Choosing the right hardwood flooring for your home can seem like a daunting task. However there are a few simple guidelines that will help you to make the right choice that matches your personal style and decorum.
How to Choose Your Flooring Choose the Look
In choosing the look there are several factors to consider. The first choice involves deciding which color matches your style. There are basically 5 color families, excluding specialty colors, natural, yellow, red, brown and dark brown. While there are various combinations of these 5 colors, these are the general categories. Second, you need to determine the right style, meaning traditional, exotic, contemporary, and vintage etc. Traditional tends to be natural or brown. Contemporary usually is yellow or dark brown. Exotic can be any of the colors, but has more character and variance to the wood grain.
Color Family and Exotic Grain Examples Natural
Yellow
Red
Brown
Dark Brown
Oak
Tigerwood
Cypress
Lifari
Magnolia
Choose the Construction
Determining the construction has two facets to consider. Do you want a solid hardwood which is defined as 100% wood, (3/4 or 5/8 inch thick), a multi-layered engineered product with a hardwood surface layer (1/2 inch thick), or a high density fiberboard (HDF) core with a hardwood surface layer, (3/8 inch thick)? Second where is the floor being installed? Solid can be installed on or above grade, Multi-ply engineered and HDF can be installed below, on or above grade. (See information on the adjacent page)
Choose the Connecting System
Solid hardwood is connected by a tongue and groove method and is nailed down to a plywood or wooden plank subfloor. Solid Bamboo with tongue and groove connector can be either nailed or glued down. Solid Bamboo click can be installed by nailing, gluing or floating. Multi-ply engineered may have a tongue and groove or click together system and can be nailed down to a wooden subfloor or glued down to a clean concrete substrate with the appropriate adhesive. HDF utilizes a click together process which requires no installation tools and is preferred by Do It Yourself installers. HDF can also be glued down for those who prefer not to have a floating floor system.
Construction
HDF Core with Hardwood Wear Layer
Multi-ply Engineered with Wear Hardwood Layer
100% Solid Hardwood
Connecting System
Tongue & Groove
Click