Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /home/mfreng1970/public_html/articledetail.php on line 34 Exotic Hardwood Flooring - Bamboo, Cork, Laminated & Solid Wood Floors
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Choosing Engineered Hardwood Floors

When you need flooring for your home, you have to decide whether to go for solid hardwood flooring, engineered hardwood flooring, sheet vinyl flooring, ceramic tiles, rubber, cork or any other type of flooring. There can be multiple considerations affecting your choice such as the life of the floor, the costs involved, the ease of installation, the aesthetic appeal the flooring would add to your home. Ease of maintenance, and the place of installation would apply to the basement, at the ground level etc.

 
You need to make a well-informed decision in order to find the best choice suited to your individual taste and situation. On objective consideration, you will find hardwood flooring to be the best choice. Should you go for solid hardwood flooring or engineered hardwood flooring? To decide on this would require a thorough understanding of the salient points related to different hardwood flooring.
 
Traditional hardwood flooring has been around since the last two to three centuries. It has its own appeal and qualities and can last for over a century. While it adds warmth and class to a home's interior, it is fettered by natural limitations making it prone to swelling and cupping, when exposed to climatic changes. Such limitations render it unsuitable for use in places experiencing wide variations in temperatures, especially in humid and damp conditions like in a basement. It is unable to match the excellent features offered by engineered hardwood flooring that has been developed to give all the benefits of solid hardwood flooring minus it's inherent disadvantages.
 
Engineered hardwood flooring is basically made up of two main elements, comprising of the core and the top layer. The core is three to seven layers of plywood or is made up of number of layers of medium or high-density fiberboard. The construction design of engineered flooring enables it to counteract the effects of expansion and contraction induced by humidity in solid wood flooring that make it warp. Here each board expands and contracts, while maintaining it's structural stability, offering stiff resistance against climatic forces.
 
The top layer is made of real natural hard wood veneer. Scores of extremely pleasant textures of woods in different hues, both dark and light with their individual knot and grain patterns, are available. You can make a choice from a horde of different woods that include Walnut, Cherry, White Oak and Red Oak, Birch, Pine, Hickory, Maple, Ash etc. If need be the top layer of engineered hardwood floorings can easily accommodate four to five refinishes. Refinishing would depend on your own choice for perfect looks and may be needed once in five or six years, if at all needed. Engineered hardwood flooring is in fact the material of choice for the floor of your home.