Wood Flooring - "A Good Investment"

Introduction

Wood flooring obviously offers a huge variety of colour and texture, but whichever species of wood that you choose - oak, pine, bamboo, etc. - you can be sure that it will add warmth, beauty and value to your home. Wood flooring is also more resistant to "wear and tear" than other floor coverings, such as carpet, or linoleum, and, unlike those coverings, does not harbour dust and other allergens. In fact, just regular sweeping, or vacuuming - plus, perhaps, cleaning with a professional cleaning product once every six months, or so - is enough to keep a wooden floor in immaculate condition. From an ecological point of view, wood is a renewable resource, and, indeed, much of the wood used for wood flooring is recycled from other sources.

Types of Wood Flooring

Wood flooring can essentially be divided into three different categories, depending on its method of construction. Solid hardwood flooring, as the name suggests, consists of a solid hardwood, such as oak, maple, cherry, walnut, etc. to a thickness of anything up to 1", which is laid on an existing subfloor. Although more expensive than other forms of wood flooring, solid hardwood can be sanded repeatedly to restore its finish, if necessary.

Engineered wood, on the other hand, is typically thinner, perhaps ½" or ¾", and consists of a thin layer of hardwood on top of a plywood backing. Once again, engineered wood flooring can be stapled, or glued, to an existing subfloor and, although it is less durable than solid hardwood flooring, it is correspondingly less expensive.

Finally, laminated flooring is an inexpensive and durable alternative to solid hardwood flooring, and features a layered construction, with an easy-to-clean surface layer above a photographic image of wood and an inner core of HDF ("High Density Fibreboard"). The core is often impregnated with melamine for strength, stability and resistance to moisture.

Moisture is an important consideration if you intend to install electrical underfloor heating beneath a wooden floor. A wooden floor is subject to expansion and contraction, depending on the amount of moisture present, so wooden boards, strips or planks beneath which underfloor heating is to be installed need to be dried, in air and in a kiln, so that their moisture content is around 10%, or less. If the moisture content is too high, a wooden floor may twist, or warp, in response to seasonal changes.

Modern underfloor heating is suitable for installation beneath solid, engineered or laminated floors, although the output power rating of the heating cables or mats used, measured in W/m2 ("Watts per square metre"), does need to be taken into account. Heating cables or mats with a rating of 160W/m2 or 200W/m2 may be suitable for use beneath ceramic tile or stone floors, but, typically, a lower rating, of 130W/m2 or 100W/m2, is required beneath wooden floors of any description. Failure to comply with manufacturers` recommendations regarding appropriate power ratings can present the risk of damage to the floor surface, or even fire, in extreme cases.

Friday, 04 December 2009 00:00