Ten Tips for Choosing New Hardwood Floors

Almost every home in the Bay Area, California from the Berkeley Hills to Walnut Creek have hardwood floors. Once perceived as the expensive alternative to carpets and linoleum, is no longer expensive. Scientific data now shows that money is no longer the only consideration for choosing wood floors. Factors like health and effects on our environment play a big role in consumers decision making. Hardwood floors have become the go to floors. They are beautiful, renewable, easy to maintain and more affordable than ever. Here are the best tips for how to choose a hardwood floor for you home:

1. Not toxic – unlike other floor coverings such as carpets and linoleum, wood floors are not made of synthetics and chemicals. The tree is cut and milled into wood flooring planks. Then in most cases the floor is finished in your house by a professional. Carpets and other floor coverings hide a lot of pollutants underneath them. A lot of people especially young children will develop some sort of health conditions living with those floor coverings over their life time. See this article from the American Lung Association http://www.lung.org/healthy-air/home/resources/carpets.html
2. Easy to clean – hardwood floors need vacuuming, sweeping or mopping periodically. That is it. Once clean they hold no pollutants in them. Nobody likes hiring and paying professionals to come in and clean their floors. Unlike carpets which need constant shampooing wood floors are easy to maintain.
3. Not expensive – years ago wood floors were considered a high end choice and very expensive. With today’s growing demand hardwood floors had become the number one growing floor choice by home owners. Whether bamboo floors or exotic Brazilian cherry, wood floors are no longer just for the wealthy.
4. Durability – nothing compares to the durability of wood floors. Carpets will stain, smell and look just plain bad after a short period of time, especially if you have a busy life with kids and pets in the house. Wood floors are more forgiving, maintain their look much longer and can be refinished multiple times.
5. Longevity – hardwood floors which were installed a hundred years ago are still being sanded and repairs to date. Carpets and other man made floor coverings never last that long. Nobody wants to spend a lot of money every few years on a new floor. That is why wood is the best choice.
6. Trends – wood floors never went out of style. Designers and architects still specify wood floors as the go to floor. You can change the look of wood floors by changing the stain color after a while and keep up with the trends in the market.
7. Easy to repair – if you have damages in your wood floors or need to add on a small section it is easy as easy can get. Many old wood floors have been refinished and repairs to revive their looks. Other floor coverings would have had to be torn up and replaced.
8. Smart investment – any realtor will tell you that a home with wood floors is worth a lot more than a home without. If you installed hardwood floors at your home and years later wanted to sell it, you are most likely to get your money back and still make a profit on top of that. Homes with wood floors sell faster and receive many more offers.
9. Better for our planet – we were all taught that cutting trees is wrong. Well, not quite true. With engineers controlling the forest harvesting, we now have more trees in our forests than ever before. The United States is not clear cutting forests and we are now able to manage them instead of eliminating them. With programs for planting trees and protecting wild life we manage to use wood, our most valuable resource of all with the least impact on our environment.
10. Nothing makes a home more welcoming and warm than wood floors. With just a simple layout or an intricate parquet with inlays and medallions, wood floors make every house a special home to you and your family.