Thinking About a New Floor? Five Excellent Reasons to Choose Hardwood Flooring when Remodeling

If you're remodeling, you should seriously consider updating your flooring. A new hardwood floor will give your home an impressive look and prevent scratches and stains. Here are five very good reasons why you should consider a hardwood floor for your next remodeling project.

Hardwood Is More Durable Than Other Materials

Hardwood is much more durable and longer lasting than many other flooring materials. If there's a lot of traffic in your home, hardwood floors are less likely to get scratches and dents than vinyl tiles or laminated floors. On weaker floors, damage is often permanent - but with hardwood floors, any imperfections can be sanded and refinished to make your floor look as good as new.

Hardwood Offers A Wide Array Of Styles

Hardwood flooring is very versatile, and it comes in a wide assortment of styles and colors. Hardwood is also available in a variety of textures to compliment any decor or color scheme. It's easy to buy small area rugs that match the flooring rather than having wall-to-wall carpeting installed that may have to be replaced when it gets worn.

It's A Good Long Term Investment

Hardwood flooring is one of the most practical investments you can make in your home. Carpeting, vinyl tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring will eventually need to be replaced. Although the initial investment of installing hardwood floors in your home is more than you'd spend on some of the alternatives, hardwood lasts much longer than other materials - so you spend less money in the long run.

Selling Your Home Is Easier

Hardwood flooring is an extremely attractive material that a lot of homeowners love. It also increases your home's value. If you put your home on the market, you're making a good investment by making your home more appealing to buyers.

You'll Experience Fewer Allergy Problems

Carpeting can cause symptoms from allergies to get worse, because dust and other allergens like pet dander can get trapped in the fibers. Doctors often recommend that patients with severe allergies get rid of the carpeting in their home and replace it with hardwood flooring. With this type of flooring, it's a simple matter to sweep or mop the floor, so allergies are no longer an issue.

Hardwood flooring is a highly popular interior design choice that is taking modern homes by storm. If you're renovating your home in the near future, consider installing hardwood flooring as a means of giving it a classic floor that you and your guests will adore. For more great design ideas that will increase your home's value, contact a local real estate agent today.

How To Repair Water-Damaged Hardwood Floors

For Metro Atlanta homeowners with hardwood flooring, a little bit of in-home water can do a whole lot of damage. Over prolonged periods of time, water can warp, buckle, and/or cup hardwood flooring, leading to an expensive and time-consuming repair process.

Not all warped woodwork requires replacement, though. Some warped floors can be fixed as a DIY project using nothing but a dehumidifier and time. The key is to identify -- and rectify -- the water damage issue quickly.

Your first step is to dry all water-damaged areas thoroughly.

Using absorbent towels, remove traces of moisture from the damaged floor's surface. For standing water problems, use a water vacuum. If water entered the affected room by seeping through a wall, or falling through a ceiling, for example, make sure the water's source has been identified and "plugged". 

Next, rent or buy a dehumidifier.

A dehumidifier is a small, household appliance meant to reduce humidity in the air. Dehumidifiers are often used for health reasons but, in the case of water-damaged flooring, a dehumidifier can help to extract water from wood planks, returning the wood to its original, non-warped form more quickly.

With the above steps completed, if the warping persists, plan to wait. It may take a week, a month, or longer, but -- eventually -- for all but the most damaged flooring, your hardwood will return to shape. Expect the process to happen more quickly during winter as the wood contracts in colder, drier air. 

Lastly, if your floors have been damaged as a result of heavy rains or water entering your home from the outside, consider a professional inspection to identify how and why the damage occurred. Your gutter may be clogged, for example, which can result in overflows which can damage your home's foundation.

It can be labor-intensive to dry your wood floors. Compared to the cost of replacement, however, calling this a DIY can be sensible.

For more information about the Atlanta area real estate market, please email me at ed@edshort.com or call me at 404.918.2500.

~ Ed Short, Atlanta REALTOR®

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