Oh, wonderful remodeling. We had to remodel last year. Sounds glamorous doesn’t it? It wasn’t. Our dishwasher broke down while we were gone all day and flooded our kitchen and living room which was all hardwood flooring. They couldn’t get it dry quick enough and ended up having to rip up the floors, the drywall and even the bottom cabinets. I had to have them rip out the higher cabinets also because you can’t have mismatching cabinets in your kitchen, at least not mine; it would drive me crazy. Needless to say, it was a nightmare but it had to be done. Truth be told, when it was all done I was so excited for my new kitchen and especially because it was all covered by insurance. Hopefully however, the reason you are looking into flooring is for a much more exciting reason than an unexpected flood that welcomed you home after a long day of sick children, rude in laws and road rage. Anyways, enough about me. We’re here to talk about wood floor textures. I consider myself quite the expert after what I’ve been through. Let’s go over a few types of wood floor textures that are out there.
- Smooth
- Hand scraped
- Wire brushed
- Distressed
This is the most common texture that is used in hardwood flooring. The wooden boards are sanded and pre finished. The finishes can be different colors, but the darker finishes are known to be classier looking. The downfall to smooth hardwood floors is that scratches and dents show up quite easily.
These kinds of surfaces have a lot of variety but a subtle scraping to extreme. These kinds of floors are much more casual, with their almost wavy appearance. The benefit here is that scratches and dents are much more easily covered up.
These is personally, my favorite. This is when hardwood boards are lightly scraped with a brush that is made of wire. This method makes something almost like long scratches in the boards. It just makes the wood have more character with its texture.
This is becoming increasingly popular these days. Distressed is an antique look whether on clothes or floors, which is another way of saying ‘used’. The marks made on wood floors to make them looked distressed could be anything from dents and scratches to burns or blackening. Although these are not my particular taste, they work extremely well for big families or where there is a lot of food traffic or pets. Any blemishes will just blend in and look like they were supposed to be there, in the first place.
There are definitely more types of wood floor textures but there’s a few to get you started off on the right foot. Hardwood floor installation is no joking matter either, this is something for the professionals. Pay the little extra for labor and reap the many benefits of hardwood installation.
