the authentic appearance of a wire brushed wood. These wood types include reclaimed wood, hand-scraped and distressed wood. Each one of these wood options has its respective features and advantages.
With wire brushed floors; you have the liberty to decide the texture based on preference, strength, amongst others. For instance, let’s assume you’re a big fan of the deep texture. All you need to do is tell the manufacturer not to go too deep with the brushing process.
Damage Resistance
If you stay alone and keep up with maintenance demands, your floor will have minimal scratches and damages. But the moment you have a family member, wife, brother, or a pet in the same home, your flooring will become prone to more scratches. These dents and scratches can destroy your flooring’s beautiful appearance.
For instance, let’s assume you have kids who love running around when they’re back from school. Of course, you may try your best to stop them from running on the floors. But no matter how hard you try, kids must be kids, and they’ll run around. When this happens frequently, your flooring will have these scratches.
When these scratches are too much, you have no other option but to change the entire floor or the affected parts. You can avoid this situation by choosing wire brushed hardwood floors.
We’re not saying wire brushed floors can’t get scratches or suffer damage. We’re saying it’s a rarity, and the scratches remain invisible even when it does happen. The production process for wire brushed flooring removes softwood, leaving you with a strong, durable upper layer.
This striog upper layer is mostly impervious to damage, except the force is extremely heavy. You can rest assured of your floor’s resistance to unnecessary damage. As for scratches, the rough surface will mask them. That way, it doesn’t change aesthetics, and you save your money!
Safe Floors
According to research, falls in the home are the primary cause of injuries among Canadian seniors. Therefore, choosing the right flooring for your home isn’t only about beauty and strength. If you have kids and pets, it’s important to consider the safety factor.
At first thought, it may seem like a rough floor isn’t safe for your kids and pets. However, the best flooring manufacturers use advanced techniques to ensure a wire brushed hardwood floor is safe for kids.
One of the main reasons people fall while walking is a slippery surface. If you’re wearing a flat shoe with minimal friction, you may slip if the surface is smooth. Furthermore, when water pours on a smooth surface, it becomes slippery and dangerous.
The situation above makes a case for using wire brushed hardwood floors. Since the texture isn’t smooth, any footwear will have a good grip on the floor.
Durable Flooring
Changing the floor of your home isn’t a small investment. In some cases, you’ll spend thousands of dollars on materials and installation fees. Therefore, you need to choose the right floor that will stand the test of time.
Wire brushed hardwood floors are one of the most durable floor options. Thanks to the absence of the soft upper wood layer, wire brushed floors can carry different weights without any damage. Except there’s an intentional act to break it, you’ll hardly experience any damage to your wire brushed floor.
A general problem with hardwood flooring is pest infestation. No matter how beautiful your wood is, it’s always an invitation to ants, termites, and other insects. Wire brushed hardwood floors undergo finishing to repel insects and other pests.
Also, there are some products that you can use to fight pest infestation on your hardwood flooring. With these products on your wire brushed hardwood floors, you can rest assured of a durable floor.
Low Maintenance stress
You should always consider how easy it is to maintain your flooring before making a purchase decision. You don’t want to own a floor where one damaged section means the whole thing requires replacement.
No matter how careful you are and the type of wood on the floor, you can’t run from floor damages. When these damages occur, you may need to work and change some sections. That’s why you should avoid hardwood floors comprising scarce wood planks. This way, you can always get an easy fix or replacement when the need arises.
If your wood is scarce, finding a replacement that meets type and colour specifications becomes difficult. In turn, that will misalign the beauty of the floor.
In the case of wire brushed hardwood floors, there are readily available options. If there’s a section that needs replacement, finding suitable wood planks is easy. Likewise, aside from the usual maintenance, you don’t need to do too much. From the initial design, wire brushed hardwood floors have a rough texture and durable characteristics.
Related Article: What is Wire-brushed Flooring?
Cons of Wire Brushed Hardwood Floors
There are two sides to every coin. Before deciding to purchase wire brushed hardwood floors, here are the obvious cons:
Cleaning Difficulty
The first disadvantage you’ll experience with wire brushed hardwood floors is cleaning them. The rough upper layer on these floors makes it near impossible to clean them with a broom.
Firstly, the room won’t move smoothly on a wire brushed floor. Secondly, dirt doesn’t remain on the upper layer of wire brushed floors. Their unique design removes the top smooth grains from the wood, and you’re left with the ones beneath. Consequently, it’s easy for dirt to get trapped within the textured floor.
While the dirt trapped within a wire brushed floor won’t make the floor look ugly, it can build up and become a problem over time. Therefore, it’s better and safer to clear the dirt. You may have to pick the dirt manually.
Appearance
Wire brushed hardwood floors are without a standard design. While the irregular design has loads of advantages, it comes with some disadvantages. A wire brushed hardwood floor isn’t ugly, but it may not be attractive to you.
Let’s assume the floor of your home is old, and you need a change, or maybe you want a new look. A wire brushed floor is a good option for replacement – since it can rhyme and synchronize with almost any colour and existing design. But, your house will look different.
If you have been using smooth surfaces like plywood and tiles, wire brushed floors can be quite jarring. If you’re a lover of beautiful aesthetics, then maybe you shouldn’t try to use wire brushed hardwood floors.
Complex installations
Installing a wire brushed floor through DIY means is near impossible. The installation process is complex and often requires multiple hands — depending on the space. You need someone who has expertise in installing the specific type of floors.
Generally, some hardwood floor installation doesn’t need hands-on experience. All you need is to understand the process, and with simple YouTube videos, you can install the flooring. But the case isn’t the same with wire brushed hardwood floors.
Rigid Design
You have multiple texture options but not the liberty of design when you choose wire brushed hardwood flooring — the texture changes depending on how deep the brushing process is. But because there’s no actual design on the floor, you don’t have many options.
Normally, there are some locations in a home where you expect vibrant designs from floor to ceiling. For instance, the living room where you entertain visitors ought to be a pleasing sight. But you don’t have that design luxury with a wire brushed floor.
Of course, it’s wood, and you can try to smoothen the floor with sandpaper. Where the challenge comes in sanding is it will change the texture of the floor around your home. The result will only make it worse aesthetically, and that section will be weak and less durable.
If you go ahead with sanding your wire brushed floor, you may have to go deeper than you expect. Remember, a section of the wood isn’t there anymore. Sanding will only remove another area, causing you to have weak wood.
High Cost
Understandably, the cost of a wire brushed hardwood floor is expensive when compared to other hardwood floors. The high price is a function of the procedure involved in producing wire brushed flooring.
For some hardwood floors, the process is as simple as getting the suitable wood, cutting, sanding, and straight to installation. But there are some complex hardwood floors like wire brushed floors that require complex manufacturing methods. After finding and cutting the wood to proportions, you have to use a brush to complete the process. It’s after the brushing process ends that you can think of installation.
Also, you can blame the high cost on the fantastic features of wire brushed hardwood floors. When you consider the durability, versatility, and strength on offer, it makes sense that the price is on the high side.
Related Article: What Is The Most Durable Type of Hardwood Flooring?
Final Thoughts
The pros and cons of wire brushed flooring indicate that using one in your home all comes down to personal preferences. If you want durable flooring that hides scratches from pets and provides a rustic theme, then wire brushed floors are perfect for you.
Do you want to give your floors the right design? LV Flooring offers a variety of wire brushed flooring designs. There’s no better place to find excellent designs than here! Start shopping with us today!
