The Benefits Of Hardwood

Maximum Beauty
Wood has been appreciated for hundreds of years for its exceptional durability and natural beauty. Popular as flooring since Renaissance Europe, hardwood has quickly regained a strong market share in the modern floor covering industry. In a world of synthetic materials and plastic products, more and more people are returning to the unique warmth and timeless beauty of wood. With a vast array of species available in a variety of grades and dimensions, the creative and design possibilities are virtually limitless!

Minimum Care
Hardwood floors with urethane finishes are among the easiest of all floors to maintain. General maintenance is to simply sweep or vacuum and damp mop as needed, usually about once a week. Unlike older wood floor finishes that some people may recall, today’s polyurethane finishes don’t require any polishing, waxing, or buffing. Maintenance couldn’t be any easier!

Health Advantages
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration lists carpet as a major contributor to poor indoor air quality due to its harsh chemical makeup, including formaldehyde. In addition, carpets trap dust, molds and animal dander that are impossible to completely remove. Since it is so simple to thoroughly clean hardwood floors, many healthcare professionals recommend them for people who suffer from asthma or allergies.

Exceptional Value
The cost of the many types of hardwood floorings, with installation and finishing, is comparable to other high quality floor coverings. Whereas carpet needs replacing after an average of seven years, a properly cared for wood floor often won’t require major renovation for ten to fifteen years. Plus, instead of periodically having to completely replace your floor covering, genuine wood flooring can be resurfaced or sanded and refinished as needed. The wood itself can last a century or more! Finally, when it comes time to sell, realtors widely recognize wood flooring as adding significantly to the desirability and value of a home.

Environmentally Responsible
Wood is one of the few natural resources on earth that is at once renewable, recyclable, biodegradable and re-usable. The energy required to grow our timber supply is free -it comes from the sun! The hardwood flooring industry takes great interest in the proper stewardship of our timber resources. For its own well-being, it is highly dependant on a sustainable program of selective harvesting and replanting. In fact, every day the forest industry, together with federal and state forest agencies, plants over 6 million new trees! Because of this solid commitment to sound management, the U.S. Forest Service reports there is now more healthy hardwood forest in America than at any time since the mid-Nineteenth Century