Considerations with Hardwood Flooring Refinishing

Considerations with Hardwood Flooring Refinishing

Everyday wear and tear on your hardwood flooring will eventually accumulate into scratches and dulling in your hardwood flooring. Hardwood flooring maintenance and refinishing should be a regular routine in order to keep your hardwood flooring a great accent in your household. On average, most hardwood floors need to be refinished every three years. Whether or not your flooring needs refinishing or not always depends on certain outside elements such as the location and daily use/traffic. It may be pretty apparent, but the more an area is used or walked on, the quicker it will need attention. Common areas that should be considered first for hardwood flooring refinishing include: staircases, hallways, etc.

Are you concerned that your hardwood flooring is in need of a touch up or some refinishing? Don’t let the look of worn out hardwood flooring let you cover it up with carpeting. Most people actually believe that the value of hardwood flooring increases with age. Not sure if your rooms need to be refinished? Or maybe just certain areas? Not to worry, our experts at Chicagoland Pro have come up with a few hardwood flooring tips that will help you determine whether or not you need to consider refinishing your floors.

            The sound of hardwood flooring restoration or refinishing may seem a little intimidating at first. Yes, the process of hardwood flooring refinishing may be long and inconvenient, but will definitely be worth all of your hard work! When thinking of refinishing your hardwood flooring, consider the fact that the entire floor may not need the restoration. Same yourself some hassle and determine whether or not your entire hardwood flooring needs to be refinished. If you need assistance examining your hardwood floor in order to determine what type of hardwood flooring maintenance you need, contact Chicagoland Pro for a free estimate.

            The process of refinishing your hardwood flooring can save homeowners a lot of money! Unlike any other type of indoor flooring for your home, hardwood flooring doesn’t need to be replaced to look good as new. Flooring such as carpeting needs to be totally replaced when it’s worn out which can become very expensive especially if you need to replace it every three years. Hardwood flooring on the other hand can preserve itself and enhance its durability and strength by being refinished.

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Radiant Flooring

Over the last few years we have been hearing a lot of homeowners talk heated flooring, also known as radiant flooring.  As a Chicago hardwood flooring company we felt we should at least address the topic and share our two cents on radiant flooring.  Here's what you need to know about radiant flooring before you decide to have it put in your home:

Can make for a more comfortable room

Perhaps you or someone you know has a home that is constantly cold.  No matter how much you turn up the heat, the house remains cold.  Having a drafty house happens.  Cold homes are typically the result of a home that isn't insulated very well. Radiant, or heated flooring, can make a room much more comfortable without the need to jack up the heating.  Homeowners that have radiant flooring talk about how nice it is to step onto warm bathroom tiles on those cold winter mornings.  While we may not be radiant flooring people ourselves, we can see how it would be a nice edition to a cold, drafty home.

Resale value

Every upgrade you put into your home gives it the potential to have a higher resale value later on down the line.  With this in mind, radiant flooring could be a nice addition if you plan on selling your home later.  An upgrade like heated flooring could certainly usher in some bids on your home for those buyers who want heated floors.

Quiet operation

One of the most commonly asked questions in regards to radiant flooring is "Is it loud?"  Surprisingly many homeowners and radiant installers alike report little to no sound from the flooring.  Compared to forced-air or radiator systems, radiant flooring is considerably quieter.

Gives homeowners the ability to use forced-air and radiator systems less often

Rather than continually running the heat all winter long, radiant flooring gives homeowners the ability to run their heat less, which is nice for homeowners looking to save some money on heating bills.  It also eliminates the dust and allergens that are associated with forced-air.

Have radiant flooring in your home? Let us know what you think of it in a comment below or contact us.

Palatine Hardwood Flooring Company
Palatine Hardwood Flooring
Chicago Hardwood Flooring Company
Chicago Hardwood Flooring 

Hardwood and the Alternatives

When it comes to flooring for your home or office, the choices are truly endless.  As a Palatine hardwood flooring company, we often speak with homeowners who know that they want to install flooring for their homes, but aren’t sure what type of flooring they want to go with.  Depending on the needs of the room in your home the type of flooring you choose is crucial.  Every room in your home or office has different needs and to top it off, not all flooring is created equal.  Some types of flooring stand up to wear and tear better than others. Some types of flooring require more up-keep than others.  This is exactly why we tell homeowners to choose flooring based on the needs of room the flooring will be going in.  So how does one choose which is flooring is best?  Here are some facts on hardwood flooring and some of the top alternative flooring choices:

Hardwood Flooring

Most homeowners today are looking for hardwood flooring for their home and it is an understandable choice.  When it comes to selling your home, hardwood flooring instantly increases the resale value due to the fact that so many homeowners are willing to pay more for a home that utilizes hardwood flooring. Hardwood flooring comes in a variety of different species and shades and is available at most home improvement centers and online.  Hardwood flooring installation can be done by the homeowner themselves or by utilizing local hardwood flooring installers, like us. It is not recommended for homeowners to simply tackle hardwood flooring installation themselves as installation can be quite difficult.  Hardwood flooring is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it is durable and also natural.  Hardwood flooring is a great choice for allergy sufferers since hardwood does not provide spaces to harbor dust, dirt and mold. 

Tile

 

Tile flooring is undoubtedly one of the top choices of flooring for bathrooms and kitchens. Tile flooring, like hardwood flooring, is quite durable and is very easy to clean. Ceramic tiles can be found at local home improvement stores and occasionally, you can find tile at very low prices.  While the tile pieces themselves may be cost-friendly, the cost of installing the tile may be a lot more than you bargained for.  Tile installation can get quite costly.  The other downside to tile is that it is quite hard against the bottoms of feet and that it stays cold, which can be less than desired during the cold winter months.

Laminate Flooring

Over the past few years we, as hardwood flooring installers, have had quite a few people ask about installing laminate flooring.  While we are obviously hardwood flooring people ourselves, we can understand the draw for wanting laminate flooring.  Laminate flooring is made to look like the real deal despite the fact that it is not.  Laminate flooring can be aesthetically pleasing (unless you’re the “all hardwood flooring” type).  Installation is quite easy with the laminate floor boards simply snapping and locking into place.  Laminate flooring comes in many colors, styles and patterns can be made to look like wood, stone or tile.  We typically see people opt to use laminate flooring in kitchens and bathrooms or a room in their home that experiences heavy foot traffic.  One of the biggest pros with laminate flooring is that it is hard to dent or scratch it. 

Carpeting

Carpeting is a great flooring option due to the fact that it comes in such a wide variety of colors, textures and patterns.  Depending on what the homeowner is looking for, carpeting can be quite cheap.  It can get more expensive depending on the type of carpeting the homeowner is looking for.  The good part about carpeting is that it is warm, plush, soft and it also absorbs sound pretty well depending on the type of carpeting.  Typically, putting carpeting down will require a professional installer, which can be good or bad depending on the homeowner’s flooring budget.  The downside to carpeting is that it needs to be cleaned frequently as it has the tendency to hold allergens and dirt. Due to the fact that moisture and mold can be housed quite easily by carpeting, it is not the recommended flooring choice for bathrooms and kitchens.  Carpeting probably isn’t the best choice for allergy sufferers.   

Looking for more information on flooring choices?  Feel free to leave us a comment below or contact us.

Palatine Hardwood Flooring

Palatine Hardwood Flooring Company

Chicago Hardwood Flooring

Chicago Hardwood Flooring Company

Hardwood Flooring Installation

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.  

Hardwood Flooring and the Holidays

The holidays are well on their way and with the holidays comes all the parties.  Are you planning on having family and friends over for the holidays?  Perhaps you just had an excellent hardwood flooring installation job done and you're just dying to show everyone how great it looks.  Having beautiful hardwood flooring to show is great, but be wary because with all the holiday parties you plan on hosting comes the dirty floor and potential for damage to your hardwood flooring.  Here are few tips from Chicagoland Pro on how to keep your hardwood floors safe during the holiday celebrations:

Protecting Your Hardwood Flooring-- Christmas Tree

1- Use of felt appliques: If part of your decorations include having a Christmas tree there are a few things you need to keep in mind for the well-being of your hardwood flooring.  If you have decided to use a real tree then this means you will obviously need to make sure that the stem or base of the tree is being watered.  Here's where things can get tricky.  If for some reason the base begins leaking water it can cause great damage to your hardwood flooring.  No one wants a beautiful hardwood flooring installation job ruined, so save yourself the trouble and make sure the base of the tree is protected.  Place a felt applique tightly around the base of the tree.  If any water seeps out, it will not be directly on the hardwood flooring.

2- Say no to sap:  Here's another tree tip-- If you intend on using a real tree as a part of your holiday directions watch out for the sap that could potentially wind up on your hardwood flooring.  If you find a spot where sap has accumulated the best way to remove it is to stick an ice cube on it.  This will pop the sap right off.  After you pop the sap off clean the floor with a hardwood flooring-safe cleaner.

3- Eliminate tree needles:  Protect your hardwood flooring from all of those pesky pine needles that trees can leave behind during the holiday season.  Keep a microfiber dust mop or hardwood flooring-safe vacuum handy at all times.  Scratches on hardwood floors typically come from any debris left on the flooring that moves across the floor.  This will dull the flooring's finish.  Try to sweep the floor daily.

Protecting Your Hardwood Flooring-- Guests

4- Polishing:  Before holiday guests arrive, consider a quick floor polishing.  A quick floor polishing will make your floors look their best just in time for your guests to arrive.  Just remember to leave yourself enough time for your handy work to dry.  Give yourself a window of 1-2 hours before allowing people to walk on the floors.

5- Shoes off:  Make it a point that all guests take off their shoes at the door upon their arrival.  This will leave the dirt and debris from outside off of your hardwood flooring preventing any damage from being done.

Looking for more tips on protecting your hardwood flooring from all the holiday commotion?  Feel free to leave us a comment below or contact us.

Hardwood Flooring Fixes

Allergies and Flooring Choices

As time goes on, more and more Americans suffer from allergies and while some of those allergies are from outdoor allergens such as pollen, weeds or mold, some allergies come right from your own home.  The most common allergens found in a home include dust mites, mold, and pet dander.  Reducing places where those kinds of allergens can settle will not only improve your home's air quality, but it will also reduce allergy symptoms. What can you do to reduce allergens in your home?  Start with your home's flooring.

Some types of flooring contains volatile organic compounds, known as VOC's in the flooring industry. Those compounds can trigger allergies in some people.  People with asthma that are exposed to VOC's typically have more frequent asthma attacks.  However, today many manufacturers deal VOC-free products.  What flooring is best for allergy sufferers?  Here's a list:

(1) Hardwood:  As a Palatine Hardwood flooring company that has been in the hardwood floor installation and hardwood floor refinishing business for over 25 years, we strongly believe hardwood flooring has many benefits.  Besides being aesthetically pleasing, hardwood flooring is great flooring to install for allergy sufferers.  The hard surface of hardwood flooring leaves no room for any dust or allergens to hide.

(2) Cork: Cork provides a plethora of benefits for allergy sufferers.  First, it is antimicrobial.  Naturally occuring substance Suberin is found in Cork flooring.  The substance reduces growth of mold, bacteria and multiple other allergens.  While it is a rather porous material, its hard finish makes it hard for allergens to collect inside of it.  A lot of homeowners say it is very easy flooring to clean.

(3) Stone tile: Not all stone tile makes for good flooring for allergy sufferers, but this all depends on the type of stone tile.  Typically, the smoother the tile the less likely it will be that it will harbor allergens.  If the tile is porous, it has more of a chance of holding onto allergens.  Pick a tile that is more polished as opposed to tile that is natural looking.

(4) Laminate: Laminate flooring, like tile, is not always the best choice for allergen reduction, but it can be a good choice depending on how it was manufactured.  Laminate flooring is typically manufactured by taking multiple layers of wood composite and gluing them together.  The problem is that VOCs, as previously mentioned, could be in the adhesive used in creating the laminate flooring.  As mentioned before, many manufacturers are aware of this and stay away from adhesives with VOCs.   Like hardwood flooring, laminate flooring provides similar benefits.

(5) Bamboo: Bamboo flooring is a great choice of flooring for allergy sufferers.  It provides similar properties of hard flooring and won't provide a home for dust or other allergens.  Bamboo flooring is water resistant, which is another great benefit.  Like laminates, manufacturing is important with this type of flooring since VOCs may be present.

If you have comment or questions on anything hardwood flooring related, feel free to comment below or contact us.

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