Wide Plank

Which Wide Plank Hardwood Should You Choose?

If you really like the look of wide plank hardwood flooring but you are not sure what type of wood is the best choice for your home, the following short guide will hopefully help you to make the right hardwood floor installation choices. You need to take into account both your personal preferences as far as colours and textures are concerned, as well as some more practical concerns.

The Best Wide Plank Hardwood for Your Home

There are two main categories of wide plank flooring from which to choose:

Solid Wood – In the days when wide planks were originally popular, solid timber was the only choice that was available to homeowners at the time. Nowadays, this is not the case but if you are looking for the most cost effective wood flooring solution for your home, solid timber is still well worth considering.

Engineered Wood – Although more costly than solid timber, engineered hardwood flooring is favoured by many homeowners and wide plank hardwood flooring specialists alike due to its inherent stability. The cross-ply construction of engineered floors makes them less susceptible to the forces that shrink and swell solid timber, creating cracks and raised sections as the humidity in the air changes throughout the seasons.

Choosing a Particular Species of Wood

Once you have decided whether you would like to have engineered wood or solid timber flooring, you need to think about the particular type of wood that you would like to use. Again, there are two main factors to consider:

Aesthetics – If your home is full of pine furniture, you may find that a mahogany floor looks rather odd. On the other hand, if most of your furniture is made from mahogany, you will probably find that both this wood and similar coloured species such as Brazilian Cherry will complement your cupboards, dressers and chests of drawers. Aesthetics is a very important consideration when choosing new wide plank hardwood flooring but you shouldn’t neglect the second factor to consider, which has already been touched upon above.

Stability – We have already established that engineered wood, particularly solid sawne. multiple layers of wood bonded in a cross-ply construction, is more stable than solid timber. However, certain types of wood are more stable than others so within these two categories, the choice of wood that you make will also have an effect on the overall stability of your new wide plank hardwood floors. One of the most stable species of wood is teak, which will swell and shrink far less than most other types. At the other end of the scale is Beech, which reacts much more to changes in humidity.

Seeking Professional Advice

If you are still not sure what type of wide plank hardwood flooring will be best for your home, we would like to invite those of you that live within easily travelling distance of our Vaughan store to visit us at our showroom. Alternatively, feel free to call on (905) 669-0779 or send us an email.