How to Choose the Best Hardwood Flooring
Everyone loves the look of hardwood floors in their homes!
Hardwood floors are a comfortable, durable, and affordable flooring choice for many homes. Whether you are moving into a fixer-upper or just looking for a new flooring option, figuring out how to choose the right hardwood floor for your lifestyle is a must.
Many homeowners love the look of solid hardwood flooring, but they often worry about the maintenance of the product and second-guess their decision to put hardwood floors in areas that traditionally would require a more durable material (e.g., tile in the kitchen and laundry room) as well as high-traffic areas. Choosing one floor and running it consistently throughout the main area of the home instantly makes the house feel more cohesive and helps areas easily transition into each other. This is especially important in open-concept homes that have spaces that share the same sight lines.
This hardwood flooring trend doesn't mean that the concern about maintenance and durability isn’t valid, but knowing how your hardwood floors are constructed could help you feel more at ease when it's time to lock in your flooring selection.
Here a few things to think about and look for when you're choosing hardwood flooring for your home:
1. The Look
First consider the aesthetic that you want for your space.
If you want more of that rustic farmhouse or modern farmhouse feel, then a wide plank flooring with a lot of movement in the grain patterns and maybe even some scarring and knotting will visually communicate the style that you want to portray. These wood flooring options can run anywhere from $3 per sq. ft. to $8 per sq. ft. with another $2 – $3 per sq. ft. added on for installation.
If you want a more contemporary and sleek hardwood floor, you might want to choose a floor plank size that is a little bit narrower in width than the modern farmhouse flooring. A wood species that is lighter in tone and color variations and has less visible imperfections (like scars and knots). This more contemporary hardwood flooring can run from $4 per sq. ft. to $12 per sq. ft. with another $2 – $3 per sq. ft. added on for installation.
For a traditional home, you might want to go with a medium plank size and a medium-brown or a reddish-brown tone for a timeless quality. These flooring options tend to be a little more budget-friendly, coming in at around $2 – $4 per sq. ft. with another $2 – $3 per sq. ft. added on for installation.
Next, you want to think about how “long lasting” you need your hardwood flooring material to be.
In other words, are you worried about how this flooring will hold up with a large amount of wear and tear?
The type of wood flooring that would be appropriate for the home of two adult professionals is very different from the type of wood flooring that could sustain the increased activity of a family with young kids and a couple of pets. If your home is a gently used space for two adults, you can go with an actual hardwood product. In this case, you will get the look that you want and you won’t be too worried that the solid wood material is a bit less forgiving than the engineered wood-look options.
If you need your wood floors to be a little bit more durable, then you can look at either an engineered hardwood or some of the new LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) flooring products that are waterproof. Engineered hardwood flooring can run between $3 and $5 per sq. ft., and LVT flooring options can come in as low as $2 – $3 per sq. ft.
Finally, you want to consider how your hardwood flooring will be installed.
When you're shopping for wood floors, ask your flooring distributor or the contractor who will be doing the installation, what their process is, and how they guarantee their work.
Do the floors click-lock into place, or will they be glued down? Can the contractor share references or take you to a job site where you can see their installed work? The labor and installation of your solid wood floors can represent as much as one-third of your flooring budget, so be sure that you are investing that money wisely. Do some research on the reviews that the contractor has received by people who used their services. The worst thing in the world is to pay a large sum of money for an elegant solid hardwood product and then have the installation fall short!
So when you're choosing wood floors for your home, remember to think about the look you want, how durable you need a product to be, and how it will be installed to ensure that you get the best experience possible.
Award-winning, Baton Rouge-based interior designer and content creator Arianne Bellizaire has been named a High Point Market Authority Style Spotter (2015), Perlick Ambassador of Cool (2017), Villeroy & Boch Color Challenge Winner (2017), Modenus Blog Tour invitee (2016 & 2019), and Modenus DesignHound (Spain and London 2016, Surfaces 2018). She was also selected as an Ambassador for NYDC 2020 What's New What's Next. Her work and expertise have been featured in Forbes, Rue Daily, House Beautiful, Good Housekeeping, Business Of Home, and USA Today.
