Wood flooring seems to be a true staple of the Fort Wayne real estate market, and for good reason. According to USA Today, more than 54% of potential home buyers are willing to pay more for a house that has wood flooring. That’s an absolutely incredible statistic. But there are so many different types of wood flooring that each come with a laundry list of pros and cons, especially when it comes to routine maintenance like wood floor refinishing. As the wood floor restoration experts of Fort Wayne, our team here at N-Hance Wood Refinishing is ready to help you learn the key differences between solid hardwood, laminate, engineered, bamboo, and cork flooring in this breakdown.
Solid Hardwoods
A few common wood species used for solid hardwood floors are cherry, oak, maple, and mahogany. The planks on these floors are exactly what the name would suggest, solid wood. This makes them very durable and well protected from normal wear and tear from day-to-day living. Solid hardwood floors can also be sanded down and refinished several times throughout their lifetime to erase years of damage that has become clearly visible. A major drawback is the price and complex process required to install a hardwood floor, especially a more exotic species like mesquite. They are also susceptible to shape-changing and warping when shifting from wet to dry. But these visibly stunning floors will be well worth the effort to install and maintain if you choose to do so.
Engineered Wood
The planks for the floor will be constructed of multiple layers of wood all glued together with the top layer typically being a few millimeters thick to allow for sanding and refinishing in the future. It is less expensive and even less prone to warping than solid hardwood floors, but may not be as valuable to potential buyers. But the ease of maintenance, lower-price, and hard to distinguish the difference between solid wood makes it a very attractive choice.
Laminate
Laminate floor planks are built up of compressed layers of fiberboard. Please note that fiberboard is made up of wood fibers so it is still technically a wooden floor. The surface of a laminate floor will be a photo of wood grain/texture to make it look as much like the real thing as possible. Laminate is a very cheap option to create a beautiful looking floor for your kitchen or bathroom. The hard part is that it damages very easily, and it can be nearly impossible to fix the damage because you can’t really sand a laminate floor. But the good people here at N-Hance Wood Refinishing of Fort Wayne do offer a special non-sanding option for floor refinishing that might be able to help you out. Give us a call to set up a free consultation to see what we can do.
Bamboo
The craziest thing about the bamboo wood is that it’s actually a grass. This makes it a more green option for environmentally conscious homeowners because it’s much easier to regrow bamboo than a full tree. Bamboo floors are also highly moisture resistant and extremely durable. But like any wood floor they do will eventually get scratched and dinged. Similar to laminate flooring, bamboo floors are difficult to sand making refinishing very difficult to perform for any service that isn’t an N-Hance franchise.
Cork
Cork is another environmentally friendly option for floors. That’s because cork wood is very renewable and easy to produce. A cork floor is also very durable and absorbs the shock of foot traffic well. It actually even absorbs sound which makes it attractive if you happen to live in a louder area of Fort Wayne. Once again though, cork is difficult to sand and actually quite expensive to install.
Wood Floor Refinishing in Fort Wayne, IN
Installing a new floor can be an exciting time for any homeowner, and we hope we’ve helped you narrow down your decision on the material. Please keep us in mind when it comes time to restore your floor back to its original beauty. We offer one of the best wood floor refinishing systems in the Fort Wayne area that can be easily adapted for virtually any type of wood flooring. Just give us a call at (260) 341-6671 for more information.