Archive for the ‘Health Issues’ Category

The Benefits of Wood Flooring for your Health and Your Wealth

As we become more informed, we can prosper. We learn from our mistakes and we strive to not make the same mistakes again.

Wood Flooring - Why?

Obviously I could be talking about hundreds of topics, but today I’m speaking about wood flooring! We have learned about the beauty and durability of wood flooring hundreds of years ago. Then we got tired of the labor of waxing and we were covering up all our wood in the late 60′s and early 70′s with wall to wall carpet. Not long after we replaced or carpets for the ump-teenth time, we started to hear about the ease of maintenance of the new poly urethanes on the market. We KNEW the value because anyone that appraised a home or considered buying a home ALWAYS wanted to know if there was hardwood under the carpet! So back to wood we all went…but wait, there is cheap ceramic tile, how about that?
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The ‘ease’ of the pre-finished floors along with the instant availability will always make them a viable wood floor solution. They are on every shelf in box stores and so-called ‘liquidators’ around the world, although selection of species and widths are limited, they still offer a quick solution. The drying agents used in the manufacturing process have been cleverly marketed as a harder finish for the consumer, although I have yet to see a home with an abrasive wheel (as used to prove a point about hardness) so actual benefits are sketchy at best. Some pre finished wood floors offer warranties of up to 50 years, although the fine print protects manufacturers from anything that could ever actually happen. Still, you can put a pre finished wood floor in your shopping cart, take it home and live on it the next day. This is not a new issue and will not be settled simply here.

Unfinished Flooring

Unfinished flooring products will always have their promoters as well. To see a finished unfinished floor product alone is worth a million words, there are few visible similarities between the two. Unfinished floors still hold a huge value edge to home appraisers (often up to a 40% difference) when compared to the same species and width in a pre-finished version. The cleaning aspects of an unfinished floor have always been superior due to the smooth and flat properties of a floor that is sanded in place and then sealed as a single sheet of protection. Width choices and species availability have also been key factors in the decision to choose a site finished floor. Read the rest of this entry »