Prefinished Hardwood Flooring – Choose Engineered Or Solid Wood
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009Prefinished hardwood flooring contains a polyurethane finish that gives a shine to the flooring you install in your home. There are two types of prefinished hardwood flooring you can choose – solid wood or engineered wood. Both of these are durable and will beautify any room in your home, adding to the effect of your décor. The polyurethane prefinish is added to the flooring in the factory, which has many advantages to buying unfinished hardwood and applying the finish to the floors yourself. Prefinished hardwood flooring is dried under ultraviolet light and should reach the bottom of the joint so that you have a uniform color throughout the wood.
Prefinished hardwood flooring is made up of strips of wood that is already sanded, stained and finished with multiple coats of polyurethane that has aluminum oxide to give it protection. If you choose a prefinished engineered wood floor, you will still have a beautiful product for your flooring, but it is not as costly. This type of prefinished wood flooring is best suited for areas with variable levels of humidity and you can even install it over concrete. The finish for both types of flooring is applied in ideal factory settings. When you choose prefinished hardwood flooring, you don’t have to leave your home during the installation process because there are no dangerous fumes that you can inhale.
Prefinished wood flooring tricks of the trade.
There are a few tricks that you can use to make sure you get the best prefinished hardwood flooring. When you go shopping for prefinished wood, one trick that you can use is to lay a few pieces of the wood strips side by side to see how easily they fit togther. This will give you a good idea of the level of difficulty you might have in installing the prefinished wood floors yourself. Another thing you need to do is to rub your hand over the surface. Any grooves between the boards will give you an idea of the amount of cleaning that you will need to do once you complete the prefinished wood flooring. If you don’t have time for extensive cleaning, choose strips that are smooth and flat when you rub your hand over them.
If you choose lighter woods for your prefinished wood flooring, you should know that these are likely to change color. The light prefinished hardwood flooring is not suitable for rooms where there is a lot of intense sunlight shining through the windows. The sunlight causes the prefinished wood to turn yellow. You do need to check to make sure that the manufacturer you choose for your prefinished wood floors has added a UV protection to the coating on the hardwood if you really want to have it in a room that has a lot of windows.
You may find advertisements for prefinished hardwood flooring that contains an antimicrobial agent. All this does is add to the cost of the prefinished wood flooring because it does not offer any really advantage. Since the polyurethane does not promote the growth of bacteria on the hardwood, you are paying extra money for nothing. If you have prefinished hardwood flooring in areas of high humidity, bacteria affects the wood itself and not the finish on the floor.