As well as adding beauty and warmth to where you live, wood flooring can bring many practical benefits.
For a start, wood floors are an investment which will add financial value to your home – estate agents report that homes with wooden floors sell more quickly than those with other kinds of flooring.
But if you’re planning on staying in the same house, wooden floors are incredibly durable. In fact, they can last for up to 100 years, so you’ll never need to replace them as you do carpet or lino floors. Equally, because of their classic elegance, wooden floors will never go out of fashion but will remain a stylish option, and will always look good.
Your floors will be especially long-lasting if you use wood from old growth trees, which have a tighter grain, making it denser and firmer than new wood, and able to retain its appearance longer.
Wood flooring takes very little effort to maintain keep clean. Caring for your wood floors takes little more than a quick sweep or vacuuming once or twice a week, with perhaps the occasional use of a cleaning product to keep up the shine. These floors are sturdy enough to withstand all the spills and knocks of family life.
Wooden floors are also a very eco-friendly option. Wood is a thoroughly natural resource, and a renewable energy source. Many wood floors are made of reclaimed lumber which has been recycled from old homes or boats, or it may even have been brought up from riverbeds where it sunk years and years ago. Having your wood floors made from reclaimed timber means you can have exquisite wood flooring without deforestation, and without a single tree being cut down.
If you find you are sneezing all the time, and have a year-round runny nose, it could be because of a dust allergy. A single square metre of carpet can be home to tens of thousands of dust mites, and dust can also contribute to health problems like asthma and eczema. The simple reality is that wooden floors are more hygienic than carpets because you can see and deal with dust and other dirt more easily.
Also, if you have pets, not only are the inevitable ‘little accidents’ quicker to clean up, but you won’t have to deal with embedded pet hairs as you do with carpets.
If you’ve previously been put off buying wooden floors because you think they may be more expensive than other kinds of flooring, think again. New technology has made wood floors more affordable than ever.
Another myth surrounding wood flooring is that it makes your home seem colder than carpets. In fact, wood retains heat naturally, so you’ll stay cosy even at the coldest times of the year.
Finally, there are now more varieties of wooden floors than ever, giving you stacks of choice, especially in terms of different cuts and finishes. There are more than 20 different types of wood flooring, including American beech, pine ash and Douglas fir and walnut flooring.
So it’s no wonder that, for more and more of us, wooden floors are the natural choice.