Why Hardwood Flooring is the Preferred Choice

Choosing the right flooring for a home, business or office is just as important as choosing the right furniture or wall coverings. A floor is an integral part of a room’s aesthetic, so getting it right is essential. Not only do you need something that looks good, but also you want something that will last a long time and not need replacing. People choose hardwood flooring for these very reasons, but there are plenty of other advantages for choosing a hardwood floor too.

Looks and Ambience

No other type of material offers the beauty, warmth and elegance of wood. Unlike carpets and other types of flooring, hardwood is not susceptible to changing fashions and is always in vogue. Whether it’s a busy family home, or a commercial building such as an estate agent or broker for buy to let insurance, setting a good impression matters, and no other type of flooring has the good looks of hardwood.

A quality hardwood floor not only looks fantastic, but also it gives an impression of spaciousness, making even the smallest of rooms feel larger. A wood floor also provides incomparable acoustics and doesn’t creak or groan unlike the floorboards under the carpet. With modern engineered floors, the quality of fit is uniform and stable, and qualified flooring experts can install a hardwood floor in just a few hours.

Investment and Value for Money

A good quality hardwood floor can last a lifetime. Unlike carpet, which wears over time, a hardwood floor, which is properly maintained, will look just as good as when it was first installed, years and even decades later. Hardwood flooring is durable and strong. Furthermore, it can increase in value over the years and from the moment it is installed, will add value to your home – as much as ten percent.

In a survey of estate agents, 90 percent said that homes with wood floors sold faster and for a higher value than comparable properties, which makes hardwood flooring a great investment for the homeowner and one way to counter falling house prices.

Cleaning and Maintenance

Nobody likes housework, but with a hardwood floor, keeping the room clean is easy. Unlike carpet fibres, which can harbour dust, a properly stained and finished hardwood floor requires little more than a quick sweep or vacuum to keep clean. Because of this, hardwood floors keep dust levels down, so the rest of the room needs less dusting and cleaning too.

Health and Environment

With so many people susceptible to allergies these days, keeping dust down can keep you healthier too. Unlike carpet fibres, wood flooring offers nowhere for particles, such as pollen, pet hair or pollution, to hide. The air-quality in a room with a hardwood floor is far better than other types of flooring, and many leading health organisations, including the National Health Service, agree that wood flooring is far healthier than other floor types, and is recommended for allergy sufferers.

Many wood floor manufacturers ensure their products come from sustainable sources and from properly managed forests. Reclaimed wood flooring is even more environmentally friendly and makes use of recycled wood from all sorts of places, such as old barns and ships. Wood is also a purely natural product that requires no environmentally hazardous processes to manufacture and treat.

Choice and Style

Wood flooring can be as unique and diverse as you want. Hardwood floors come in an almost unlimited choice of colours, finishes, patterns and types of wood. The wood can range from the traditional, such as oak and teak, to the more exotic such as Iroko, wenge, jatoba, and bamboo. Flooring comes in various types too, from the patterned parquet flooring to solid wood and reclaimed flooring, and there is even a wide choice of finishes to provide the exact floor to match a room’s decor.

No matter what the building, room or location, from the urban apartment to the rustic cottage, the city office to the town terrace, a quality hardwood floor can provide the perfect accompaniment to any building. And because of the durability and lasting nature of the flooring, it’s a choice that only has to be made once, providing you a lifetime of enjoyment and beauty, unrivalled by other types of flooring.