Depending on how long you've lived in your home, the chances are you will have experienced just how annoying a carpet can be. From accumulating dust to absorbing stains, it can be constant struggle to keep your carpet looking anything close to new. Fortunately, wooden flooring serves as a far more favourable alternative.
Not only is wood flooring more practical, it is far better looking and extremely low maintenance. We've all been there - knocking over a glass of red wine on a cream or off-white carpet. If you're quick enough, you may be able to get rid of the stain, but even if you use expensive carpet shampoo, the chances are the carpet will never go back to its original colour.
If your floors are awash with carpet, you'll know what a battle it can be to keep them looking spic and span. Even when freshly laid, it can take just a matter of weeks for them to become worn, particularly if fitted to a busy part of the house such as the hallway. Carpets, much like clothing, have the unfortunate ability to look dated sooner rather than later. This, added to them becoming worn, means they can seem like a waste of money.
Wooden flooring, on the other hand, not only looks great but can help to increase the value of your home. How so? Well, their aesthetics certainly help - but their lifespan of around half a century means that you'll effectively be making an investment when purchasing a wooden floor.
If you're thinking of selling your home, it is hugely important to consider the state of your flooring. An old, worn carpet will do nothing to help the selling process, let alone increase your property's value, and buyers may be forced to consider 'potential' rather than benefitting from already-fitted wooden flooring.
It's also worth considering people's lifestyles. The majority of us no longer have enough time to devote a weekly vacuuming session to our carpets, let alone a special trip to purchase some carpet shampoo. Wooden floors do not require this rigmarole - they are exceptionally low maintenance. If you spill something, there's no need to panic - a simple wipe will suffice. If you do manage to stain your floor, the affected area can be sanded down and a finish re-applied, meaning it will look as good as new in next to no time.
This low maintenance translates to peace of mind. No longer will you have to be overly concerned about hosting parties or gatherings in your home - they'll be no more mucky footprints on the carpet and no worrying about potential stains. Any dust that accumulates, instead of being ingrained in the carpet, will be easily visible and can be swept up in seconds using a dustpan and brush.
Tempted to make the switch to wooden flooring? You'll be making the correct decision, but there's one more big choice to make - whether to opt for solid or engineered flooring. Solid wood is pretty much what you would expect; solid chunks of oak, beech or maple. It's worth speaking to an expert about which type of wood to opt for as each will have its own attributes. Beech, for example, is noted for its bounce and is exceptionally durable, while maple is noted for its shock resistance.
Solid wood is the most natural type of wood flooring, and while this will look fantastic once fitted in your home, there is the issue of humidity to consider. Wood is living and breathing - because it's porous, it will respond to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. In moist conditions, it will absorb water and expand while in dry conditions it will lose moisture and shrink slightly. Humidity can be affected by cooking in the kitchen, for example, or by running hot water ahead of having a bath.
To combat this problem, one of the most popular types of wood flooring isn't really a wood at all, but a grass. Bamboo, which boasts many of the properties of hardwood, is different because it neither expands nor retracts. This makes it an ideal flooring material for the kitchen or bathroom, traditionally the rooms in the house subjected to the greatest amount of moisture. A further advantage of bamboo is its sustainability - because it takes just three to five years to mature, any bamboo used for flooring supplies can be quickly replaced and grown back. Hardwoods, by contrast, take between 20 and 120 years to reach maturity, although trees are sourced from sustainably managed sources.
While bamboo remains one of the lesser-used flooring materials, oak, of which there are two varieties, is arguably the most popular. Having been used in homes for hundreds of years, it's easy to see why. Whether you choose red oak or white, its appearance is timeless - unlike a carpet. Red oak has been used thanks to its availability, durability and range of attractive tones (from pink to red). Not only does this help a room appear warmer in the winter months, but during the warm days of summer the sun's rays can be complemented. With such little room for error, it's understandable why red oak has been, and continues to be, so widely used.
There is, however, a challenger to red oak. White oak, which is becoming increasingly used - particularly among the young and upwardly mobile - is challenging its red sibling's wooden flooring mantle, and for good reason. With so many homes embracing a minimalist decor, white oak, which boasts paler, cooler tones, is able to blend in to pretty much any scheme, while it can also serve as a blank canvas from which to really stamp your personality on a home.
There are a number of other materials to choose from - ash, mahogany, cherry and walnut to name but a few - so you'll be sure to find a type of wooden flooring to suit your home. Isn't it about time you waved goodbye to your old carpet and joined the flooring revolution? |
