Unfinished wood floors are an excellent improvement to any home or room and can really add a distinctive look to any house. For a variety of reasons, and despite the popularity of pre-finished flooring products, people are choosing unfinished hardwood flooring in their homes. Unfinished hardwood floors demand less effort and have a simpler installation process, but involve sanding and finishing on site after installation is finished.
To install this type of floor, you will normally need to fit the planks together individually, then sand the total surface and apply various coats of a protective finish. The finish is applied over the surface of the floor as a whole after the boards have been installed. This detailed process allows for the small spaces between the planks to be filled with finish, which offers a more uniform surface as well as a greater moisture-proof seal.
Many individuals focus just on the color of stain they want to use on their unfinished floor, but it is just as important to look at the type, or species, of hardwood. The combination of the hardwood type along with the stain and protective finish used dictates the final color and look of the floor. solid hardwood Typically, lighter colored floors are used in a more casual setting, while darker colored floors are considered more formal.
While many people love their unfinished solid wood floors, it is important to consider some of the down sides. The first downside is that unfinished wood floors require extra time to sand and finish the floor after installation, as opposed to installing a prefinished floor, which is all set once installed. Additionally, because of the dust and mess that sanding wood floors can make, your living circumstances may be temporarily inconvenienced.
If you leave your wood flooring unfinished and choose to live on it this way, there are more cons to consider. You are risking more significant damage from daily wear, such as scuffs, scrapes, dings, spots, and water damage. Perhaps it is true that bare wood has a particular character, but as time passes, if not cleaned thoroughly, it will simply start to look bad from all the damage.
Unfinished hardwood floors also have their special advantages. First of all, you have more choices when doing the install. Unfinished flooring can be installed at any phase of a remodeling process, then you can sand and finish it at the very end. Moreover, unfinished wood floors give you almost infinite flexibility in color and finish options, and a lot of people love them for the ability to match them up perfectly with an existing floor in another room of the household. And, due to the flat, even finish you can get throughout the home, this type of floor is great for individuals who are having a home built for the first time, or are undergoing a major rennovation where flooring is being laid down in several rooms at once.