Laying laminate wood flooring

For circumstances like these, laminate wood flooring may be a better choice.  It looks like wood flooring, but it’s less expensive, more durable, easier to install, and better suited to high-traffic areas.

Nowadays, there’s a huge selection of laminate wood flooring to choose from.  Virtually every color, finish, and wood grain is available.  You can even buy wide planks, if that’s the look you want.  In addition to wood, laminates also duplicate tile, slate, and stone flooring.

Laminate wood flooring resists moisture

Laminate wood flooring consists of a top layer made of melamine resin, which is extremely durable.  It resists scratches, stains, fading, and water damage better than natural wood.   The core can be anywhere from 6mm to 12mm thick.  The thicker the core, the better the floor.  Look for one that’s been treated to make it water repellant. And make sure the joints have a coating of wax to keep moisture from ever reaching the core.

Some people don’t care for the sound of laminate floors.  Investing in a thicker core will make them sound more like real wood flooring.

Two kinds of laminate wood flooring are available – High Pressure Laminates (HPL) and Direct Pressure Laminates (DPL).  Because HPL takes two steps to glue and fuse the layers together, it costs more to produce than DPL, which is manufactured in a single step.  As a rule, HPL costs more, wears better, and lasts longer than DPL.

HPL also has greater moisture protection in the tongue-and-groove system that joins the boards together.   This will help prevent the seams from swelling when humidity is high.

Laminate wood flooring is designed to be floated over an existing floor, which means that you can use it over almost anything – vinyl, concrete, or plywood.  Because it’s not glued down or nailed to the subfloor, it’s easy to install.  In fact, most do it yourselfers can achieve good results on their own.  You just need to make sure that the floor you’re going on top of is level and smooth.

A thin padding is laid over the existing floor and then the laminate boards lock together with a tongue and groove system.    Molding in a matching finish is easy to cut and install.

Once they’re installed, laminated floors are very easy to take care of.  They never need to be waxed or polished and a dust mop is usually all that’s needed to clean them.

Read more about engineered wood flooring here.

Laying laminate wood flooring Image Flickr: Hendricks Photos

Laminate wood flooring resists moisture Image Flickr: John Loo

American cherry is sought after for its warm, rich color, which ranges from pinkish brown to deep red. As a fruit tree, it’s a member of the rose family, and it grows all over the United States and Canada. In colonial America, cherry was used for fine furniture, inlays, and paneling. Today, it’s a very popular choice for kitchen cabinets, and Shaker-style furniture.

One of the best things about American cherry is the way the color deepens with age. Over the years, it develops a gorgeous patina that polishes beautifully. It has a fine, straight grain.

With a hardness of 950 on the Janka hardness scale, American cherry is softer than many of the most popular woods used for flooring. Red oak, for example, has a hardness of 1290. Consequently, it’s a poor choice for high-traffic areas, commercial settings, or homes with dogs. It’s often used as an accent wood around the edges of a floor where there’s less wear and tear.

It’s also more expensive than other wood flooring options, so before you buy American cherry, make sure it’s an appropriate choice for your room.

Due to its reddish color, Jatoba is often called Brazilian cherry. It grows mostly in Brazil, Chile, the West Indies, and parts of Mexico. The principle difference between Jatoba and American cherry is the hardness. Jatoba measures 2350 on the Janka scale — more than 80% harder than red oak.

This makes Jatoba a better choice for wood flooring in rooms that will receive an average amount of traffic. Like American cherry, it will darken over time, especially if it’s exposed to direct sunlight. The finish that’s used will also affect this process.

Because of it extraordinary hardness, Jatoba is difficult to work with, so it’s a poor choice for do-it-yourselfers. Unless you’re a seasoned woodworker, you’ll likely get better results if you hire a professional to install jatoba wood flooring.

If you can afford it and plan to use it in a room that receives little traffic, real cherry wood will produce a look that’s unsurpassed in its elegance and sophistication. If you want the appearance of cherry with greater durability and affordability, choose jatoba.

Read about walnut wood flooring here.

Rated 1010 on the Janka hardness scale, walnut isn’t as hard as oak, but it has something else going for it. It’s color. Why should that matter? These days, you can apply a walnut finish to almost any wood and end up with something that is about the same color. So what’s the big deal about walnut’s deep, chocolate brown hue.

There are two things. First of all, because the color of walnut is natural and not applied, each of the planks in your walnut floor will be subtly different. This will give your walnut floors a depth and richness you wouldn’t have with another species that was finished to look like walnut. It’s like the difference between dyed hair and natural hair.

Black Walnut

The other advantage to walnut flooring is that because the color is natural, it goes all the way through. So scratches, dents, and other mars hardly show. When finished with a satin finish, walnut floors continue to look good after years or normal wear and tear. If your floors are damaged, you probably won’t need to refinish them because what’s under the surface looks the same as the surface.

Walnut has quite a bit of color variation. The sapwood is a grayish white, while the heartwood is a warm, rich brown. Some older growth even appears purple streaks that are almost black. You should look for wood that is uniformly dark and has a straight, open grain.

Sometimes, stumps are cut into veneer that has a burled grain, which is unsuitable for flooring. Some trees that grow in poor soil twist as they grow, resulting in a curly grain that can add some visual interest to your floors. Walnut flooring will darken with age and develop a lustrous patina.

It’s available as solid wood and engineered wood flooring. And because it’s very stable, it’s good to use over radiant heating systems.

If you’re looking for something unusual and dramatic for your home, American black walnut has a lot to offer.

Read about other types of domestic hardwoods here.

Black Walnut Image Flickr: heyerin