Hey everyone! Today I'm talking about types of wood flooring!
If you're familiar with my channel you may know that I'm a big fan of wood
flooring I live in a climate that gets very hot in the summer and very cold in
the winter while in fall and spring actually too so
having wood flooring throughout my home is definitely my preference it's the
most comfortable flooring type underfoot and brings warmth and beauty to the
interior with so many style options to choose from it's also great for resale
of your home and it's easy to clean on a daily basis and long-lasting but I get a
ton of questions on the various types of wood flooring what their pros and cons
are and where to use them so let's break it all down hardwood flooring is the
most common type of flooring because it's been around the longest this is a
sample of unfinished hardwood oak and you can see it's a solid piece of oak
there is no other product type in this floor it can come in a variety of widths
and lengths and the wood planks are usually nailed in place to a subfloor
which gives the floor the ability to expand and contract in various
temperatures without it affecting the overall floor once the floor is
installed you'll need to select a stain color and have it finished on-site this
means you can choose an endless number of colors and even Sheen levels also
known as wear layers to suit your own personal style you can also have a
prefinished hardwood floor like this sample here in this case you are limited
to the manufacturers colors and Sheen but in most cases it reduces your
installation because once the floor is laid down you're ready to move in
instead of waiting for the various steps of finishing the wood on-site the other
great thing about prefinished floor is that it's usually a little bit more
durable than having it finished on-site because that wear layer on top of the
color is done in a factory and is therefore more durable than doing it by
hand yourself in both cases the cons are the following depending on the species
of wood and the size of the planks hardwood is an expensive flooring option
hence the increased value when it comes time to resell your home it's also prone
to scratches and dents so you need to be aware and take care of your floor's you
can lessen that type of damage by focusing on selecting a hardwood species
oak is a good option and selecting a low Sheen level where scratches and
dents will be less obvious this is especially true if you have pets I love
the look and feel of hardwood throughout my home including my kitchen I find
standing on tile for long periods while cooking is uncomfortable and with all
the great options for the wear layer you can have a durable wood floor even in a
high-traffic zone like the kitchen and I love open-concept living with wood
flooring throughout the next big category of wood flooring is engineered
wood flooring engineered flooring is made up of several wood products you can
see that the very top layer of solid wood is very small in comparison to the
overall thickness of the plank the solid wood layer sits on top of a wood
composite the cost of engineered wood flooring varies widely depending on the
type of species of wood on top and the type of composite on the bottom and the
thickness of both overall the thicker the overall plank the more expensive and
the better quality you can see this illustrated here two different types of
engineered flooring one will be priced higher than the other because of the
differences in the two layers the misconception with engineered wood
flooring is that it isn't real wood but it is real wood because of that top
layer and in some cases the quality of the engineered wood planks will be
comparable to hardwood and therefore the pricing will be very similar to hardwood
so don't think of it necessarily as a cheaper alternative to hardwood in some
cases it's priced about the same and some of the reasons for that engineered
wood flooring is more stable than hardwood flooring and is definitely
better suited to a variety of climates all wood products expand and contract so
having the composite underneath that top layer helps to limit that expansion and
contraction making your floors more even all year round engineered wood is always
pre finished making that coating on the very top there's that where layer again
more durable that any finish you might apply on-site the factory finish will
help with wear and tear dents and scratches on the con side of things
engineered wood flooring is not solid wood all the way through with solid
hardwood you can refinish the floors several times in the life of your home
because there's so much more solid wood in the planks with engineered wood
flooring planks you have very little solid wood in that top layer so you
would be limited to the number of times you could Reese
and and restate that factory finish may prevent you from doing that even just
the one time so choose your finish wisely I use engineered wood flooring
when I want a specific look to the floor for instance many manufacturers offer up
flooring that looks like old barn board where it's worn and faded in areas or
has wood imperfections that really give it character it would be difficult to
recreate that look in solid hardwood unless you were actually using reclaimed
barn board planks and that would be super expensive so an engineered wood
floor would be the way to go and finally the other category of wood flooring is
laminate wood floor laminate flooring is an aggregate wood product made up of
wood fibers that are pressed into these plank shapes under high heat that top
layer that you'd normally find on engineered wood is very different here
in laminate in fact this top layer is not wood at all but a photograph of a
wood plank when you lay all the planks down together the floor will have the
appearance of a wood floor laminate flooring also comes in other
photorealistic images like tile or stone again they are all wood aggregates with
an image of wood stone or tile on that top layer the best part about laminate
flooring is that it's inexpensive when compared to both hardwood and engineered
wood flooring they're usually fairly easy to install so you'll save some
money on that side of things as well they are often called click floor
because the planks click together like a puzzle and they are scratch and dent
resistant and in some cases they have a moisture resistant barrier on the bottom
side of the plain the cons to laminate flooring is that it really never looks
like the real thing the photographs of the wood tend to be very repetitive and
so that makes it pretty darn obvious that the floor is not real wood where
each plank is normally very unique the other con is the sound issue because
laminate flooring clicks together it's actually like a floating floor and when
you walk on that floor there's a distinctive hollow sound because it's
not technically connected to the subfloor I tend to use laminate flooring
in basements where some moisture might be an issue but more importantly we're
nailing a floor down would be impossible when you have a concrete subfloor so
here's your takeaway hardwood flooring is considered a value added feature when
it comes to the resale of your home with today's technology the look of
it can be achieved at many price points with engineered wood flooring and
laminate varieties as well wood flooring is great appeal is due to its inherent
warmth and comfort underfoot in a variety of styles and finishes so choose
wisely and choose wood thanks for watching this interior design tip I'll
have lots more design tips coming soon so don't forget to subscribe to the
channel hit that notification button so you don't miss the next video if you
have any other questions about wood flooring or would like me to talk about
the various species of woods available leave a comment below if you found this
video helpful please hit that like button thanks again for watching and
I'll see you soon