When decorating homes hard wood flooring is a very popular option. It is a very warm and beautiful material which actually increases the value of your home. There are a number of different styles, textures and colors of wood which are available. Hardwood floors are suitable for modern and traditional homes alike.

Choosing Wood Flooring

There are a number of different options when deciding on the look of your hardwood floor:

Planks can be wide, but each plank looks like it contains several planks of smaller wood. These are normally around three inches wide. These make installation faster but you still get to keep the same look.

Smaller strips of wood can be used which can make your room look much bigger. This can be helpful in making a look larger.

One huge piece of wood can be used to create a solid floor. These are custom made for your room and can be sanded and refinished a number of times.

Parquet floors are very beautiful, these are small blocks of hardwood which are laid to look a little like ceramic tiles. These are normally either nailed or glued down.

You have an option of purchasing unfinished hardwood flooring which you will need to finish yourself, or pre finished flooring. Prefinished floors mean you don't have to waste time applying coats of varnish to your floor and so they are very easy to install. These are however much more expensive.

If you install unfinished flooring then you must finish it as soon as you have installed the wood. You need to coat the wood using a urethane varnish, this is designed to protect the look of the wood. It can take several days to finish this process and so you must allow enough time for the floor to dry.

Installing your Flooring

It is very important to spend a long time measuring your room accurately so that you can make sure you order enough flooring materials. It will be a little tricky to fit flooring around pipes and corners as you will have to cut it using a saw. For a professional look remove the baseboards and then put them on after the floor has been laid.

Before you start installing your wooden flooring it is vital that you make sure that the subfloor is perfectly level. You need to prepare the floor before laying any type of flooring. If the floor isn't perfectly level then you should use asphalt tiles in order to level it out.

You can use special paper put underneath the hardwood floor, this prevents the squeaking noises that you sometimes get when walking on the floor. You will need to nail the planks down to the subfloor through to the joists. This will make sure that the floor won't move.

When you have finished laying the floor you then need to sand it. You can rent specialist floor sanding machines from local home improvement centers or any tool rental shop. Make sure you sand the floor evenly.

Maintaining your wooden flooring

Depending on the finish of your floor it will change how you should look after it. You should carefully follow the directions on the packet when taking care of your floor.

If you have waxed the floors then you will need to buff them so that it keeps the shine. You can use rugs to stop the floor from becoming too dirty.