From House to Home » Choosing Flooring when Remodeling

Choosing Flooring when Remodeling

Posted by Allison
on September 15th, 2009
Category: Uncategorized

It used to be easy to pick out a wood floor. Look for the wood species you want (oak, maple, cherry, etc.) and away you go. Now you walk through a flooring or home improvement store and pause. Is that wide planked mahogany an engineered floor? Do I want to bother with solid wood?

Engineered versus Natural Wood

The debate between engineered wood and solid wood often comes down to tastes, as the price difference is not that great anymore. If you’ve got an old house with the original knotty pine wood, then it makes sense to continue that in a room addition. Otherwise the floors will look a little different and, more importantly, you’ll know! It might bother you each time you want from the old to the new. Should have gotten solid wood.

When remodeling newer houses, it’s a toss up. You might want the stability of engineered wood versus solid wood (which can expand and contract with humidity). Engineered wood is real wood, by the way. It’s just put together differently, in thinner sections. Here’s more on understanding the various flooring options.

There also are technical reasons why you might want to use laminate or an engineered wood versus natural wood. This flooring thread offers some great tips on that.

Choosing Flooring: Shop Around

In the end, shop around. You might fall in love with a rich walnut floor and discover it’s engineered. If the price is right, why not? Or, if you’re more of a purist or want to continue with solid wood throughout the house, go in that direction.

Just make sure that you have some continuity with the flooring. It’s okay to use a different wood in one or two key rooms, but don’t go crazy mixing it up.

Permalink | Comments (1)

Comment by Tori

September 27, 2009 @ 9:23 pm

My only real comment is that you should never exchange solid wood flooring for manufactured. That may go without saying, but many new homeowners get into the “brand new” state of mind and take it way too far. Original wood, no matter the condition, wins hands-down. And if the flooring is really worn, the effort to refinish is well worth it.

Categories:

Archives:

Blogroll

Meta:

Credits

Choosing Flooring when Remodeling

1 Comment