Hardwood flooring is one of the most iconic flooring products in the world, with a long history in human dwellings for thousands of years. To this day, hardwood remains one of the most popular choices and is one of the most important categories of flooring on the market.
However, as more and more new materials and products enter the market each year, some homeowners question whether hardwood is still a good choice among other flooring options. Is it worth the cost? How does it compare with newer, high-end synthetic products? What’s the best flooring type of hardwood floor for me – should I consider engineered hardwood floors?
If you’ve been wondering whether hardwood is the right flooring for you, you’re in the right place! In this short post, we’ll tally up the pros and cons of hardwood flooring to show you just how great a choice it really is!
Hardwood Flooring Pros
It’s no secret we’re fans of hardwood floors, so we’ll start with the pros first. Actually, this was a tough list to make! There are actually so many pros that it was hard to pick our favourites!
Let’s launch right into our top six pros of hardwood.
- Adds Home Value
Hardwood is a great product because it directly increases the value of your property if you ever decide to list it on the market. Wooden floors are a very attractive feature for buyers, so much so that your hardwood floors can actually be considered an investment!
Bette yet, because hardwood floors last so long with regular maintenance, you can rest assured that they’ll still be an asset when it comes time to sell – whether that’s in a year or a decade.
- Long-Lasting
As mentioned above, hardwood is a very long-lasting product! With proper maintenance, and barring any serious mishaps or accidents, your hardwood could actually last a century or more! Besides stone or ceramic tile, hardwood is one of the long-lasting flooring products – with much more longevity than synthetic flooring materials!
- Versatile
Hardwood is an extremely versatile material. As there are thousands of different species of wood, you can choose from a wide variety of patterns and colours for your floor. On top of this, your choice of stain gives you even more ability to customize the appearance of your floor.
- All Natural and Sustainable
Sustainability is increasingly a top concern for many consumers. Most hardwood floors are sourced from responsibly farmed trees, which besides being sustainable actually work to remove carbon from the atmosphere!
As an all natural product, wood is a great choice for those with allergies or chemical sensitivities.
- Durable/Refinishing
Not only does hardwood last an extremely long time, but it’s also quite durable and resistant to damage. It also has the significant and unique advantage of being able to be refinished several times in its lifespan, which restores it to a like-new state. As this is such a huge advantage for this product, we’ll discuss it in more detail below as well.
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Hardwood Flooring Cons
This post wouldn’t be honest if we didn’t discuss a few cons as well! While we think the pros are much more important, there are a few drawbacks to hardwood that it is worth mentioning.
- Expensive
Hardwood certainly isn’t the cheapest product out there – if it was, there wouldn’t be any need for its many competitors! While hardwood flooring installation can come with a higher upfront price tag, keep in mind that hardwood floors will outlast most other comparable flooring surfaces and can be refinished multiple times.
- Moisture Damage
While hardwood is extremely resilient to damage, its Achilles heel is moisture, which can easily damage your wood. Luckily, this is easily avoided in most cases by being careful and avoiding installing hardwood in rooms such as basements or bathrooms.
- Refinishing
While we mentioned refinishing as a pro, some people consider it a con, as this procedure does need to be done regularly throughout the lifespan of your floor. However, as it is relatively inexpensive and returns your floor to peak condition, we actually think this is a plus!
Refinishing – A Unique Advantage
Refinishing wood floors is a unique advantage of the material. When your floor is refinished, the top layer of wood is completely removed through sanding. Once this has been done, the exposed layer remaining will be raw wood – completely untouched and like new. This wood is then stained and finished. The end result of this process is a floor that is literally as good as new! Even better, refinishing can be done around ten to twelve times over the lifespan of the average hardwood floor.
Summary
We hope this quick tally of the pros and cons of hardwood flooring was useful to you. While no flooring material is perfect, we think the advantages of hardwood make it one of the best choices for your floor.
