Investing in wood flooring can be a great way to add value to your home. Unfortunately, furry family members can cause serious damage to wood floors over time. Just because your pet has the potential to mar wood flooring doesn't mean you should shy away from installing this high-end option in your home.
Here are three tips you can use when shopping to help you buy the wood flooring that is best suited to stand up to your pet in the future.
1. Steer clear of softwoods.
When thinking about the type of wood you want to install, you should steer clear of softwoods if you have a pet. Because softwoods aren't as dense as their hardwood counterparts, they can easily show indentations from your pet's nails.
Rather than buying wood flooring made from woods like pine, fir, or spruce, look for wood flooring constructed from hardwoods like mahogany, oak, or walnut.
2. Invest in a solid hardwood floor rather than an engineered hardwood floor.
Understanding the differences between solid hardwood flooring and engineered hardwood flooring will help you see why you should only invest in solid flooring if you have a pet. In the event that your wood floors begin to show indentations from your pet's nails, you can easily buff these imperfections out of solid wood planks.
Engineered planks are created by bonding three to five layers of wood together into single plank. This bonding process means that engineered planks can only withstand a limited number of refinishes, which means you will have to replace them a lot sooner if you have a pet.
3. Consider going with a wood floor that has a distressed finish.
The type of finish you select can go a long way toward camouflaging any minor imperfections your pet might cause after your hardwood floors are installed. Flooring that has a distressed finish is intended to mimic the natural wear a wood plank would show over time.
Since the patterns in a distressed finish aren't uniform, slight indentations and scratches caused by your pet can easily be hidden to prevent your flooring from looking too damaged.
Just because you have a pet doesn't mean you have to sacrifice putting wood flooring in your home. Remember to select planks made from hardwoods instead of softwoods, invest in solid wood planks instead of engineered planks, and opt for flooring with a distressed finish to make sure your floors and your pet live happily together in your home.
To learn more, contact a company like National Carpet Mill Outlet.
