Engineered or Solid Hardwood Flooring For The Kitchen?

Hardwood floors offer a timeless beauty that can be a valuable asset to any home. Even a kitchen can benefit from the warm, natural atmosphere that hardwood creates. Perfect for dealing with muck and messes, hardwood can be cleaned with ease. No homeowner can deny the authentic beauty behind each uniquely polished floorboard.

When a person chooses hardwood, they often commit to using it throughout their home for consistency’s sake. Even though hardwood flooring has incredible longevity, you can always rejuvenate the look of your kitchen by refinishing your floors with new stains or paints.

About Hardwood Flooring

As the name implies, hardwood flooring is a type of flooring that is made from timber. It has impressive longevity and can last a whole lifetime when properly maintained. For best results, you may want to reduce the floor’s exposure to moisture, excess sunlight, and sharp objects such as claws. You will also want to clean the floor of dust and dirt on a regular basis. Make sure that liquid spills are taken care of as soon as they occur. Attempting to clean the floor with an abrasive or oil-based cleaner will likely damage your floor. Remember that during installation you can usually add a variety of underlayment products; these products can be useful for suppressing noise, reducing moisture, adding insulation and more.

When it comes to hardwood flooring solutions for your kitchen, solid and engineered hardwood are both great choices. Read ahead to learn about the advantages of each one.

Solid Hardwood

These floorboards are made purely from a single wood species, and you can refinish them several times. Since moisture can cause the wood to warp, you might want to avoid placing them in a kitchen where dampness and liquid spills are commonplace. You can purchase solid hardwood flooring unfinished for greater customizability or prefinished for quicker installation. You typically install these floorboards to a wooden subfloor with nails or staples, but glue can be an option for thinner floorboards as well.

Engineered Hardwood

This type of flooring contains a surface layer of genuine hardwood with many layers of composite wood beneath. These layers can be comprised of plywood, hardwood, or high-density fiberboard. Engineered hardwood is generally more stable than its solid counterpart and is more resistant to humidity. It usually comes prefinished and is easier to install. Methods of installation include stapling, gluing, and floating (i.e. when the boards are attached to each other rather than the subfloor).

Choosing a Style of Hardwood

After picking your type of hardwood, deciding on a style can be even harder. When choosing a species, colour, sturdiness, and graining are all relevant factors to look into. Popular options include oak, hickory, maple, and cherry, but there are also rarer, more exotic options like teak and jatoba. Floorboard width is also significant since thinner planks give a contemporary aesthetic while wider ones are more rustic. Many enjoy the classic look of moderate-width boards as well. Consider room size and lighting when picking a colour. Lighter shades can expand the appearance of a room while darker shades can tighten a space, making a room more sleek and intimate. Many of the colours available are stunning, but remember to also base your decision on your home’s colour schemes and décor. Also remember that stain can augment your floor’s colour, and you can always refinish it down the line.