For a person going in for hardwood floor shopping for the first time, the whole thing can get pretty overwhelming with all the choices in hardwood floors and difference in prices. If you scout various avenues like your local town store, and various websites on the Internet, you will find different prices quoted for the same brand of hardwood flooring, which might make you suspicious regarding the quality of those floors whose prices are low. But, for such difference in prices, the answer lies not in the quality or the make, but in different overhead costs for different retailers. Most of the retailers, whether online, or off, source the hardwood floors from the same suppliers, however, your local neighbourhood store might have comparably higher overheads, than say, a chain store has all over the country.
It is preferable to check prices with various sources, and compare those, for pre-finished plank, or strip hardwood flooring. Many of the hardwood floors in the $4-$5 range in places like Home Depot are the same as those available for $2-$3 all over the Internet. While there is a price range available for all kind of budgets, many such hardwood floors may not carry any warranty.
One of the struggling choices that a customer has to make is deciding between a pre-finished hardwood flooring and a raw wood floor finished on-site. Most of the homebuilders usually prefer a pre-finished hardwood floor as it can be set up more quickly resulting in a project being completed much faster. A 1000 sq ft pre-finished hardwood floor can be set up in a couple of days, and can be ready for furniture, while the same area of unfinished hardwood flooring can take more than two to three weeks to get the job done properly. So if time is of the essence, pre-finished hardwood flooring should be your choice.
However, buyers looking for a more traditional and rich look often opt for site finished hardwood flooring over pre-finished wood floors. Site finished hardwood flooring, if done properly, will have an unblemished appearance, due to all milling irregularities being sanded out, and all the minor gapping being filled. A solid site finished hardwood floor will require additional climate control to maintain the appearance, and care should be taken to make sure that there is little expansion/contraction due to climatic factors. For pre-finished hardwood flooring, most come with micro bevelled edges, and thus, the seasonal expansion and contraction will be less noticeable.
Pre-finished hardwood flooring is good for someone looking for the job to be done quickly without much fuss, and is looking for low maintenance hardwood flooring. While deciding on the hardwood flooring, give yourself enough time, comparing prices and don’t be overwhelmed by all the choices.
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