When you pick out a wood floor, keep in mind that kitchen floors may have varying needs. The kitchen is a high traffic area that’s susceptible to dirt and liquid accumulation. Kitchen hardwood floors really require careful consideration.

Choosing Your Kitchen Hardwood Floor 

Hardwood flooring can add charm to any room and work well in the kitchen, but you may want to choose your wood carefully before having your hardwood floor installed. Oak, ash, maple, and other “hard” hardwoods are more resistant to scratches and dings than pine, fir, or cherry.

Many eco-friendly wood floor options aren’t actually wood, but are “wood-like,” and include cork and bamboo, which are considered tropical woods.

Solid Wood Floors

Solid wood floors are the most basic and typical type of wooden floors. Due to their thickness and hardness, they may not be suitable for kitchen wood floor installation. Continue Reading →

The beauty of your hardwood floor can be enhanced by the polyurethane coating that a professional wood flooring installer applies. If you’ve had the floor installed recently, you probably won’t need to refinish for at least 5 years, but it depends on the finish you have. Some can last seven years or more. That timeframe depends on how much traffic the floor undergoes and whether there are frequent stains from spills. The general rule of thumb is to schedule a hardwood floor refinishing every five to seven years. 

Wood Floor Maintenance is the Key

Other kinds of wood floor maintenance can be very beneficial. The winter months are usually drier in most parts of the country, but here in the Pacific Northwest it’s the summers that are dry, and the winters that are humid. Wood can react to excess moisture by swelling and then contracting, leaving gaps between the boards. This is normal, but it should be monitored because you won’t want the boards to turn up at the ends (cupping). The boards may then have the center move higher than the ends (crowning) when humidity increases and the wood naturally swells. This will require a hardwood flooring professional to come in and remedy the issue. Continue Reading →

The beauty of a hardwood floor with fantastic color, aesthetic wood grain, and shining polyurethane finish is well known. The choice to either replace or refinish a hardwood floor, however, might not be so simple. Refinishing has drawbacks like creating a ton of dust. It also doesn’t fix other problems like some people expect it to.

Some homeowners believe they can refinish a wood floor by themselves at a much lower cost than hiring a flooring expert. However, the commercial tools required and the time polyurethane takes to cure can make this a much more cost-prohibitive and arduous process than most DIYers realize.

What Refinishing Hardwood Doesn’t Solve

Over the years, your wood floor expands and contracts in response to heat and cold, creating gaps between the floorboards. The refinished panels will still be in need of alignment, and the age of the floorboards could make this hard for the DIYer. In addition, the boards may be squeaking, and refinishing won’t fix this especially if the squeaks are from the wood the floorboards are resting on. Continue Reading →