The life and condition of your hardwood kitchen floors is going to hang on the way you maintain them. The care you put into your floors is the most important factor in how your hardwoods are going to perform. Hardwoods are durable, but only as long as they are vigilantly cared for.
So the answer to whether you should install hardwoods in your kitchen? It depends upon how much you want to spend and how much care you are willing to put into your floors. Hardwood floors can be a great and beautiful finish to a kitchen with the right quality materials and correct care. If you are looking for professional hardwood floor cleaning in Everett make an appointment online with All Kleen.
Here are some things to help you consider if hardwood floors are right for your kitchen. Installation Part of considering any material for your kitchen flooring is considering the actual cost of the material and how much it will cost to get it into the home.
Who should you believe? The short answer is: yes. Hardwood flooring can be installed anywhere in your home. But realize that there are different upkeep rules for a kitchen when compared to other rooms, such as a bedroom. Kitchens are one of the busiest rooms in your home. That means your flooring will have more wear, and will be subjected to more spills and damage. It will require more care. Comfortable — How much time do you spend in the kitchen?
And for a good reason. Most kitchens are considered to be the central hub — the heart of the home. Your kids can do homework there while you prep for dinner. You can create memories by baking with the kids. You can even try your hand at mimicking the latest cooking show, trying your best to create something spectacular.
All of that means a lot of time on your feet. An eclectic mix of the three? Whatever you desire, hardwood is one of the most versatile flooring choices, accenting any look perfectly.
Even within the hardwood flooring industry, there are many different choices available. Are you sold on installing hardwood in your kitchen? Just to ensure you consider all of your options, here are a few reasons against using hardwood in the kitchen.
Most larger communities have retailers who specialize in repurposed building materials, such as Habitat for Humanity's ReStore outlets. If carefully installed so that boards butt tightly and a good sealer is applied, reclaimed planks can be an acceptable choice for kitchens. The cost of hardwood flooring varies greatly depending on the type of wood and the quality of the product. Surprisingly, there is not a huge difference between costs for solid hardwoods and engineered hardwoods.
Although engineered woods use less actual hardwood, this is offset by manufacturing that is more complicated and costly.
And these products provide an easier installation process that people are willing to pay for. The wide range of labor cost is affected by local labor standards and on the complexity of the job. For example, a floor installation that requires removal of an old floor or structural reinforcement will cost more than a floor laid on a fully prepared subfloor.
If the right type of hardwood flooring is installed and if it is kept properly sealed, a hardwood floor in the kitchen is fairly easy to care for. In kitchens, the best flooring installation is one where the boards tightly butt up against one another, and where the floor are kept well sealed to block moisture from penetrating. Under these conditions, maintenance is a very simple matter of sweeping and periodic wiping with a barely-damp mop or hardwood cleaner.
However, if these conditions aren't met, hardwood in a kitchen can create a much different experience. Scratches, traffic wear, and other issues can easily compromise the seal coat and allow moisture or stains to permanently damage the wood.
And certain forms of flooring are less suited to kitchens. Many prefinished hardwood flooring products have beveled edges that create grooves that channel water down between the boards. This usually doesn't happen with solid hardwood that has been properly sealed with an uninterrupted top coat of polyurethane.
Despite their hardness, these floors are very susceptible to scratching and they will be damaged by toenails of pets and general wear-and-tear. Make sure to choose hardwood flooring that can be sanded down and refinished. This means that solid hardwood will be a better choice than most engineered hardwood flooring.
There are, however, some upper-end engineered products with very thick veneers that can be refinished.
The refinishing process can range from light screening to remove the surface finish to more aggressive sanding that removes a thin layer of wood to erase scratches and damage. Either way, a fresh coat of varnish is then applied. Hardwood is considered a premium flooring material and it almost always adds real estate value to a home.
It offers visual warmth and texture and creates an earthy naturalness that can work with virtually any architectural style. If hardwood flooring has been installed elsewhere in the house, using the same hardwood in the kitchen allows for the flooring to uniformly flow throughout the house, unifying the decor.
At one time, most hardwood floors were built with unfinished planks, but it has become much more common for new floors to make use of prefinished flooring. The installation process for hardwood flooring varies according to different product types. Solid hardwood planks are usually milled with a tongue-and-groove design that allows the boards to lock at the edges.
They are usually attached to the subfloor with nails driven down through the edges of the boards and into the subfloor, using a process known as "blind-nailing" which requires a special nailing tool. Solid hardwood boards are sometimes glued down using construction adhesives, such as when they are installed over concrete or an existing hard floor, such as ceramic tile.
Engineered hardwood and some prefinished solid hardwood planks are attached with a modified tongue-and-groove system, sometimes known as "click-lock.
The interlocking edges allow the flooring to float as a large mat over the underlayment. This method also has the advantage of allowing the floor to expand and contract with seasonal temperature and humidity changes.
After installation, unfinished flooring is stained by hand and is then coated with a polyurethane varnish that protects the finish and prevents moisture and stains from penetrating. This protective surface finish should be renewed every few years, especially for kitchen floors.
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