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Hardwood floors are a great improvement to any home. Although more expensive to purchase but a benefit if you where to sell your home. Most of the time you will get your money back out of the sale of your home. Hardwood floors come in many different colors, styles, and looks. There are a lot of options. There are many different things to think of when you are looking at hardwood. In the pages following this you will see the phrase Janka scale this is exactly what that means. The hardness of wood is measured by how much force is required to embed an 11.28mm (0.4444in) steel ball in to wood to half the ball’s diameter.
First there is the choice of finish in the home or a prefinished wood. Differences between the two are:
Advantage to finish in the home: smooth finish, stain color can be customized to your liking.
Disadvantage to finish in the home: only two coats of a polyurethane finish, needs to be redone about every 6 to 10 years depending on traffic patterns.
Advantage to prefinished: there are several coats of polyurethane and an aluminum oxide mix finish, no mess in the home from sanding, no wait time for finish to dry, no smell from the polyurethane.
Disadvantage to prefinished: micro-bevel edges, no stain choice on site.
Asking what is aluminum oxide it is an additive that is put in the polyurethane to make a harder surface. So when there is a scratch it is just in the surface. The one thing to remember is with the aluminum oxide it is much harder to get that scratch to show up. There is still something else to think of the wood underneath. The softer the wood the easier to dent does not matter what the finish is.
Second is the type of wood. This is a little harder. There is really only one way to do this is to look at the wood in your own home. Denver Carpet and Hardwood has a great selection. Looking at the different species of wood in your home you can see how it either complements or clashes with what you currently have in your home. You probably have some kind of an idea of what you like and what you want. Wouldn’t it be great to see that wood to make sure it fulfills all your dreams?
Last is to pick the color and the grade this is normally the easiest step. After all the choice you have made have it installed sit back and enjoy.
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