Pine Hardwood Flooring- Understanding the Basics

Pine hardwood flooring is an excellent choice if you decide that you wish to put new flooring down in your home or if you are in the process of building a new home. Hardwood is attractive, strong, sturdy and will last for many years. It also gives any room a classic and timeless appearance and it can make a home feel warmer and cozier. All in all wood is very inviting.

While there is more than one type of hardwood flooring to choose from many people like pine. Bamboo flooring is also very popular. Be aware that while bamboo is actually a type of grass as opposed to a hardwood it is most often classified as a type of hardwood.

When it comes to a choice of flooring you have three options- solid wood, engineered wood and laminate flooring. Before deciding whether pine hardwood flooring is right for your residence or not it helps to understand the basics of solid hardwood flooring.

As you likely gathered from the name, solid wood flooring such as pine hardwood is made of solid wood through and through. In other words it comes in its natural state for the most part. No additional materials are added to it whatsoever. Often this type of flooring is simply referred to as hardwood floor.

Hardwood flooring can be purchased either as unfinished or as pre-finished. Of the two varieties the former tends to be cheaper to purchase than the latter. However they both make viable choices.

Unfinished hardwood (because it is unfinished) requires that light sanding is done on it as soon as it is installed. Staining the wood is optional but recommended while sealing following installation is a given.

If you buy pre-finished hardwood instead then you will pay more but you will have less work to do on it after it has been put down in your home. In fact it is ready to be trod upon as soon as it has been installed.

When you buy unfinished wood you must do your best to keep your family (as well as your pets!) to limit the amount they walk on it until it has been properly sealed. Once the sealing has been done it will take 48 hours for it to completely dry. In some cases you may need to apply extra coats of the sealant. The advantage of unfinished wood such as unfinished pine hardwood flooring is that you can stain it to your own specifications. The same can be said for sealing it to your exact specifications. The advantage of prefinished wood is that the turnaround time is very fast.

Please note that hardwood does not stand alone. It must be nailed to a sub-floor that is also made of wood. Hardwood flooring, whether you choose pine, bamboo or some other kind is not the type of flooring that you can install directly on concrete or directly on top of an existing floor that is already in your home. While you can always do the nailing down yourself it can be difficult to do and takes a certain level of expertise. You might be better off to hire floor installers to do the work for you.