While having hardwood flooring is modern, chic and cozy, the shine of this type of flooring will not last forever. It will simply fade away with time and lose its luster. One way to enliven this type of floor is by waxing, but that is only a temporary solution. The best way to get back your original shine and sparkle is to refinish your hardwood floor.

Truth be told, it is not an easy feat to accomplish. Unless you really know what you’re doing and you’re kind of a DIY type of person, you’d better hire a professional to do the job. Especially if you have maple floors, as they are particularly tough to take care of.

First of all you need to decide if you indeed need to refinish your floor. Sometimes it is not necessary, even though at first it seems like it. When you only have some minor scratches on the surface or the luster has decreased in intensity, you could get away with adding a coat of finish. But you might have a floor that has really worn off and nothing short of refinishing will help. And there are also cases when even refinishing might not be enough, when you really have to replace the planks of wood on the floor. For example if the planks are already soft or sagged, if they seem spongy, you might have to replace them completely.

As refinishing is quite tough on the wood, you can’t do it often and sadly after a few times the process will no longer be useful for the wood. One way to check how much wood you still have is by checking the board edges.

So how do you refinish your hardwood floor?

First of all check for any gaps in the wood. If you notice them during winter, that’s OK, but during summer you need to fill in those gaps. Next you need to sand which means using tools such as drum sander, buffer, palm sander, floor edger, a vacuum cleaner, all tools that are quite noisy in nature. This is why wearing ear protection such as ear plugs is quite necessary. Also avoid leaving the sander in one place all the time as it tends to damage the wood.

Once the sanding process is done, next comes staining. First get the proper type and shade of stain and then apply it with the grain in five foot wide parts. To get your new floor ready you need to leave it for about a day to dry.

If you’ve done once floor refinishing you already know how difficult yet how rewarding this job is. There is nothing like looking at your new and fresh floor, knowing that it was all your doing.

Dollar for dollar, there aren’t many home improvement projects that enhance the look of your home and increase it’s value like adding wood flooring. Wood improves the appearance of any room, and a top-quality, well maintained floor will provide benefits for generations to come. In fact, the cost of wood floors can be amortized over decades.

Wood flooring is easy to care for, and as a rule, it doesn’t show dirt or stains. Another added benefit is that it’s better for people with allergies than carpeting. If you have children or pets, wood floors are probably a better choice than wall-to-wall carpeting.

These days, the choices are almost endless. But basically, there are three kinds of wood floors. To determine which type is best for your home, you’ll need to ask yourself a few simple questions about traffic and usage.

Solid wood floors.

Made from pieces of wood that are between 1/4″ and 1″ in thickness, solid wood flooring is the longest lasting, best-wearing floor. The boards fit together using a tongue and groove system, and are then nailed down to 3/4″ plywood sub floor. Since you can’t nail into concrete, solid wood flooring can’t be installed over concrete floors without installing a wood sub floor, which doubles the price and raises the floor.

If you have a concrete sub floor, you’re better off using engineered flooring.

As a natural product, solid wood expands and contracts along with temperature and moisture levels in the room where it’s installed. So it’s not a good choice in areas with dramatic swings in humidity or temperature.

Solid wood flooring is available in a wide variety of lengths, widths, stains, and finishes. If you’re trying to match a pre-finished floor, choose unfinished flooring and finish it after it’s installed. For most other circumstances, pre-finished solid flooring is a better choice.

One of the advantages of solid wood flooring is that if it gets scratched, stained, or worn, it can be sanded down and refinished. Depending on the flooring, you may be able to refinish it more than once. For families with large dogs and lots of traffic, solid wood floors are worth the investment.

Engineered wood floors.

To make engineered wood flooring, several plys or layers of wood are glued together. There’s a base, a core, and a veneer or wear layer, which shouldn’t be less than 3/16th of an inch.

Veneers thicker than 1/8″ are usually sawed and look more like solid wood than thinner veneers which are often rotary peeled. Engineered wood flooring with a veneer of 5/16th of an inch or greater can usually be sanded and refinished once.

The grains of the wood used in the core are set perpendicular to each other, so engineered wood flooring is more stable than solid flooring. It won’t warp and since it can be glued, stapled, or floated, it can be installed virtually anywhere.

Engineered wood floors are usually prefinished with several layers of urethane. And there’s a huge selection of available finishes. When installed properly, engineered floors are virtually impossible to tell from solid wood floors.

Acrylic-impregnated wood floors.

Also known as Pergo floors, acrylic-impregnated wood flooring is even more durable than solid wood flooring. In fact, because acrylic resin is baked into the material, it’s 300% harder. Because the stain is added before curing, impregnated wood floors are also pretty color fast.

The water resistance makes it a good choice for kitchens, bathrooms and other settings with a lot of moisture. And because it hardly shows scratches, it’s also ideal for high traffic areas that get a lot of wear.

Impregnated floors lack the sophistication and elegance of real wood floors. But they are a less expensive, durable alternative that may be preferable to carpeting.

There are people who are starting to make additions on the outside of their home. As rugs add beauty to the inside decor of your home, they can do the same for the outside. People will spruce up the outside of their homes to make them look warm and inviting. Having outdoor rugs is a great idea to give the outside of your home a boost.

You can use outdoor rugs for areas such as the front or back porch (or both), the deck, and the patio of your home. These rugs can change the style of your home and make it look cozy. There are various kinds of outdoor rugs that can be used for different seasons. You will find them in different sizes, colors and styles.

Take measurements of the space outside of your home and determine what part of your flooring will be covered by the outdoor rugs. You may or may not want the entire flooring covered with rugs. You will need the measurements when you get ready to buy the rugs.

Make sure that whatever outside rugs you want, they will compliment the space where they will be placed. Look at the different colors and patterns that are available. For the most part, you will find that braiding rug patterns are compatible for use as outdoor rugs. However, you can also use contemporary and traditional rug styles if they fit the scheme of the outside of your home.

The outdoor rugs should provide warmth and beauty as you place them where you want them. They should also be comfortable enough for people to walk on and they should last for a long time without you having to buy anymore anytime soon.

These rugs should be made to withstand the outside elements, including changes in the weather patterns. You don’t want any rugs that would tear apart if they were to get wet from the rain. In addition to finding the right decor for the outside of your home, the outside rugs must be properly maintained in order for you to have them around for a while.

Online, there are many styles and colors of outdoor rugs to choose from. Because of this, many people prefer to browse and make their selections from the comfort of their own home instead of going out to a brick and mortar retail store. Doing this from home can help you to make a better selection of which rugs would most complement the outside of where you live.

You’ve got to admit, having bamboo floors in your home changes your whole interior completely. Many people love this new look that bamboo gives.

There are many types of bamboo that are harvested, but there are not many that can be safely used for flooring purposes. The most commonly used bamboo type for decorating your home floor with is called moso. This grows up to about 40-50 feet high. Once it is harvested it is left out to dry in the sun. Once dry it is then cut into various strips that are given the proper shape. These strips are then laminated and stained and the flooring is ready to be installed. You can find bamboo floors in its natural color and in carbonized amber color. You can also have other colors, depending on what staining method is used to obtain them.

Although bamboo is considered wood, it is actually a special type of flooring which nowadays is heavily competing with the regular hardwood. It is very durable and hard and it is very easy to maintain by vacuuming, by mopping or by spray cleaning.

Another advantage of using this type of wood is the fact that it doesn’t harm much the environment. Bamboo grows fast and once cut, it grows back quickly. Maple or red oak, on the other hand need practically decades to fully mature.

There is nothing special about installing bamboo floors compared to hardwood floors, the process is almost identical. First of all make sure to get the best material around. Then get your subfloor completely dry, clean and without bumps. If you have dirt in between, it will not allow bonding between the subfloor and the bamboo planks. If if is wet, your whole floor will rot eventually. By having an uneven sub-floor, you will hear those squeaky sounds and noises when you walk on the floor and that is very unpleasant to anyone’s ears.

To glue the bamboo planks to the sub-floor, use a moisture floor adhesive. As soon as you’ve placed the adhesive, add the planks on it right away. Then leave them to dry before you can use your floor. Another method of installing it is by using a nail gun over plywood or some kind of board.

Having a bamboo floor at home is truly amazing and it’s the chic thing right now. It lightens up your room and if you have dark corners, those will be strongly diminished when you have this floor type in the room.

Floor mats are also known as greeting mats that are most often used to welcome guests in a home. These are a type of soft flooring. These are ideal mats to decorate entrances and door ways.

Floor mats are available in several patterns, shapes, sizes, colors and themes. These can be used in kitchens, bathrooms and any other room within a home. These can be used in offices and other formal places. These are designed in various shapes and sizes so that they can be well fitted for any area. However, where ever it is used or what ever color and designs it has, the main objective in all cases is just to protect the floor from mess or dirt.

These mats are also available in patterns or sayings inscribed on the mat. Most commonly ‘Home Sweet Home’ or ‘welcome’ saying are inscribed. These mats may range from inexpensive to expensive costs. However, if we judge average and standard price, we will see that they are cost sufficient items. This is the basic reason that makes it very easy to replace these mats. Moreover, these are also light weight and can be cleaned easily. Some of these mats can be developed easily with the help of coir or coconut. They are interesting items at one end but also inexpensive as well. They provide a neat look within a room. Normally, these are available in natural tones and can be dyed easily. These are usually used near main entrances because they have rough texture with hairy and rough finish that makes it easy to absorb foot wear dirt and dust. Usually, square shapes are most common in such mats. They are not only a cheap option but also very functional.

Furthermore, decorative floor mats are also available extensively. These mats can be used in kitchens, sitting rooms or formal entrances because they usually have some themes or creative innovations that make it really a nice, decorative and creative option. Most available items in this regard are easy to wash and some are machine washable as well.