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You'd be challenging-pressed to discover a homeowner who does not want hardwood floors. Wall-to-wall carpeting is out, and hardwood floors are in. But are they worth the price tag? Let's face it: at $8-$ten per square foot (installed), wood flooring is more costly than carpeting or the increasingly frequent laminates that provide a comparable look.

If you're on the fence and can't make a decision whether or not to set up hardwood floors (or possibly peel back your old carpeting and refinish the wood underneath), this list might be able to support. We're going to take a appear at some of the rewards of hardwoods:

1. Longevity

Thanks to tough finishes that are straightforward to repair, solid-wood floors can last for a hundred years or a lot more. There are quite couple of flooring materials that have been around as lengthy as wood. Over the centuries, it has shown itself to be a lovely and tough floor decision. Other newer supplies have yet to prove themselves.

two. Coziness and Warmth

Not only is hardwood far more pleasant to stroll on than laminate (which constantly really feel cold and a tiny "plastic" underfoot), but it is naturally warm. Wood is an superb insulator, thanks to its thousands of tiny air chambers per cubic inch, which hold in heat.

three. Hypoallergenic

Got allergies? As opposed to carpets (read: breeding grounds for mold, mildew, and dust mites, all of which can be hard on anyone with allergies), wood floors don't give pollen, animal dander, mold, and so forth. any spot to hide and thrive. Even when you steam clean carpets, it is impossible to get them completely clean. In fact, finding them wet just tends to make factors worse. Hardwood flooring is an excellent choice for anyone with any sort of environmental allergies. (And it tends to make very good sense for absolutely everyone else too--who desires to lie down on a floor that is hiding mold?)

four. Easy to Clean

A small sweeping and a tiny mopping, and your hardwood floors will preserve seeking good for a extended time to come. Even households with dogs and youngsters are realizing that it really is simpler to mop a hardwood floor than attempt to spray/scrub/wash grape Kool-Help out of a carpet. An additional perk is that a scratch here or a gouge there actually just adds character to wood floors (of course, you can constantly have them refinished if you choose perfection).

five. Improve Home Worth

Unless you're going to be residing in the identical home for the rest of your life, you should believe about how the flooring choices you make today will have an effect on the value you can get for your property when you sell it. Carpet will look old and used in just a few years, whereas wood floors final a long time and add worth to a residence (if you've ever watched those property hunter shows on tv, you have doubtlessly seen just about each and every possible buyer looking about hopefully for hardwood floors). Even laminate flooring, which looks like wood flooring, is a distant second option for homebuyers. It just does not have the exact same warmth and really feel.

These are just a couple of of the advantages of hardwood floors. We did not even mention the aesthetic worth: at the end of the day, they just appear much better than the alternatives. If you can afford to spend an additional couple dollars per square foot, go with hardwood. If you have hardwoods hiding under your existing carpets, tear these suckers up and get the wood refinished.

If you settle for laminate or just replacing the carpeting, you may regret it down the road.

For far more data, pay a visit to the Hardwood Flooring section of the author's Home Improvement site. site preview