Carpets add to the aesthetic and give a very soft feel under your feet. But with the passage of time, carpets can accumulate dust, fungus, mildew, mold and wear and tear. You cannot remove these by using a vacuum cleaner.
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You can move to hardwood floors instead that removes all the potential health hazards. What’s more? It becomes much easier to clean your floors. Hardwood floors are affordable and a lot durable as well.
[BUTTONS2]Types of Hardwood Floors:
Hardwood flooring is not only solid wood on the floors. The classic hardwood style is made from solid pieces wood. Popular types of wood used in hardwood flooring are ash, hickory, oak, pine, walnut, and mahogany.
Solid wood floors are last long and are quite easy to clean. Apart from solid hardwood, you could go for engineered hardwood that is made by using multiple layers of wood that is placed between two layers of solid hardwood with a protective veneer finish off the top. Compared to solid hardwood, engineered boards tolerate more moisture. But, they are not really long-lasting. You cannot refinish engineered wood floors to remove any kind of damage. So, you need to be careful and take care of the surface.
Next option is laminate. Laminate looks like hardwood but it does not really contain hardwood. Laminate is formed with layers of compressed fiberboard which is laminated with the image of the wood grain. There are varieties of high-quality laminate, it does not match the feel or the look of real wood. For that, go for bamboo or cork floors. Bamboo is comparatively more moisture-resistant than wood. Cork gives natural insulation. But as these materials are softer than regular wood making it more prone to damage.
The most cost-effective?
If you look at the options cost-effectively, laminate flooring gives you an appearance of wood at the fraction of the real hardwood’s cost. According to Home Advisor, it ranges from $.050 to $6 per square foot for the materials. Engineered wood is expensive but still comes at a lesser price than solid wood majorly. The cost of solid hardwood floors depends on the grade and the species. The rarer or harder the wood is, the more expensive it becomes. As the quality goes up, the demands also rise. If you want to stick to your budget then, go for softer wood and lower grain.
How to find an affordable installer?
You can look for an affordable installer in your area while searching in Yelp, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, and Angie’s List. They have directories of the local professionals and have reviews and ratings from customers as well.
Remember, the cheapest service is not always the best. Well-known stores that offer installation with along with the purchase are not necessarily the best value. First of all, see all options according to your budget and then the quality of the work that you desire. This could assist you in choosing the best value rather than going towards what you are familiar with or is affordable.
With so many options and price points, it is a daunting task to choose a hardwood floor. Then there is the whole task of working out the exact cost of each material while keeping in mind the pros and cons of each. When you hire a professional for the job, he lessens the hard work of such calculations.
As professional installers have the knowledge and the experience, they can give you a much better advice on the best option to choose from for your home. They accurately measure the materials so that none of the materials is wasted and the installation process is done in the most efficient manner.
It is cost and time saving too!