Quick and Dirty Guide to Wood Flooring by MJ Plaster

Quick and Dirty Guide to Wood Flooring by MJ Plaster

If you've always longed for hardwood floors, you're in good company. While soft wooden floors date back to the Colonial era, hardwood floors first burst on the scene in the late 17th century. If you only know that you want hardwood floors gracing your home, read this quick and dirty guide so that your head won't spin when you talk with your contractor. This ten-minute read will guide you through the basics of wood species, grades, types and styles.

Wood Species

With over 50 wood species available for wood flooring, red oak accounts for more than 50% of hard wood flooring sales. Its popularity stems from its elegance, durability and cost-effectiveness. Maple ranks second in popularity for new wood flooring. Newer trends indicate a growing appetite for bamboo, cherry, and white oak. Some of the more esoteric imported woods used in hardwood floors include Brazilian cherry, Australian cypress, African padauk, and Burmese teak.

Color options are plentiful. If color is a priority, and you want the natural beauty of the wood to shine through, select a wood species that most closely matches your color preference.

Wood Grades

Grade refers only to the beauty of the wood, not to its durability or serviceability. Not every grade applies to every wood species. A wood species is graded as Clear, Select or Common, or it is graded as First, Second or Third. Clear/First, Select/Second, Common/Third grades are not identical, but they are close enough to present a shared consumer definition. The six basic wood grades include:

 Clear or Firstfree from most visible defects and discoloration, contains only minor visible imperfections
 Select or Secondmay contain slight imperfections, such as color variations
 Common or Thirdcontains knots and color variations, often classified as "rustic" wood

Solid vs. Engineered Wood

Many people believe that hardwood and solid wood are synonymous. They're not. If you're hearing the term engineered wood for the first time, you most likely think that it is somehow inferior to solid wood. That's not necessarily true.

Solid wood is milled from one solid " piece of wood. Solid hardwood floors expand and contract more than engineered woods and are particularly susceptible to moisture. As the wood expands and contracts, it may buckle or it may leave gaps. Two common methods of counteracting these gaps include beveled edges and leaving expansion gapsgaps between the wood and the wallhidden by the base molding.

You'll find most of the popular wood species, such as oak, maple, cherry and others available in engineered wood. Sometimes called pressed wood, engineered wood comes in 3-ply or 5-ply versionsthree or five bonded layers of wood. Engineered wood floors succumb to little, if any expansion and contraction and are perfectly suited for rooms susceptible to moisture. If you want wood floors in the bathroom, the kitchen or in any room where moisture accumulates, consider engineered wood for its greater stability. If you plan to lay a wood floor directly over concrete, you must install engineered wood to maintain structural integrity.

Wood Styles

Once you've determined the species, wood grade and decided between solid and engineered wood, you can move on to the fun stuffthe style. Common wood styles include:

 Parquet
 Plank
 Strip

Strips and planks are long, linear cuts of woods. The main difference is the width of the wood. Strips range from widths of 1 " to 2 ", while planks range from widths of 3" to 8". Consider strips if your goal is to create the illusion of a larger room. Series of small wood pieces create parquet's geometrical design. Parquet floors complement large, airy rooms.

Select your hardwood floors with care; they can add beauty and warmth to your surroundings for a very long time, even a lifetime.

About the Author
M J Plaster is a successful author who provides information on shopping online for http://www.a1-wood-flooring.com/bamboo-flooring.htm and http://www.a1-wood-flooring.com/ in general. M J Plaster has been a commercial freelance writer for almost two decades, most recently specializing in home and garden, the low-carb lifestyle, investing, and anything that defines la dolce vita.

5 Ways To Decorate Your Kitchen On A Budget by Lee Dobbins

5 Ways To Decorate Your Kitchen On A Budget by Lee Dobbins

Getting a kitchen remake can be tough on your bank account, but there are some ways that you can give your kitchen a whole new look even if you are on a tight budget. These 5 decorating tips wont break the bank but will have a lot of impact on the way your kitchen looks.

1.Spruce it up with paint.

Paint has the biggest bang for the buck when redecorating any room and especially for the kitchen. Its fairly inexpensive and easy to use and can change the whole look of the room in a day! You can use paint to update worn out cabinets as well as adding a new look to your walls. If you are adventurous, you can even try some faux painting to give your walls the look of old world plaster or marble. Your local home improvement store probably gives lessons in this for free.

2.New hardware and knobs.

While this may cost you a bit more than paint, replacing your cabinet hardware and knobs can make a huge difference in the look of your kitchen. Theres tons of different styles and colors to choose fromeverything from a 1930s glass drawer pull to knobs styled like modern aluminum kitchen utensils. If you are planning on redecorating your kitchen, you might want to look at knobs firstyou might find a style or color that gives you the inspiration for the whole room!

3. Put Up A Border

A wallpaper border is easy work and can make a drastic change without putting much or a dent in your kitchen decorating budget. Sometimes you can even find a pleasing pattern in the discontinued bin for little money. Just make sure there is enough to paper the area you want before you bring it home! If you dont like any of the paper borders, find a stencil that you like and use thatthe cost of paint for this will be minimal. A traditional place for a border is a the top of the wall next to the ceiling, but it can also look nice at chair rail height and also as a backsplash above your kitchen countertops.

4.Go For A Molding

Want a new cabinet look but new cabinets arent in your budget? You can buy moldings for the sides, top and doors of your cabinet that will enhance and change the look of any kitchen. You can even buy little bun feet to put on the edges to give your kitchen a country look. While these might cost a bit more than some of these other ideas it is well worth it for the dramatic change it has on your cabinets. Fancy rope trim, and fluted moldings can be glued on to your cabinets to give them a little pizzaz. Decorative crown moldings can be added to the top. If your doors are too plain, you can even buy moldings to add interest to the door panels.

5. Vinyl Tiles
If your floor is outdated, dirty and grungy then getting a new floor will make a huge difference in the look of your kitchen. You may not even notice how dingy the floor looks and may be reluctant to budget in any money for a floor but try to take a fresh look at it and really notice what it looks like. When I sold my house I thought my kitchen floor was a little old but just finemy realtor took one look and convinced me that a new floor would help me get more for the house. I put a new floor in and couldnt believe the difference! You can install vinyl tiles yourself for as little as 50 cents a square foot, of course the more you pay the better quality floor you will get and the longer it will last so a mid range price of $3.00 a square foot is probably more realistic.

About the Author
Lee Dobbins is the owner and editor of A Kitchen Decorating Idea Guide where you can get ideas for dozens of kitchen decorating themes for every budget.