Hardwood floors remain one of the most popular flooring choices for homeowners. With a classic, timeless and polished look, they never go out of style. While they’re fairly durable in most circumstances, children and all that comes with them can cause a lot of damage to particular types of hardwood if you’re not careful.
Hardwood Floors Will Never Remain Pristine
While some hardwood floors are more durable than others, the fact is that hardwood floors will never remain pristine over their entire lifetime. In fact, this can add to their charm. Hardwood floors are bound to develop a few scratches or dents here and there, no matter what kind you choose, but this can just add to their character. You can select hardwoods that can be re-sanded and refinished to address this issue.
But before you give up on your dream of having beautiful hardwood floors in your child-filled home, consider some of these hardwood flooring options.
Hardwoods With Stronger Graining
Some of the best hardwood flooring materials for homes with children are those with stronger grains. This can include oak and hickory. If you’re concerned about scratches and dents, a stronger grain can help to hide these imperfections and disguise them better than other types of hardwoods. Look for red oak, white oak and hickory, as these can also be harder than other hardwood species.
Hardwoods in Lighter Colours
This might seem counterintuitive, but hardwood floors in lighter colours can actually help to hide scratches and dents better than richer, darker floors. This is because the top layer of the wood is the one that usually scratches, and is also the one with the most pigmented colour. Scratches on darker floors will show up more because the lighter layer underneath is more of a contrast. Lighter stains will be more forgiving as the lower layers are closer in colour to the top layer.
Solid Hardwoods
Sanding and refinishing your floors can be a great option if they’ve seen a lot of damage from children over the years. That’s why it may be a good idea to choose solid hardwoods, rather than engineered hardwoods. While engineered hardwoods can be more durable in some ways, they cannot be sanded or refinished. Solid hardwoods also have fewer chemicals and VOCs in them and the adhesives used to install them.
Between running their toys over the floors, to having plastic children’s furniture that scratches the floors, having children in your home can do some damage to your floors if you don’t choose the right type. If you’re still not sure what type of floor is right for you, come see our flooring experts in-store at Bigelow Flooring in Guelph.
