Wood Flooring

If you are considering wood flooring for your Denver, Colorado area home, you've made an excellent choice. Wood flooring gives your home a beautifully old fashioned look that's always in vogue. A room with a hard wood floor has an especially warm and cozy feel about it. This stunning beauty doesn't mean that it's hard to clean, however. Wood floors are easy to maintain, and a house with wood flooring always fetches a high price in the market. With some maintenance, you can expect your wood floor to last for the life time of the house. Besides in these "go green" days, hard wood flooring is one of the most eco friendly choices out there.

While hard wood floors earlier were restricted in the number of color choices they offered, today you can choose from a varied palette of shades. It's entirely possible to have a wood floor that is customized with stains and finishes to give you a unique floor. An olden wooden floor can be given a make over by staining and finishing it. The species of wood to choose from includes classic choices like oak hard wood floors, cherry wood flooring, maple, birch, walnut etc. If a traditional hard wood floor doesn't fall within your budget, consider a bamboo wood floor instead. These are now available in easy to use strips and planks that make them simple to install and easy to take care of. Engineered hard wood floors are comprised of several layers of wood that are bonded together. These floors have the grains running in different directions, and are ideal for rooms like basements, where a solid wood floor may not be practical. Also, consider the room itself. The kind of flooring that you need in a high traffic heavy use area like the kitchen, will be different from the kind of floor that you need in a formal living room.

Wood floorings are one of the more expensive choices in flooring materials. However, the quality of the wood determines the pricing itself. You can expect a cheap wood flooring to have more imperfections and more number of knots. A higher priced wood will offer fewer variations in color, although this is dependent on the species too. Expensive wood also gives you a wider width, and allows you to stain and finish your wood flooring to bring out a richer color. Installation costs also vary a lot, depending on the labor rates in your area, as well as the sub floor preparation. To ensure that your expensive new wood floor lasts long, keep water, dirt and sand away from your hard wood floor. Water discolors the wood, while dirt and sand cause scratching and dulling of the color. Use floor rugs outside the door, and just inside the hallway, and place area rugs at different points throughout the house to take some of the wear off the floor. Never use regular floor cleaners or soap solutions. Special neutral pH cleaners will keep your wood floors residue free. Insert felt strips or padding under the legs of your furniture to prevent scratching and lift the furniture off the floor when you have to move it. To protect areas near large windows from the damaging effects of the sun, use heavy curtains.