Can You Use Commercial Carpet In Your Home?

Commercial carpet. Even saying it brings ideas to mind.

Commercial carpet can be durable. After all, it’s placed in high-traffic situations, and has to stand up to a lot of wear and tear.

Commercial carpet is functional. It can be easy to change out small sections due to spills.

Commercial carpet can be economical. If it lasts in a commercial application for years, just imagine how long it will last in your home.

But is it right for you?

Should you consider commercial carpet for your home remodeling project? Is it something homeowners do?

Whatever preconceived ideas you have about commercial carpet, it may be worth a second look for certain rooms in your home.

The differences between commercial and residential carpet

In the flooring industry, carpet comes in two general grades: residential and commercial. The differences are many:

Color and texture – you’ll find more color options in residential carpet because that’s where homeowners let their personalities run wild. Commercial applications tend to be more subdued, able to blend in with a design palette any business owner will like. Office settings tend to have darker colors with more patterns to show less wear and tear, and to hide dirt from the surface.

Durability – while residential carpet only has to stand up to what your family can dish out, commercial carpet may experience hundreds, even thousands of visitors daily. Typically, commercial carpet can last up to 15 years, depending on a few factors. Most often, commercial carpet uses nylon fibers which are easy to clean and long-lasting. Commercial carpet is also denser with a lower pile, which keeps it intact for more activity. Commercial carpet uses extra padding to ensure a long life.

Comfort – because commercial carpet is more durable, comfort isn’t a top priority. You’ll never find the thick, plush carpet you’ll have with residential designs. Commercial carpet is built for walking on, not playing on. It focuses much more on sustainability rather than comfort. However, there are many commercial applications that are designed to create the illusion of intimate spaces. These can be great additions for certain rooms in your home.

Maintenance – residential carpet can be effectively cleaned with periodic vacuuming. Commercial carpet often undergoes professional cleaning regularly. It withstands more vacuuming (sometimes daily,) and is subjected to steaming and cleaning to maintain its looks. Commercial carpet is designed to mask dirt, which can make a great addition to certain rooms where spills might be a problem – media rooms.

Types of commercial carpet

With residential carpet, you may be used to installers bringing in a carpet roll and rolling it into place. While that’s possible with commercial carpet, there are other choices.

Carpet tiles – commercial carpet tiles give people the flexibility of installing carpet in a quick and easy solution. It allows you to create intricate patterns with different colors and patterns. Stick with the same tile, turn it, and create varying textures. Select several different colors and create a checkerboard variation. People love carpet tiles because they allow you to peel up tiles whenever they are stained or damaged. Replace it with a new one, and you’ll prolong the life of your flooring.

Carpet planks – square tile shaped isn’t your only choice. You’ll also find carpet in plank format, giving you a different shape to play with in your final design. It’s a perfect way to create herringbone patterns, and allows you to play with both color and texture.

Carpet rolls – the most traditional carpet comes in roll format, where you roll it into place. It’s less expensive than tiles and planks since it’s easier to install. It’s a great choice for someone who wants flooring installed quickly and economically.

Pros and cons of using commercial carpet in your home

If you’ve read this far and are still considering commercial carpet for one or more rooms in your home, here are a few pros and cons that can help you determine if it’s the right choice for you.

Pros include:

Durability – it’s the most popular reason homeowners move to commercial-grade carpet. They have a room in their homes where they want increased durability. Commercial carpet will ensure you have flooring that can handle heavy traffic, and will stand up to all your family can dish out.

Economical – commercial-grade carpet allows you to get more mileage from your flooring. Commercial carpet can last 10 to 15 years, even longer in home settings, and continue to give you classic good looks for the carpet’s life.

Maintenance – because commercial carpet is low-pile, it continues to look new without the wear marks or crushed fibers wearing thin. They offer stain resistance to make clean-up an easy process.

Installation – while you may still opt for professional installation if you select large format carpet, tiles and planks are self-adhesive and easy to install. Do-it-yourself has never been so easy. And it makes repair work a snap – just peel up the old one and press the new into place.

Cons include:

Lower comfort – commercial carpet is designed for high traffic situations. It’s constructed to focus on wearability, not comfort. Commercial carpet isn’t for you if you frequently lay on the floor to play with the kids, or expect to run your toes through the fibers.

Style – if you have specific colors or patterns in mind, you might be held back by the lack of options. Commercial carpet is designed with businesses in mind, and doesn’t have the flexibility in style like residential carpet offers.

Is commercial carpet in your home the right solution for you? 

With so many options available to you today, the toughest decision may come from having to make a choice.

Commercial carpet may be the perfect choice for high traffic areas where you want something softer than tile or hardwood. Media rooms, home theaters, wine cellars, or even a downstairs living space may be the perfect place for commercial carpet.

When you’re ready to compare options and select the right carpet to suit your needs, stop by and see our entire selection.

We’ll help you fall in love with the commercial carpet of your dreams.

The post Can You Use Commercial Carpet In Your Home? first appeared on PRO! Flooring.

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Hardwood flooring can transform the appearance of your home, raise your property value, and help your space feel more “you.” When you are shopping for hardwood flooring, you will come across solid and engineered options. To learn which is the right choice for you, keep reading.

Solid hardwood flooring is hardwood flooring made from one solid piece of hardwood. On the other hand, engineered hardwood flooring is hardwood flooring made with several layers of wood. The top-most layer is made from high-quality wood and provides a structurally stable floor.

Solid hardwood flooring is the most long-lasting option of the two. This is because the wood is so thick that it can be sanded and finished several times without wearing it completely down. Because of this, solid hardwood allows for more customization for future home makeovers.

Meanwhile, engineered hardwood floors are more flexible and durable in certain conditions. If you live in an area where the climate changes throughout the year, you may lean towards engineered hardwood because it expands and contracts less than solid hardwood. There will be less seasonal gapping with this flooring option.

When deciding which type of flooring option is more ideal for you, you want to consider your unique circumstance. If you live in a consistent, non-humid climate, solid hardwood may be more suitable for you. However, if you live in a humid climate where the weather changes throughout the year, engineered hardwood is more appropriate for you. The subfloor, or the type of flooring that is below your hardwood, can also affect which selection is more suitable for you.

Additionally, consider if you plan to change the appearance of your floor over time. While engineered hardwood flooring is available in a wider range of customizable options, solid hardwood flooring is easier to change after installation.

Consider all of this information as you shop for hardwood flooring with Flooring.org. You can browse our flooring options on our website and email us at [email protected] with any questions. We are also available by phone at 1-800-689-9006, and we look forward to helping you update the flooring in your space!

This post appeared first on http://www.flooring.org

Guest post by Teri Silver, Featured Image source.

Deciding which home services you can do yourself and when to hire a professional will save you a lot of grief (and some money) in the long run. Make a list of the improvements, maintenance, and upgrades your home needs and whether you can realistically DIY any of them.

When to Hire a Professional

The rule of thumb is measure twice, cut once, then call in a professional. When it comes to dangerous tasks, you may want to skip the first two steps.

Electrical Needs

Circuitry is technical, confusing, and potentially dangerous work if you don’t know what you’re doing. High and low-voltage systems are nothing to fool with, especially in older homes. Before signing a contract for electrical services, get cost estimates in writing. The actual costs may be higher or lower, depending on the “official” diagnosis.

Write down the specific problems before calling the technician. You can sometimes lower the cost by making things easy on your service professional.

• Provide easy access to the electrical panel box
• Be ready to pay the bill at the time of service
• Get the final bill in writing.

Heating and Air Conditioning

Unless you have professional training and certification, heating and air conditioning are not something to DIY. Sure, it’s OK to change a filter in your system, but furnace flue pipes that transfer toxic gases may become corroded and leak. Combustion chambers can shut down.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, the cost of fixing your mistakes can be much higher than if you hired someone in the first place.

Central air conditioning systems are made up of coils, fins, filters, and other components that can drive a novice crazy. Maintaining window air conditioners is easier for DIYers, but it’s best to hire an HVAC company that will: 

• Clean and tighten terminals and connections
• Add refrigerant
• Inspect for leakage and dried seal ducts
• Measure airflow
• Adjust the thermostat
• Grease up motors
• Replace cracked belts.

It may seem strange to fuss with the AC during a cold and snowy Colorado winter. Calling a technician sooner than later — when they’re not so busy — can save you money and have your system ready for the summer.  

Plumbing

Changing a toilet seat or tweaking the flusher is easy, but messing with heavy clogs, broken pipes, sewer odor, water leaks, and the lack of hot water is a job for a professional. Frozen pipes can lead to serious damage. Be ready to hire a plumber when you hear loud noises in the pipes.  

Gutters and Roofing

Is your life insurance policy paid up? Because climbing a ladder to clean out the gutters is a safety risk. Consider purchasing a protective system to keep fallen leaves and debris out of gutter lanes. If that’s not in the cards, hire a handyman (who’s  bonded and insured) to do the job.     

Roof surfaces are angled; even the slightest tasks are dangerous. Roofing inspectors will check on and repair loose rubber, damaged flashing, shingles, and missing mortar.

Do It Yourself?

Inside Cleaning

Deep indoor cleaning is something most people can do themselves. Washing windows, scrubbing bathrooms, and polishing appliances is something you can accomplish in an afternoon.

But when it comes to getting your home ready to sell, having the carpet or hard floor surfaces professionally cleaned lets your buyers see themselves in a more pristine environment. Besides, it’s easier than renting one of those heavy machines you don’t know how to use. Those machines often leave a film on your carpet that attracts more dirt.   

Lawn care

Hiring a company to treat your sod for weeds is cost-effective, especially if you have more than an acre of grass to cover. And lawn care mistakes like applying too much fertilizer can be expensive to fix. 

You can save more than a few bucks by weeding flower beds, pruning bushes, and mowing your lawn before bringing in a pro to take care of the edging, aerating, and fertilizing.

Doing small household chores yourself (or getting your kids motivated to earn a few bucks) is a way to save money. But sometimes, it’s better — and safer — to let the pros handle the big stuff. 

Teri Silver is a journalist and outdoor enthusiast who spends her weekends mowing her 5-acre lawn. She’s an avid do-it-yourselfer who refurbishes anything she can get her hands on. 

The post Home Services: Which to Spend Money on, Which to Add to Your DIY List appeared first on A Personal Touch.

I was sitting in a reception area the other day, waiting for my appointment, when I looked down and noticed how the hardwood was installed. From the entryway, the hardwood appeared to move vertically into the office space. Yet the hallway back to the individual meeting rooms sat at an angle. The pattern moved into a diagonal flow to keep the flow from the entryway.

I loved it!

But I started thinking about which direction was best when installing hardwood. Are there rules? Do flooring experts provide specific guidance to help homeowners and commercial property managers finalize their decisions before installing hardwood into their spaces?

Where to begin when installing hardwood 

Every space is unique. You can’t start at the front and work to the back – that philosophy can get you into trouble in oddly-shaped rooms.

There are several factors to consider when deciding which way to install hardwood into any room.

Focal point – what’s the first thing you see when you walk into the room? Where is the focal point of the room? If you lay the planks in that direction, it gives your eye a reason to flow towards that focal point. It might be a large fireplace. Or stunning architectural detail that makes the room. Your hardwood plank direction will lead every visitor to the most important aspect of the room.

Overall design – if you have one square space to add hardwood to, laying the planks into place is easy. Yet most people install hardwood into multiple rooms simultaneously, and rarely are they perfectly square. Instead, you’ll have odd shapes and a layout that rarely makes sense when you start to lay the planks into place. To avoid sudden cutoffs and strange designs, it might be time to install them in a diagonal pattern. If you have multiple rooms with distinct cutoffs, you can install a thin wood strip at the threshold to make the transition.

Light source – here in Colorado, we get a lot of natural light flowing in. If you have large windows to take advantage of the view, how does light fall into your home throughout the day? Use that pattern to dictate the direction you install your hardwood planks.

Floor structure – the subfloor and floor joists are installed to add strength and durability to each room. If you lay hardwood planks in the same direction as the joists, you can weaken the overall structure of the flooring. Instead, install them perpendicular to add strength and prevent the planks from sagging or buckling.

Sightlines – in many cases, flooring direction jumps out at you from the moment you walk through the door. Sightlines guide you from the front to the back. It gives you a natural flow. Don’t fight that flow. Work with it instead as you’re looking for which direction to install your hardwood planks.

Directions to run your hardwood flooring planks

We these general installation rules in mind, there are several main design options when it’s time to install your hardwood floors:

Vertical – the most common way to install hardwood is vertically from one end of the room to the other. It flows naturally as you enter the room, providing elegance and a contemporary feel as you move into a room. It’s a go-to pattern because it’s one of the easiest to install. It makes good use of the hardwood planks without having to trim boards to get them to fit.

Horizontal – another popular installation pattern is horizontal, where the boards flow freely from side to side. This is a good choice if your design space is narrow as you walk into the room. Short, vertical planks might make it feel choppy, more closed in. By running them horizontally, it draws the eye side to side, adding more openness to the space.

Diagonal – give any room a classy finish by installing the planks diagonally. Instead of vertical or horizontal placement, kick the planks to a 45-degree angle to the wall as they run across the floor. The look can be stunning and just different enough to add your own personality to your room.

Herringbone – this is another classic design that has been used for decades. It’s a step up from diagonal, creating a zigzag pattern instead. Install each board in a different direction, giving any room a more modern feel.

Parquet – parquet hardwood has been used in homes for centuries. It involves laying planks in repeated geometrical patterns that give the floor visual appeal. Think of it as a checkerboard of intricate patterns, with wood squares dominating the design. They can be quite beautiful, adding richness to any room in your home.

Random – today’s homeowners often look for something unique to bring into their homes. If you’ve had your eye on multiple sizes, colors, and patterns, why not incorporate them all into the final look? A random pattern mixes lengths, widths, and colors to create flooring as unique as you.

Which direction is right for you?

Want new hardwood floors? That’s only the beginning of the choices you’ll make.

Today’s hardwood planks come in many different styles, colors, patterns, widths, and lengths. With so many choices, it’s often difficult to know where to begin narrowing down to your final selection.

We often recommend people spend some time on design sites, or setting up a pinboard on Pinterest. Find different layouts you like, really focusing on why you like them. Do you like the color? The pattern? The flow?

As you find more examples of things you like, you’ll start to see a pattern in your tastes and desires. This is when you know you’ve found a choice that’s right for you.

Bring your ideas in and let’s talk. We can show you a variety of flooring choices that meet your demands. We can help you narrow it down to a final selection, one you’ll love for the life of your floor.

Installing hardwood in different directions can give you classic designs or a modern finish. There isn’t a right or wrong way to lay it into place.

What you settle on will look great on your finished floors.

You’ll love how it accents your home’s decor. 

The post Vertical or Horizontal: Which Direction Should You Install Hardwood? first appeared on PRO! Flooring.

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Hand scraped flooring will give you a rustic and textured surface.  This extra definition is added when the planks of flooring are scraped by hand before the protective oils or lacquers are added.  As each plank of Oak wooden flooring is scraped by hand, no two planks are the same, so you get an authentic and aged looking floor.  You are still getting the natural beauty of Oak, with its distinctive grain and knot patterns, but with an added twist of uniqueness. It is a perfect choice for anyone looking for a beautiful hardwood floor with added character and charm. Read More

If you have hardwood flooring in your home, you likely already know that your floors experience wear and tear over time. This wear and tear can make your flooring look dull, boring, and uninspiring. If you want your aged hardwood floors to look like new, you can refinish them. Here is how you know when it is time to refinish your floors:

If your home is old, your floors are probably old too. Old age can cause your flooring to look dull, worn out, and unattractive. Over time, hardwood flooring can lose its shine due to heavy traffic, wear and tear, the buildup of dust and debris, and so on. You can breathe new life into your home by refinishing your floors. The refinishing process helps floors return to their original state and look brighter, more vibrant, and more eye-catching.

Are you feeling uninspired by the flooring in your home? If you are, try refinishing your hardwood. You may have a craving to install carpet, tile, or a new type of hardwood in your home, but doing so is time-consuming and expensive. Instead of getting new flooring altogether, just refinish your floors in a stain that better matches your personal style. There are a variety of stains you can use when refinishing different types of hardwood flooring to get the color you want. Not only is this option more affordable, but it is also more sustainable.

It may be time to refinish your hardwood floors if your floors experienced damage caused by routine wear and tear. Unfortunately, grazes, scratches and marks are part of owning hardwood floors. These scratches and marks can be unsightly and dull the appearance of your flooring. Additionally, these marks and damages can lower the value of your home. To boost your home’s value and improve the appearance of your space, have your hardwood floors refinished. Refinishing helps get rid of scratches, marks, and grazes caused by furniture, pets, children, and accidents.

If you are in need of hardwood flooring or accessories, shop with Flooring.org. You can browse the products on our website and email us at [email protected] with any questions. We hope you will shop with us for all of your hardwood flooring needs.

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We spend a lot of time keeping our homes clean and presentable – after all, our home is our sanctuary, so we want it to be a healthy place to live. Vacuuming our carpets is a task most of us do regularly, but is it enough to keep our carpets clean? Not by a long shot!

Professional carpet cleaning is not just a luxury, it’s a necessity. Homeowners should make professional carpet cleaning a priority to protect their investment, prolong the life of their carpets, and improve their indoor air quality. Whether you just moved into your home or you’ve been living there for years, professional carpet cleaning is a must to ensure that your carpets are truly clean.

New Home, Old Carpets

Are you a new homeowner? The carpets in your new home may look clean, but there are likely to be hidden dirt, mud, stains and allergens present from previous owners. Who knows what they were tracking into the house and onto the carpets! Get rid of those nasty old stains and stinks from past tenants by having the carpets professionally cleaned before you move in. 

If, on the other hand, you’ve been living in your home for several years, you still need to have your carpets professionally cleaned regularly. No matter how often you vacuum, dirt can collect in the carpet fibers, causing unnecessary wear and tear and shortening the life of your carpets. Professional carpet cleaners have the experience and equipment to deep clean carpets, removing all the dirt, dust, and stains that have built up over time. 

Improves Indoor Air Quality

In addition to extending the life of your carpets, professional carpet cleaning can also improve your indoor air quality. Carpets can trap allergens and other airborne contaminants, which can worsen allergies and respiratory problems. Professional carpet cleaning removes these contaminants from your carpets, leaving your home more comfortable and safer for everyone. You’ll be able to breathe easier knowing that your home’s air contains fewer allergens and contaminants!

Professional Steam Cleaning to the Rescue

Nearly all carpet manufacturers recommend having your carpets professionally steam cleaned at least once a year. In fact, many stain-resistant manufacturer warranties require professional cleaning at least every other year. Standard industry guidelines call for using steam cleaning water that is heated to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Here at A Personal Touch Carpet Cleaning Services, we go above and beyond the industry standard – we use water heated up to 230 degrees Fahrenheit. This is hot enough to kill 98% of household germs. Your carpets will be super clean and fresh after we get done cleaning them!

Carpeting generally lasts 10-15 years, but with regular care and cleaning, you can extend its life to 20-25 years. You could clean your carpets yourself with a carpet cleaning machine, but why not let us do it for you? We’ll even groom your carpets afterwards and protect them with a Dupont Teflon carpet protector, if you like.

Professional cleanings can restore that new carpeting look and extend the life of your carpets, so don’t wait until they are visibly dirty to call a professional. Schedule regular professional carpet cleanings to protect your investment!

Remember at A Personal Touch, we don’t cut corners, we clean them! 

The post Why Professional Carpet Cleaning Is a Must for Homeowners appeared first on A Personal Touch.

Thinking of remodeling? Want new flooring?

Many homeowners instantly envision their newly redesigned rooms with hardwood flooring. But here’s the thing: Hardwood flooring doesn’t always make sense.

Sure, it looks great. Yes, it’s one of the most popular flooring materials sold.

But hardwood flooring has its positives and negatives. Sometimes hardwood isn’t suitable for your lifestyle. Maybe engineered hardwood or luxury vinyl planks would make a better choice.

What is engineered hardwood?

What makes engineered hardwood so appealing to some homeowners is that engineered hardwood is real wood. Instead of a solid plank of hardwood, engineered planks are constructed in layers.

Engineered hardwood is slightly thinner than solid hardwood. The top and bottom layers are 100 percent natural wood. These layers can come from a variety of species and provide you with the look you’re going for. (This is what makes it look just like traditional hardwood flooring.)

The inside layers are constructed from plywood. The thickness is based on the quality of construction and what the manufacturer chooses to include. Higher quality engineered wood planks will have a thicker top layer, meaning they’ll last longer overall.

This layered construction also provides more stability against environmental changes. If you’ve ever brought traditional hardwood into your home, you know it needs time to acclimate to the surroundings before installation. Engineered hardwood construction eliminates some of the risks associated with expanding or contracting when exposed to humidity, moisture, or temperature variances. That makes it a better choice in rooms where this may be a problem.

One of the drawbacks to engineered hardwood is that it typically can’t be sanded and refinished the way you can traditional hardwood planks. Because the top board is a thin piece of hardwood, smoothing it down may wear through this top board, leaving the plywood showing and vulnerable. Higher quality planks may be thicker and have the ability to refinish it once, but you do have to be careful as you sand the top coat away.

Engineered hardwood makes a good choice when you’re looking to stick with a budget, and traditional hardwood is beyond your reach. Premium engineered hardwood planks can be as much as some traditional hardwood, but will offer better longevity and results.

What are luxury vinyl planks?

Luxury vinyl planks are also known as LVP. It’s a flooring material designed and manufactured to provide hardwood’s look and feel, but it offers characteristics traditional hardwood doesn’t have.

Luxury vinyl planks are available in a wide variety of sizes, styles, patterns, and colors. You’ll find LVP that closely resembles the traditional hardwood you’ve had your eye on, or step beyond the color and pattern you’ve been thinking about and try something a little bolder. LVP manufacturers mimic hardwood so well that you’ll see grain and texture just like in natural wood planks. But you can get the exact color you’re looking for.

Luxury vinyl planks are generally made of highly moisture-resistant PVC, which is what makes the planks so durable. Some are constructed so well they provide waterproof technology. That means you can put them into any room where humidity or moisture may be a problem. This may be the perfect product to include in your bathroom or basement remodel.

The surface is hard enough to be more durable than hardwood, making it better at resisting scratches or dents. Plus, the hard surface area makes cleaning a snap. Just an occasional sweep or vacuum to keep dirt away, and a damp mop to remove surface debris.

The one drawback to LVP is that it’s a petroleum product, manufactured using PVC. Toxins can be off-gassed into the environment, which can be a problem for both humans and pets. This is where it’s important to work with a dealer who understands the risks and can guide you to reputable companies who take every precaution to reduce the risks.

Engineered hardwood or luxury vinyl planks – which should you choose?

Both engineered hardwood and luxury vinyl planks have the look and feel of real hardwood flooring. However, only engineered hardwood is made from real natural wood. If this is important to you, engineered hardwood may be the way to go. Yet keep in mind that hardwood is softer and more susceptible to scratches and dents. If you have an active household, it’s something to consider as you finalize your decision.

Engineered hardwood performs much better in situations where moisture might be a problem. If you want to extend hardwood into a downstairs bathroom and kitchen, engineered hardwood may be the perfect protection you need to ensure those occasional mishaps don’t leave their mark. But keep in mind that water can and will impact engineered hardwood if it seeps between the planks. LVP performs far better in moist situations, even providing fully waterproof product lines that can withstand a lot of moisture. For basements that deal with moisture frequently, or bathrooms where splish-splashing occurs on a regular basis, luxury vinyl planks can offer the protection you desire.

If you’re looking to stay within budget, luxury vinyl planks may be a perfect choice. It’s typically less expensive than hardwood or engineered hardwood, which is why a lot of homeowners choose to install it inside their homes. The technology has increased enough to make even the most knowledgeable flooring experts have to take a second look to ensure it’s not real hardwood.

The bottom line … both engineered hardwood and luxury vinyl planks are beautiful, and look authentic enough to pass for traditional hardwood when that doesn’t meet your lifestyle. Hardwood is aesthetically pleasing, but not always functional to every homeowner. Engineered hardwood and luxury vinyl planks give you the same look and feel with characteristics more beneficial for some people.

Hopefully this article has shed some light between the differences of these two amazing flooring choices. If you want to see either in more detail, stop by today and see our entire selection. With a little bit of guidance, we’ll help you make the perfect selection for your home remodeling project. 

The post Engineered Hardwood or Luxury Vinyl Planks – Which Should You Choose? first appeared on PRO! Flooring.

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Once upon a time, residential flooring didn’t offer as many flooring choices as it does today. When it came to hardwood floors, the general rule was to install planks based on the size of the room.

In smaller rooms, evenly spaced planks precisely the same size are placed together to create a refined look. As the rooms grow in size, wider widths may be used to create a fluid look.

People are drawn to wider widths because of the beautiful layout it presents. While narrower planks are created with uniformity in mind, wider widths can bring more of the natural wood to light. It can showcase texture, knots, swirls, and other features that give personality and uniqueness to the overall design.

As homeowners brought wider planks to their main living spaces, their love for wider planks began to grow. They challenged old beliefs and started laying them everywhere.

And that brought out even more opportunities in the way hardwood is used.

What are random width planks?

When you look at hardwood flooring today, you’ll find that the standard plank size is 4 or 5 inches. This standard has grown over time.

Narrow planks will typically run 2 to 3 inches in width. This is where industry standards sat for many years, with it being easier to feed narrow planks into just about any room in the house. Narrow boards are cleaner and have fewer knots or imperfections, creating a cleaner, more uniform look.

Wide planks are gaining in popularity, and start at 6 inches and go up from there. These wider widths create a more rustic appearance because of the features they showcase once in place. No two floors will ever be the same.

Random width planks started appearing to add even more uniqueness to a home. Generally, rooms will have a combination of three widths mixed together – three, five, and seven-inch widths. They are installed in alternating patterns, creating a unique design that adds character. Some say it modernizes the parquet, herringbone, and chevron designs from long ago.

Are random width planks for you?

If you’re new to the concept of random width planks, your first step is to see these designs in action. A quick Google search will bring up all kinds of ideas. You can even Pin some of them to your Pinboard.

You’ll find that homeowners and business owners use random width planks in all kinds of situations. It’s a great way to add beauty to your room, while giving you a modern look you’ll love for years to come.

In truth, random width planks aren’t always random. Rarely will an installer pick up a random board and feed it into place. Instead, they lay out the design ahead of time, to ensure the natural beauty of each board shines through.

If you’re laying new hardwood into a smaller space that often feels tight and closed in, random width planks may be the perfect choice. Homeowners have long since used wide planks to add depth to a closed-in space. Random width achieves the same goals, but provides added aesthetics to the space.

Will you love random width planks for years to come?

This is a common question we receive from homeowners.

When you install new hardwood floors, it’s with the expectation of keeping them in place for years to come. What makes hardwood so appealing is that you can install them today and have them last for decades if well cared for. They give you the opportunity to sand them down and refinish them multiple times,

That applies to any width you install: narrow, wide, or random.

If you want to install the best hardwood floor to suit your needs, it all comes down to preference. The adage “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” applies here.

What do you want your home to look like? What is most appealing to you? If your heart moves to the look created by random width planks, then by all means, move in that direction.

Here are a few tips to help you select which width is best for you.

With larger rooms, open concept design, and high ceilings, wider planks may be a perfect choice. These bigger planks will help keep the flooring from getting lost in the expansive space. It’s not uncommon for installers to lay the widest boards here – six, eight, even ten-inch widths can look amazing in these situations.

The opposite is also true. For smaller rooms, move to the other end of the spectrum. Move towards three or five-inch planks to create a sense of airiness. Don’t go with super skinny widths unless you really love the look.

The busier a room, the more you should work at minimizing the design on the floor. Stick with one or two widths to tone down the aesthetics and keep the eye from moving to the wide variety of design elements you have in place.

Let design be your guide if you’re making your floors the center of attention. Use random widths to create intrigue. Mix lighter and darker shades to add depth. Let your furniture and other decor items accent the pattern of your flooring.

Are you ready for your new floors?

Are you sold on the concept of random width planks? Not sure what to do next?

That’s the easy part.

Again, your best friend is Pinterest, or other decor sites that give you a chance to start selecting what you like. Find examples that speak to you. Then focus on what you want most. Is it the color of the hardwood? The variance in width? The overall look of the room?

That’s your starting point.

Now you can bring your ideas in, and we can make your desires a reality.

We’ll show you your options, help you narrow down your selections, then help you create the layout of your dreams.

A professional installer will help make it a reality, with the knowledge and experience to get the job done the right way the first time.

What are you waiting for? Isn’t today the day you take the next step in finding your perfect floors? If random width planks are appealing, you’ll love the options waiting for you. Give us a call. 

The post Random Width Planks – What You Need To Know first appeared on PRO! Flooring.

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We often get asked about how to keep a wooden floor clean, the answer is simple.  Sweep and clean your floor on a regular basis.  Due to the hard surface of the wooden floor, it is easy to keep clean.  Any dust, dirt or pet hair is more visible than on a carpet, which makes it much easier to keep clean and far more hygienic.  By adopting a simple and regular cleaning routine, your wooden floor will be looking clean every day. Read More