Installation of Wooden Flooring: Advantages and Disadvantages

Home Construction Tips / By

Wooden Flooring

Flooring is very important part for your home. The right flooring has to be aesthetically appealing while matching with interiors of your home and should also be durable. Although a higher percentage of Indian home owners prefer tile and marble flooring, Wooden Flooring is also becoming commonly used by builders in luxury residential projects.

There are mainly three types of wooden flooring available:

  1. Hardwoord Flooring
  2. Engineered Wood material Flooring
  3. Laminate Flooring

Types of Wooden Flooring

Type#1. Hardwood Flooring

Solid wood floors expand 30% more than engineered wood and therefore it is seasoned well to allow for such expansion. Solid wood flooring comes with seven coats of formaldehyde-free acrylic lacquer which is UV-cured so that the product does not get dusty. They are stain and scratch resistant. There are mainly three types of Hardwood Flooring.

  1. Strip Flooring
  2. Plank flooring
  3. Paraquet flooring

Type#2. Engineered Wood Flooring

Engineered wood floor consists of several layers with a top layer made up of real hardwood. The core layer of engineered hardwood is made up of pine and spruce woods, which allows the engineered flooring to expand and contract with changing temperature and moisture levels without affecting your floor. There is lot of ranges of colours are available in market than Hardwood flooring.

Type#3. Laminate Wooden Flooring

Laminate floors give wood like floor without the actual use of wooden floor.it consist of a moisture resistant layer under a layer of HDF (high-density fibreboard) which ensures better life to flooring. It is topped with a high-resolution photographic image of natural wood flooring. It is then finished with an extremely hard, clear coating made from special resin-coated cellulose to protect the laminate floor. The laminate floor gives wooden flooring look with low cost and less maintenance cost.

Installation Procedure of Wooden Flooring

For any type of wooden flooring the following installation steps needs to be followed:

Step-1: Preparation of Floor

Make sure that your surface is clean from nails, debris and any type of dust. Take special care that there is no any harmful material rest on surface which may hold moisture and after cleaning the surface make sure that floor is dried before continuing installation.

Step-2: Roll Out Tar Paper

Roll out sheets of Tar paper on the clean surface to the floor. The tar paper will form a moisture barrier, which will prevent new wooden flooring from being damaged and prevent rotting from inside.

Step-3: Intermix the wooden Panels to avoid Color variation

In wooden flooring there is big risk of Colour variation. So while installing wooden planks, open lot of wooden flooring boxes and intermix the planks with each other so the change in colour variation will not be recognisable or place wooden planks in such a manner that colour variation of wooden planks are consistently distributed across space.

After these process Installation of wooden planks is takes place.

Step-4: Installation of Wooden Flooring

There is mainly four methods of wooden flooring installation.

  1. Nail Down – In this process nails are used to fasten the wood to subfloor. This is most old techniques of wooden flooring installation.
  2. Staple Down – In this process staples are used instead of nails to settle down wood to subfloor. This is simpler process than Nail Down.
  3. Glue Down – In this process wooden planks are glued down to the subfloor. The wooden plank is adhered to subfloor with very strong Adhesive.
  4. Floating – Floating is fastest and most simple process of wooden flooring.In this process wooden planks are not attached to subsurface but wooden planks are attached together with adhesive.

Advantages of Wooden Flooring

  • Aesthetics: Wooden Flooring improves the Aesthetic appeal of a building or a room with their natural grain look. It gives a rich look to the home interiors. Wooden flooring goes with any type of interiors be it modern, traditional etc.,
  • Insulator: Since wooden Flooring is a good insulation materials, it prevents excessive heating and cooling of the floor. So the floor is always good to step on with your bare feet.
  • Increased Value: The value of the house (for resale or rental purposes) is generally more when you have wooden flooring installed
  • Less maintenance: Wooden Flooring once installed requires less maintenance as compared to tiling work.
  • Timelessness: Wooden Flooring generally improves its grace as they age. Wooden Flooring can also last for a lifetime and has a long shelf life, making it a more durable option. Incase of any small damages also, wooden flooring can be repaired easily without incurring much cost.
  • Healthy indoor air quality: It has no fibers, grout lines, or embossing that can trap dust, pollen, particles, animal dander, and allergens that occur with carpets. They are good choice for Hygiene with Interior. Although it is healthier than carpet flooring, Indians rarely use carpets for complete flooring. So this is not just a big advantage in Indian context

Disadvantages of Wooden Flooring

  • Cost: Wooden flooring is much costlier than tiling and other floorings. Also wooden flooring would require frequent polishing if used in a high traffic area increasing its maintenance costs
  • Prone to Termite attack: Wooden Flooring is prone to termite attack so regular preventive maintenance is required against termite attacks
  • No Water Contact: Although mopping is allowed to clean the surfaces, stagnant pool of water shouldn’t be used for cleaning purposes. Moisture contact should be avoided as much as possible.
  • Scratching: It is recommended not to drag heavy objects that may result in scratches on the flooring

Additional Tips On Wooden Flooring

  • Hardwood flooring (natural wood) should be avoided in Kitchen and bathroom areas. Hardwood is prone to damages if exposed to water. Alternatively you can use engineered or laminated wooden flooring
  • Incase wooden flooring looks too costly, use wooden flooring in bedroom and living room only.
  • It is advisable not to use hardwood flooring in toilet and kitchen areas. Instead use Engineered Wood Flooring if required.