Hardwood Flooring Design Tips Will Save You Money

Solid wood floors remain the ideal choice for many people and we offer these hardwood flooring design tips to help you with the choices you have to make when you are thinking about buying and installing them. Hardwood floors will reward you with unique warmth, texture, color, and style; increase your home’s resale value; and when it is worn, solid hardwood can be sanded, repaired, refinished and restored to its natural beauty.

Look-Alike Flooring Choices
Before you lay down your cash for solid hardwood, consider the alternatives:
1. Besides solid hardwood, there is engineered wood, which is about the same price but cheaper to install, and plastic laminate, even less expensive but will never fool anyone into believing it’s hardwood.
2. Faux hardwood (engineered or laminate) is easier and cheaper to install and can sometimes be glued at the tongue-and-groove joints rather than nailed to a level wood sub-floor like solid hardwood.
3. Plastic laminate will look better longer in heavily used rooms because it resists denting and staining better than solid or engineered wood, and can be installed in basements where it might be too damp for wood.
4. Engineered wood floors can be sanded and varnished at least once, solid wood refinishing can be done many times, and plastic laminate not at all.

Hardwood Flooring Design Tips for the Purchaser
1. Oak is the most popular hardwood, but good choices are also other hard woods like maple, cherry, hickory, ash, walnut. Less expensive are the softwoods like pine. The more exotic bamboo is a great choice if you are concerned about the environment – the trees grow so fast – and Brazilian oak is considered exotic, too.
* Distressed wood and hand scraped is good for casual décor or that vintage look to coordinate with your antique collection.
* Random lengths is the popular choice right now.
* Inserting a medallion (circular design) into the floor can create an interesting focal point.
2. The next choice is whether to buy prefinished or unfinished flooring. You may prefer to stain and varnish the wood yourself, but factor-in the cost of stain and varnish if cost is the only determinant of your choice here.
3. Compare costs and types of hardwood floors at manufacturer’s web sites and look for discounted and wholesale prices as well.

Hardwood Flooring Design Tips for the Do-It-Yourselfer
1. To determine how much flooring you need, use a metal retractable tape measure to make sure your calculations are accurate and a laser tape measure if you have large and oddly shaped rooms. Multiply the room’s length and width for the square footage, treat the oddly shaped bits as separate calculations and then add it all together. Buy 7% to 10% more flooring than needed to take care of mistakes and waste.
2. Seriously consider hiring an installation pro for the floor while you save money other ways:
* Grab your compound miter saw for perfect corner cutting and start working on beautiful baseboard molding to finish off the room.
* With your table saw and other useful power tools such as a level and a cordless drill, cut and lay down the plywood sub-floor. Make sure the floor is level. Check for squeaks and screw down squeaky spots to the joists.
* If you need help purchasing good power tools, check out Consumer Reports, The Canadian Home Workshop and Popular Mechanics Online. You can find reviews and brand comparisons like cordless drill ratings to help you make your choices.
3. If you are experienced at DIY projects and determined to install the floor yourself, you will need special tools like a manual or pneumatic nailer and it might be wise to rent them unless you have a lot of hardwood floors to lay.
* Hardwood is usually nailed but thin boards can be glued. You should begin with the longest flooring piece. (Engineered wood is usually stapled down but can be glued, too, and plastic laminate is usually glued together at each joint. These are very tricky jobs as well.)
* Be sure and calculate the height of the sub-floor plus the hardwood to allow for door clearance and to match the height of adjoining rooms.

Hardwood remains the homeowner’s number one preference for flooring. If you install hardwood and maintain your floors properly, they will enhance the appearance of your home and give you years of pleasure. Good choice.

About the Author:
Scott Gray is currently a home improvement handyman enthusiast and freelance writer who enjoys providing tips to consumers who are in the market for power and hand tools like a Lufkin tape measure.