hardwood flooring sites.com

By TC Thorn

You’d be hard-pressed to find a homeowner who doesn’t want hardwood floors. Wall-to-wall carpeting is out, and hardwood floors are in. But are they worth the price? Let’s face it: at $8-$10 per square foot (installed), wood flooring is more expensive than carpeting or the increasingly common laminates that offer a similar look.

If you’re on the fence and can’t decide whether to install hardwood floors (or maybe peel back your old carpeting and refinish the wood underneath), this list may be able to help. We’re going to take a look at some of the benefits of hardwoods:

1. Longevity

Thanks to durable finishes that are easy to repair, solid-wood floors can last for a hundred years or more. There are very few flooring materials that have been around as long as wood. Over the centuries, it has shown itself to be a lovely and durable floor choice. Other newer materials have yet to prove themselves.

2. Coziness and Warmth

Not only is hardwood more pleasant to walk on than laminate (which always feel cold and a little “plastic” underfoot), but it is naturally warm. Wood is an excellent insulator, thanks to its thousands of tiny air chambers per cubic inch, which hold in heat.

3. Hypoallergenic

Got allergies? Unlike carpets (read: breeding grounds for mold, mildew, and dust mites, all of which can be tough on anyone with allergies), wood floors don’t give pollen, animal dander, mold, etc. any place to hide and thrive. Even when you steam clean carpets, it’s impossible to get them entirely clean. In fact, getting them wet just makes things worse. Hardwood flooring is an excellent choice for anyone with any kind of environmental allergies. (And it makes good sense for everyone else too–who wants to lie down on a floor that’s hiding mold?)

4. Easy to Clean

A little sweeping and a little mopping, and your hardwood floors will keep looking nice for a long time to come. Even families with dogs and kids are realizing that it’s easier to mop a hardwood floor than try to spray/scrub/wash grape Kool-Aid out of a carpet. Another perk is that a scratch here or a gouge there really just adds character to wood floors (of course, you can always have them refinished if you prefer perfection).

5. Increase Home Value

Unless you’re going to be living in the same house for the rest of your life, you should think about how the flooring choices you make today will affect the price you can get for your home when you sell it. Carpet will look old and used in just a few years, whereas wood floors last a long time and add value to a home (if you’ve ever watched those house hunter shows on television, you’ve doubtlessly seen just about every potential buyer looking around hopefully for hardwood floors). Even laminate flooring, which looks like wood flooring, is a distant second choice for homebuyers. It just doesn’t have the same warmth and feel.

These are just a few of the benefits of hardwood floors. We didn’t even mention the aesthetic value: at the end of the day, they just look better than the alternatives. If you can afford to pay an extra couple dollars per square foot, go with hardwood. If you have hardwoods hiding under your existing carpets, tear those 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 more information, visit the Hardwood Flooring section of the author’s Home Improvement site.
 

By Neoli Marcos

Tiles, carpet, or laminate? These days, it is not enough to just have floor in your house; you simply have to have the best floor. Why not consider a hardwood floor then?

A hardwood floor is a handsome and durable substitute to carpeted or laminated floor. Due to its warm tones and distinctiveness, wood dramatically changes the appearance and atmosphere of a room.

Exclusive. Your wooden floor will be truly exclusive to you, not only because of the natural grain, which is unique, but also because you have the option of designing your own floor. When you do, you get to choose the exact pattern you would like on your floor. Mixing woods together gives a remarkable effect and endless pattern can be created. Hardwood floors even add more market value to your home so the next time you put up your home for sale, you are confident your home will fetch a good price.

Elegant. For centuries, wood has been used in the home and many of the homes for sale in Australia have opted to use wood to bring warmth and character to every style and décor. Nothing beats a wooden floor when it comes to enduring quality and touch of class it brings to any home. Buyers of real estates and homes for sale will be more than willing to shell out the additional price for the elegance of a wooden floor.

Healthy. Dust, dust mites, fleas and other nastiest can be trapped in carpet pile. Unlike carpets where even the most powerful vacuum cleaner cannot remove all traces of dirt, a wood floor helps end allergy and respiratory problems, precisely because it is easy to clean and free of dust. Also, a real wood floor retains warmth and keeps draughts at bay. This can be added selling point to your real estate property should you want to put your home for sale in the future.

Sensible. The wear and tear of everyday life can take its toll on a carpet, but a hardwearing wood floor will last for years if looked after properly. It requires minimal maintenance to keep it looking good.

Economical. Unlike carpets, wooden floors are durable and will pay for itself in a few year’s time. Furthermore, a wooden floor may not cost any more than a superior carpet, and better still, it will probably even turn out to be the cheaper alternative.

So there, stand your ground when choosing a hardwood floor for your real estate. At the end of the day, you will be glad you did!

Neoli write articles and press releases for http://www.ozfreeonline.com. This piece he made served as an article exclusive for http://realestate.ozfreeonline.com - which offers a comprehensive list of office & commercial real estates, homes for rent or sell and an apartment finder to thousands of properties in Australia.
 

By Joshua Miller  
 
Did you know hardwood flooring is better for you than almost any other type of floor covering out there? According to the Environmental Protection Agency indoor air quality is one the biggest health threats people face on a daily basis. Installing a hardwood floor in your home will drastically improve the quality of the air you and your family breath everyday.

Hardwood flooring is healthier in your home because the hard surface does not trap dust and doesn’t provide an environment for mold and mites to flourish, more at http://www.floorsworks.com. Breathing in mold can lead to asthma and chronic sickness in kids and adults. This is better for everyone who lives in your home but especially beneficial to those thirty five million individual who suffer from either seasonal or continuous allergies.

The Environmental Protection Agency also found that toxins like pesticides used in gardens and to clean your home can accumulate on surfaces within your home, most easily in carpeting. This kind of thing is not only unhealthy for you but very dangerous for your children and pets. Too high a concentration of these toxins can cause sickness and also leads to allergies in adults.

When you use natural wood flooring in your home you are also eliminating off-gassing. This is the release of toxins by synthetic materials that can be very dangerous to all in your home. Off-gassing has been known to make people and pets chronically sick.

Hardwood flooring is also a good environmental choice. Wood is a naturally renewable resource and part of the cycle of life. Overall hardwood floors are the best choice for your home, your family, and even the planet. They also add to the value of your home more than just about any other type of floor covering. You can’t go wrong with natural hardwood flooring for you and yours.

About the Author:
To learn more about installing your own wood flooring visit for articles and advice from professionals.
 

By Chirs Elliott

The modern, environmentally friendly and durable alternative to hardwood is bamboo flooring. Being a grass, as opposed to timber, gives bamboo the edge as a not only a building product (being strong and at the same time flexible), but also as a sustainable resource: wood takes approximately 15-20 years to reach maturity, whereas the non-harmful harvesting of bamboo takes a mere 3 to 5 years. Bamboo has traditionally been the material of choice in most of Asia, and it is only recently that its benefits and environmental properties have begun to be utilised more fully in the west.

The growth in popularity in recent years for wood flooring has increased the burden on already stretched timber resources. Bamboo flooring shares many of the properties that attract discerning customers to hardwood; it’s low maintenance, hard wearing, and looks contemporary while having a timeless appeal; but it is without any of the environmental concerns that are attached to its hardwood counterpart.

Due to its flexibility as a material, bamboo flooring has a broad appeal that can be manipulated to a suit a variety of styles. Its range of applications varies from period homes to offices, designer hotels and bars.

As well as being environmentally sound, bamboo flooring is competitively priced and easy to fit. Ease of fitting is always a worry for the prospective purchaser, with bamboo flooring the process has been simplified by the formulation of three different methods:

1) Floating floor: this involves gluing the tongue and groove joints of the bamboo flooring together over an underlay.

2) Secret Nailing: the bamboo floor is ‘secretly’ nailed to down to a wood sub-floor.

3) Gluing down: literally gluing the bamboo floor to a sub-floor.

Each of these methods has its own benefits. More information can be found at the Bamboo Flooring Company - http://www.bambooflooringcompany.com

One concern that has arisen with the implementation of bamboo flooring is regarding the use of Urea Formaldehyde, which is used as a binder or adhesive in the manufacture of bamboo flooring. Using the present technology, its use is unavoidable. However, reputable bamboo flooring suppliers with firm environmental principles, make every effort to ensure that its use conforms to the rigid E-1 European Standards. It is important to stress that exposure to any dangerous chemicals in bamboo flooring is negligible. 

The benefits of choosing bamboo flooring are chiefly to found in the warm, comforting ambience it creates. Bamboo flooring immediately draws attention and recognition to a room, giving it character and focus. With its hard wearing properties, environmental benefits and natural beauty, bamboo flooring is the flooring of choice for generations to come.

About The Author
Chris Elliott is a Bamboo Flooring expert. Further information can be found at the Bamboo Flooring Company - http://www.bambooflooringcompany.com.
 

 

By Rachel Lower

My husbands cigarette box, courtesy the government, lists a handful of ingredients: Tar, Nicotine, Carbon monoxide, Formaldehyde, Hydrogen cyanide, and Benzene. There are probably more to list, but the flap is only so big. Many families with smokers have taken measures to keep their children (or themselves) away from smoke. They take it to one ventilated room, take it outside, or for the ultimate and only full protection they wisely abandon smokes forever.

You’re no doubt aware of that, considering all the media attention on a cigarette’s toxic fumes. What you may not be aware of is the “ingredient list” of everything that remains in your home. There are still dangerous fumes in homes everywhere, and I’m not talking about so and so’s habit of breaking wind.

Our homes have their own toxic sludge, even sharing some “ingredients” with cigarettes, like Formaldehyde!

Did you know?

*Wrinkle-free sheets contain formaldehyde. Your mattress probably does too!

*Some bath towels contain toxic chemical residues.

*If a family members workplace has issues with asbestos, lead, or other toxins, said toxins can be carried home!

*That “new car smell” is Vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen.

*Is your house over 30 yrs. old? Until the ’70’s many paints, floor finishes, and possibly more home renovation supplies still contained lead.

*Do you have a wood deck or swing set in your back yard put in before 2004? Weather resistant lawn items made before a certain 2004 (US) ban contain arsenic.

*Most popular home cleaning products contain Volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) which are linked to various medical problems including cancer.

Craig Mouldey, the Wood Flooring Guy (http://www.woodflooringguy.com/) says, “there are many products in our homes, including plywood, the core of cabinets, and likely even laminate that use a urea-formaldehyde adhesive.” Your furniture, your carpets, pretty much everything made by man contains VOCs.

The National Academy of Sciences estimates that 15% of the population currently suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and Environmental Illness due to the toxic environments we live in. So many home toxins are in fact, like cigarettes, linked to cancers and other debilitating illnesses. The next front in health may be the home front.

Tips for Clearing the Air in Your Home

-Avoid chemical products and cleaners

+Instead use common baking products like vinegar and baking soda or purchase “all-natural” non-chemical cleaners. If you have a closet full of chemicals, call your local government office for information about their disposal. They consider these items hazardous waste!

-Avoid the use of aerosol sprays (Includes hygiene products!)

+Search for alternatives to aerosol cleaners and hygiene products. If you’re an air freshener addict you can substitute it with an open box of baking soda in every room. You can use herbs as potpourri. For more substitutions see this page from NY’s DEC website. (http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dshm/redrecy/hhw1.htm)

+Keep up on maintenance of furnace, air conditioners, etc. Consider investing in some kind of air filter or cleaner.

+Ventilate high humidity areas such as bathrooms. In fact, ventilate the whole house weather permitting. Recent studies show indoor air pollution is worse than outdoor, even in the big city.

+Have your home tested for radon gas, mold, lead, asbestos and other more common pollutants.

+Use solid wood or at least seal any plywood or particleboard.

+Install hard floors and use very few rugs. Hard floors, which you can wipe clean, won’t harbor VOCs residue from cleaners and aerosols like carpets do. Choose stone, tiles or hardwood floors with nontoxic varnishes.

Also, when making purchases for your home be it bed sheets or renovation plans, google for product information and read labels to find out about the products safety. Look for “low-emitting,” “pesticide free,””no outgassing” or “no offgassing,” and other related key phrases.

You won’t be able to keep out all chemicals, but you may be able to reduce the VOCs in your home by making environmentally friendly choices whenever possible. More than ever there are companies devoted to making safer products for your home. By being VOC-conscious you’ll also reduce the amount of hazardous waste being dumped into landfills when the time comes to dispose of your less hazardous belongings. As an unrelated but added bonus the time it takes to research products may prevent unnecessary purchases that would just add clutter to your home and put a hole in your pocketbook. Being toxin conscious thus has a myriad of positive effects!

Being a smart and toxin-aware shopper will help you clear the air in your home. You can make the world a little safer for your family and community.

Useful Resources

CHEC http://www.checnet.org/
Indoor Air Pollution Fact Sheet* http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=117535
*Presently includes contact info. to obtain a free pamphlet containing more household products and their associated risks.
VOCs info. from the EPA http://www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html

Must Include Byline to Reprint:::
Rachel Lower is a freelance writer and web designer. Visit her at http://www.rachellauer.com/.