(HIT) – Choosing hardwood flooring for your home can be a valuable investment. Multiple surveys estimate that hardwood flooring can add as much as $7,000-10,000 to a home’s resale value. And a study conducted by the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) revealed that 99 percent of U.S. real estate agents asserted that homes with hardwood flooring are easier to sell; 90 percent said that homes with hardwood flooring sell for more money – up to 10 percent more in fact.
In order to get the most out of your valuable investment in American Hardwood, here are the flooring options you need to know about before you buy:
Solid Wood Floors:
Solid hardwood flooring comes in three basic types: strip, plank and parquet.
- Strip flooring accounts of the majority of hardwood installations. It is installed by nailing the wood to the subfloor.
- Plank floor boards are at least three inches wide, and can be screwed or nailed to the subfloor.
- Parquet flooring comes in 6”x6” blocks, but specialty patterns can be made much larger. Parquet floors often create a dramatic geometric look.
One tip to keep in mind is that solid hardwood flooring expands and contracts due to changes in your home’s humidity. Installers can compensate for this by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall.
Engineered Wood
Engineered wood is made of multiple layers of different grades or styles of wood that are stacked and glued together under high heat and pressure. This type of flooring is less likely to be affected by changes in humidity.
Wood Laminates
Wood laminates consist of a plywood base topped with a layer of veneer. The veneer coating on wood laminate floors can be sanded an
