Natural Oak Flooring

Jennifer — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:03:57 +0000

Natural Oak flooring is a better option than carpet or laminate for longevity and beauty. In today’s economy, longevity of materials is important. Saving money in the short term doesn’t’ make much sense if the flooring has to be replaced in a few years. Natural Oak flooring remedies that. It is an inexpensive option that doesn’t’ have to be replaced as quickly as other options.

Natural Oak flooring is a popular choice due to its cost, durability and beauty. It is a traditional wood that has been used as flooring for hundreds of years and continues to remain so today.

Natural Oak flooring can be purchased as solid oak flooring or as engineered flooring. It can be pre-finished in a variety of colors and glosses or it can be installed then finished according to the homeowner’s tastes.

Engineered or Solid Natural Oak Flooring

The choice between solid oak wood and engineered oak wood flooring is a matter of personal taste. Solid Natural Oak flooring is very durable and can be less expensive than engineered Natural Oak flooring.

Interior of cottage galley-style kitchen with oak floor

Engineered Natural Oak flooring is more costly than solid Natural Oak flooring but is more resistant to heat and humidity than solid wood flooring is. This makes engineered Natural Oak flooring a better choice than solid for bathroom installations.

Natural Oak Flooring Styles

Homeowners can choose the style and coloring of their Natural Oak flooring to match their décor and personal tastes. Pre-finished textures include Hand Scraped Walnut and Hand Scraped Antique. There are also other options available such as Brushed, White Oiled, smoked, aged, or distressed. Each has its own special effect on a room. Homeowners can ask for sample pieces for decision making.

Natural Oak flooring can vary in color, from whitish with a gray tint to reddish with swirl patterns. It can also be stained any color desired, from beautiful, light natural colorings to deep, dark formal colorings.

Engineered Oak Flooring

Engineered Natural Oak flooring is also available in a variety of finishes, including lacquered, oiled and unfinished. It can also be stained and finished just like solid natural Oak.

Caring for Natural Oak Flooring

With the proper care and maintenance, Natural Oak floors will last through many generations of families. If repairs need to be made, they can be made easily using a professional floor installer.

Natural Oak is not the hardest flooring available, there are exotic woods that are much harder; however, it is a durable, long lasting wood that can be maintained and kept beautiful.

Protecting the floor from scratches and dents is the first step to making the floor last for many years. Using rugs and floor mats in heavy traffic areas keeps dirt and grime from being ground into the floor and causing scratches and gouges. If there are pets in the home, keeping their toenails trimmed will help prevent them from scratching the floor.

Natural Oak flooring is a flooring choice that has stood the test of time. It has been in homes for many hundreds of years. It remains a readily available flooring choice for today’s homeowners and will continue to be a sturdy, long-lasting option for the future.

-Sharon V Chapman

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Unfinished Oak Flooring

Jennifer — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:36:54 +0000

Oak wood has long been a favorite flooring choice for homeowners. It is durable and beautiful in a variety of settings. In addition to its natural beauty, individuals can choose unfinished oak flooring and have a finish applied to suite their own personal tastes.

Oak flooring accounts for 80% of the sales of wood flooring. The popularity of oak flooring is the reason consumers have more oak-based flooring options than any other flooring option.

Color Rich

Many people automatically think of houses from days gone by either sandy colored or light reddish colored floors when oak flooring is mentioned. However, with unfinished oak flooring the possibilities are limited only by the homeowner’s imagination.

Unfinished oak flooring can be finished by the installer or other professional or by the homeowner with a little bit of instruction. Finishing options include stains, varnishes and lacquers in a variety of colors and glosses.

Other Oak Flooring Options

Interior of cottage galley-style kitchen with oak floor

In addition to unfinished oak flooring, consumers also have a choice between factory new oak flooring or distressed oak flooring. They have very different looks.

Another option is whether to choose Red Oak or White Oak flooring for the home. Both are available in finished or unfinished. Red Oak is light colored with a reddish tone and White Oak is a white to creamish or light brown color.

Red Oak flooring can show more variations in colors than White Oak does depending on the subspecies of tree the wood is harvested from.

Solid or Engineered Oak Flooring

In the past, solid wood flooring was the option most people chose when selecting wood flooring. Their thinking tended to be that solid flooring was more elegant and durable. However, there are some flaws to solid wood flooring that make engineered flooring a good option to consider.

Solid wood flooring is thick which doesn’t allow for anything underneath it like floor heating.

Engineered Oak flooring is very much like solid Oak flooring. It is just as durable and just as beautiful, only not as thick. The top layer is the Oak wood, either finished or unfinished. Underneath this layer is another wood for support. Engineered flooring leaves room underneath for floor heating.

Oak Floor Characteristics

Finished or unfinished Oak flooring is one of the most durable, long lasting floorings a homeowner can choose. On the Janka Hardness scale, the Red Oak and the White Oak both score in the 1200’s. The Red Oak is a little stronger than the White Oak.

However, the White Oak is more water resistant than Red Oak and resists rot better than the Red Oak and other woods which is why it can be found in homes from hundreds of years ago and still be beautiful.

Finished or unfinished, Red Oak or White, engineered or solid, these are just a few of the questions consumers have to answer when choosing their wood flooring. The most important answer is longevity and of that they can be assured when choosing Oak flooring.

-Sharon V. Chapman

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