When Hardwood Floors Need Refinishing
Wood flooring in Phoenix homes have become a valuable, elegant, and desirable detail. Done right, hardwood flooring wonderfully beautifies a house as it adds a particular elegance to the house in which it is used. At Mystique Hardwood Floors, we know the most common reasons for people to have their hardwood floors refinished.
However, installation of the hardwood flooring is not the end of the process, as you need to constantly monitor and take care of the hardwood floors to prevent them from scratches, stains, and other marks that can potentially damage them.
Regardless of how much and how hard you try to maintain your hardwood flooring and ensure it remains in perfect condition, sooner or later, the floors will begin to depreciate and there will be signs telling you it is time to change your hardwood flooring. While scratches, faded colours, and small marks can be fixed by refinishing, there are times you will be left with no choice than to replace the entire hardwood flooring.
1. Excessive Refinishing
You should find out just how much finishing you can carry out on your hardwood floors before you need to just replace them. While refinishing your hardwood flooring can help get it back to its initial appearance, there is a limit to how many times the flooring can take it.
The process of refinishing involves smoothing out the wood surface to bolster the appearance. To accomplish this, you have to sand off some of the wood. Thus, with constant refinishing, there comes a time where your hardwood flooring becomes unworkably thin. If sanded down past a certain point, the tongues and grooves that fit the floorboards together will no longer match up, which can cause splintering and even large holes in your floor.
Experts suggest carrying out refinishing a maximum of five times; anything beyond that can mean you will be walking on hardwood flooring that is too thin. At that point, it is time to start looking for ways to replace the whole thing.
2. Water Damage
Refinishing your hardwood flooring can help rid it of grazes, scratches, marks and the like, but the same can’t be said for water damage. Once your hardwood flooring has been damaged by water, that is most likely the end of those floors. The longer you take to fix this, the more severe the damage will be. If not immediately ventilated, water can stay in the lower parts of the wood and continue to warp and rot.
When your hardwood floors start to peel and/or buckle when you walk on them, it is most likely a sign of water damage. Other signs include noticeable gaps between boards and the floors being unbalanced and rickety. To avoid further damage or accidents while walking on the hardwood flooring, once you notice these signs and are able to confirm that it is water damage, take crucial steps to have that hardwood flooring replaced as soon as possible.
3. Change in Design Taste
One thing constant in life is change, and your personal tastes can change just like anything else. You might decide you want a particular design of hardwood flooring, but after a while you see better and more beautiful designs you would rather have. If this case, you have to change the whole flooring and have new ones installed in your preferred design. Interior designers can look past the typical straight or square patterns to do something truly unique to your taste and the look of your house.
Refinishing could be an option if the change in design pertains to color only. The specialists involved in hardwood flooring can help you apply your desired color to the floor. However, if you want to change something substantial, such as broader planks or a different style of installation, you will need to replace your hardwood flooring.
4. Desire for A Different Type of Wood
Like tiles and carpets, hardwood floors come in a wide variety of styles, and there are many wood types to choose from. After a time, you might be dissatisfied with the type of wood used to floor your house and seek for something nicer, like replacing oak with maple. Some woods are harder than others, and you may decide that you need a floor that’s more resistant to damage.
Or it could just be a change in your personal taste, and maple just doesn’t fascinate you anymore ever since you set eyes on Brazilian cherry hardwood flooring. Stains and refinishing can only do so much, and bamboo gives a house’s interior a completely different look than teak. As long as you make sure what you buy is sustainably harvested, you can give your home a whole new look just by changing the flooring.
5. Old Age
Just like anything else, your hardwood flooring is bound to become worn out and be in need of change. Long-lasting as they might be, hardwood floors also have their expiration date and there will come a time when your floors become too old to carry out their function. The floors will start to decay and the boards will become loose and soft.
Since hardwood floors don’t wear out easily, with adequate care it may take decades before you start witnessing signs that the floors have come to the end of their useful life. Should this occur, just come to terms with the fact that those hardwood floors have served their purpose.
It is now time to replace them with new ones. Contrary to public belief, changing your entire hardwood flooring is not really expensive when you take the benefits and longevity into consideration. A good hardwood floor can ultimately be a great selling point to your home. When replacing your hardwood floor, you give it a smarter and tidier look while giving your home in general a refined look which will in turn add to its value.
