Prefinished Wood Flooring - The Common Option

First of all, what is prefinished wood flooring? In easy to understand terms, it is simply a floor made of solid wood strips, generally in width of 4 inches or less.

First of all, what is prefinished wood flooring? In easy to understand terms, it is simply a floor made of solid wood strips, generally in width of 4 inches or less.

The last few decades has seen lots of positive changes in the engineered wood flooring industry. One of the major changes is the introducing of prefinished wood flooring. Some of the most common woods used are oak, maple, hickory, ash and a few other exotic woods, such as the Brazilian Cherry. The fact that it is prefinished means that it is already sanded from the factory, stained and finished which makes it much easier to install, making this the preferred choice of many homeowners and contractors when it comes to the engineered wood floor.

The engineered floors have thicker top layers, so they can be sanded 2, 3 times after the installation. Prefinished wood flooring is preferred whether it comes to make repairs, change the flooring color or to refinish due to being under a heavy traffic. Now you can find this type of flooring from pretty much any manufacturer, even those that before didn't bother having them in their product line.

This type of flooring is very durable as manufacturers apply several coatings of tough urethane, UV cure finishes, as well as aluminum oxide finishes. If you maintain it properly, you can have a product warranty of 10-15 or 20 years.

You can find the prefinished wood flooring in many colors, from the light, natural colors right down to the very dark ones. Thickness usually ranges from 1/4 inch to 3/4 inches. Of course the thicker the top layer, the more times the flooring can be refinished before it wears out completely. Also the side edges vary, you have the micro bevel, beveled and the square edged. The ends need to have some bevel, so there are no splinter edges that will catch your sock, for example.

You can also get different finishes, such as acrylic, UV cured and urethane, with different levels of gloss, semi-gloss or mat finishes.

It seems that these days prefinished wood flooring makes up half or more of all the real wood flooring sales in the US alone. There are two major reasons for this: remodeling is flourishing and the concrete slab construction is on the rise. Of course the fact that installation of this flooring type is so very easy, is an additional sales incentive for many home owners.

When you want to clean your prefinished wood flooring, all you need is to dust mop, sweep or vacuum your floor. The vacuum should have rubber wheels in order to avoid scratching the floor. If you want something more professional, many flooring retailers have cleaning kits including a mop and a manufacturer approved cleaner.

If you want to check out what's online available on Prefinished Wood Flooring, click the link.