Common Questions About Hardwood Floors
How long will the finish on my wood floors last?This is probably the most asked question when it comes to wood floors. Most urethane finishes would last you years to come. The question is how many years. If you hired a professional to do your floors, they used a commercial grade finish and applied the correct amount of coats on your hardwood floor. Nobody wants to pay for a refinish service, move out of the house and then have to do it all over again after three years. I did see this happen before. Usually when someone applied very thin coats of finish and used a cheap product. In most cases, with proper wood floor maintenance a floor finish should last anywhere between five and ten years. That is not to say that it would look as new after years. Finish gradually loses sheen and using the wood floors gradually wears the resin off the floor. I recommend that before you lose too much finish call a professional to apply one more coat of urethane on your hardwood floors.- What is the best hardwood floor? We often get calls from home owners who have busy lives. They have families, pets, work and they don’t have much time to maintain their wood floors. Some of them want the hardest wood floor or the hardest finish. Some want wood floors that never scratch or dent. There is no such thing. With the explosion of exotic and composite products into the flooring market, consumers have started questioning the durability of our domestic products like Oak and Maple floors. Consumers were now familiar with the Janka Hardness scale, which is there to give you a reference as to how hard and dense a wood is. Numbers from a lab test are great for reference but when you drop a pot on your wood floors, it doesn’t matter if it white oak or Brazilian cherry – the two would dent. If your child drags a chair or a toy across the floor, the wood would scratch no matter what finish you have on the hardwood. Most importantly one needs to understand that it is the combination of wood type and floor finish that makes a good product. Top this with proper maintenance and you have the best wood floor. For example, having a really hard wood like Ipe’ is great, but if your contractor applied two coats of cheap urethane over it then your floor would look pretty bad and worn out in no time.
- How much should I pay for new hardwood floors?We all know that we want the most for the least amount of money. We also know that you get what you pay for. Interviewing several reputable licensed contractors can help you understand the scope of work. The right professionals can shed light on what they do to assure a successful installation. The most common problem people have with wood floors is cupping. A new floors is put in, the home owners move in and shortly after the floor is cupped. Now that the entire family is moved in, including furniture the solution is a big head ach. In our trade we say that there is never time to do thing right in the first place, but there is always time to do it again. Fixing a wood floor costs five times more than doing right the first time. So how much should you pay? In the Bay Area, California expect the prices per square foot to be a minimum of $4 for refinish and a minimum of $5 for installation services.
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