Common Hardwood Flooring Myths

As a hardwood flooring company that has been in the business of hardwood flooring installation and hardwood flooring refinishing, for over 25 years we have heard many, many hardwood flooring myths over the years.  Homeowners will ask all sorts of questions that we know are simply myths that have been told about hardwood flooring for decades.  Here are a couple hardwood flooring myths that we would like to dispel:

The Myth: Warping or cupping in hardwood flooring is caused by defective flooring.

We’ve heard this one before, but in actuality cupping is due to excess moisture or overdrying. Warping or cupping can occur due to a variety of reasons including a leak, high/low- relative humidity, moisture from spaces such as a basement or crawl space, but not from defective flooring.

The Myth: Change in color or fading of hardwood flooring occurs because the finish or wood is defective.

This one is not true as hardwood flooring can experience a color shade change or fading over time.  Certain wood species are actually more sensitive and susceptible to a color shade change or fading as well.  If you use area rugs make sure you move them around from time to time to allow sunlight that filters into your home to shine equally on all parts of your flooring to help avoid fading.  Doing this will ensure that your flooring will all equally get some sunlight.  

The Myth: All hardwood flooring species have the exact same hardness factor.

Definitely not true.  There’s a Janka Hardness Scale for a reason.  All hardwood flooring species can dent, or scratch depending the conditions.  Consulting the Janka Hardness Scale will allow you to tell the resistance of a wood species to denting, marring and overall wear. 

The Myth: Roller chairs, dogs nails, and high heels won’t damage my hardwood flooring. 

All of the above could potentially do damage to hardwood flooring, so you need to be very careful about what you allow on your hardwood flooring.  If you have roller chairs you’d like to stick on your hardwood flooring make sure that they don’t have hard plastic or metal rollers because if they do they can do some damage to your hardwood flooring.  Dog nails and even high heels, if sharp enough, can also do some damage to your hardwood flooring.  Heels strike your flooring with extreme force causing damage so minimize high heels walking on your hardwood flooring.    

The Myth: Hardwood flooring requires a lot of time and effort to maintain them.

This is another myth.  Hardwood flooring can be kept looking relatively new with very minimal effort.  Use cleaning products that are specifically made for hardwood flooring and then simply spray and dry mop the floor. 

We’ve got plenty more hardwood flooring myths then just these, so stay tuned for a hardwood flooring myths part 2.  If you have a hardwood flooring myth you've heard that we didn’t cover, feel free to comment below and share it with us.