Facts provided by the knowledgeable team at Inner Space Flooring. Experts in the supply of Hardwood Flooring & Parquet Flooring products in Birmingham UK.

Looking for a professional team to install your Hardwood flooring?, you can contact the team here.

Hardwood flooring is more than just an aesthetically pleasing addition to your home or commercial property. We’ve already looked at the choosing the best wood flooring for your home, the benefits of hardwood over softwood and the benefits of wood flooring in your home, but there are a few more things you should know about hardwood floors before you make the investment.

Here are six interesting facts about our favourite topic and specialist subject, hardwood flooring…

Wood is a living material so it needs to acclimate before being installed

It’s easy to forget that wood is a living material, which means that it can change its structure depending on the environment that it’s in, for example, expanding and shrinking depending on the temperature and humidity.

This is why we always advise that wood planks need to acclimate to their new environment for at least 48 hours before installing them. This means that it won’t present any problems in the future when the wood starts to adapt to the environment after already being fitted into place.

Hardwood floors can add value to your house

We have explored this in depth in our blog post, Can Wood Flooring Add Value To Your Home, but, to summarise, hardwood floors are highly desirable, long-lasting and popular amongst the general public, which means it’s easier to sell your home if hardwood floors are already installed.

In fact, 90% of real estate agents in London believe that homes with hardwood floors sell faster and for more money.

Hardwood flooring improves the air quality in your home

Hardwood flooring has many benefits - it’s longevity, durability, variety - but were you aware that it has health benefits too?

It directly improves the air quality in your home, which is ideal for those who suffer from allergies or asthma, and seeing that 44% of UK adults suffer from at least one allergy, there are a lot of people that will reap this specific health benefit of wood flooring.
Hardwood floors are a smooth, solid surface which means that hair, dust and dirt can be easily and immediately removed by sweeping regularly.

Furthermore, unlike carpet and tiles, wood flooring doesn’t harbour allergens or mold. Simply put, this means that airborne particles that can aggravate allergies or cause an allergic reaction cannot penetrate hardwood and can be removed from the home quickly.

Solid 20mm hardwood floors can be refinished up to ten times

No matter how thick or durable your hardwood floors are, the wear and tear that they experience from being used everyday will naturally cause damage over time (how much time is where the durability comes into play).
Fortunately, solid hardwood floors can be sanded down and refinished, which will reinvigorate them and have them looking as good as new - any kinks, dents, scratches or marks of any kind will disappear.

In the case of 20mm hardwood floors, they can be refinished up to ten times, and considering that, on average, these floors only need to be refinished once every 7-10 years, it will be at least 60 years before you even need to start thinking about installing new wood floors altogether, which is why hardwood floors are known to last, literally, a lifetime.

To make a small room appear bigger, use wider strips of wood on the floors

Hardwood flooring can also be used to manipulate the size of a room which is perfect if you want to make a smaller room feel and look larger. The decision to install wide or narrow planks of wood can make a room appear larger or smaller, so it’s something you should carefully consider when choosing your hardwood flooring.

Wide boards will give the impression of greater volume to a small, particularly if they are also lighter in colour; interestingly though, wider planks will make a larger room appear smaller.
Instead, it’s advised that if you want a large room to seem more proportioned, then you should use a mixture of both wide and narrow boards as it creates the illusion of bringing the walls in.

There are some unique species of hardwood on the market

There are four really popular species of hardwood flooring which you will find in the majority of homes across the UK - Oak, for its value for money, Walnut, for its luxury aesthetic, Beech, for its uniformity and Ash, for its strength.
But if you wanted to try something out of the box and unique, then there are some lesser known options that boast some great features.

Rosewood is a richly hued timber that has become quite an endangered species over the years due to unsustainable production. It has a gorgeous deep red finish that looks beautiful in any home, and it exudes a sweet smell unlike any other type of hardwood.

Though Bamboo is technically a grass, it is considered a type of hardwood flooring thanks to its similar appearance and strength. It’s also a great choice for hardwood flooring in your home. It is extremely tough, in fact it’s three times as hard as oak, it’s versatile, it’s eco-friendly and it is bug resistant.

Neither of these species of hardwood may be your first choice for flooring, or you may not even be aware that these are options for you, but they may just be something to consider before opting for a more popular route.

There is far more to hardwood than first meets the eye, and we will continue to share our knowledge on the subject in our blogs. You can also speak to us directly should you have any questions or want some expert advice as to what will work best in your home.