Reasons to Upgrade Your Floors

Floors can make a home really come together–from polished hardwood floors to soft carpeting, a floor can make a room look fresh and sophisticated or outdated and shabby. Two things that potential homeowners look for is hardwood flooring or new carpet styles that are fresh or surprising. Many owners considering selling their homes don’t even realize they may have beautiful hardwood flooring lurking underneath their wall-to-wall carpeting. New carpet styles like bold and neutral colors, as well as patterned carpets have become more popular in recent years as a way to insert color into your home or add a final touch to bring the room together.
Wood Flooring Information
Originally, there were two types of wood flooring: plank flooring (meaning boards that had a width of 8 inches or more) and strip flooring (which meant narrower boards, between 2 and 4 inches in width). Plank floors were considered a lower class and rural style, while you could find strip floors in the upper and middle class homes. Now, both strip and plank are considered the standard for wood flooring.
Benefits of Hardwood Floors
Hardwood floors last a long time: up to hundreds of years, making them environmentally friendly. It’s also possible to refinish hardwood floors and give them new life. Repurposed hardwoods floors are an example of how they can be recycled after their use is up as flooring. Bamboo is another alternative to “green flooring.” It’s a highly renewable source of flooring (technically considered a grass)–growing up to 47 inches in only a day. If you’re worried about the cost of hardwood floors, bamboo could be a great alternative.
Additionally, the US Environmental Protection Agency reported that there was a higher quality of air indoors found in buildings with wood floors, versus buildings with carpets. This is most likely because cleaning hardwood floors is easier than with carpets. Hardwood floors are also aesthetically pleasing to many people, reminiscent of sophisticated spaces.
The Appeal of New Carpeting
As seen with new carpet styles, carpets are very versatile, coming in varieties such as woven, needlefelted, knotted, tufted, and flatweave. It has a long history, although the name has changed over the years. In much earlier days, “carpet” referred to table and wall coverings as well as the floor. That changed in Europe during the 18th century when new trade routes to Persia opened up.
Carpets have been a beloved floor covering for years–in part because of the added comfort they bring. Sitting on a comfortably padded floor versus a hard floor can be much gentler on the bones. New carpet styles are now kid-friendly, with materials that is stain-resistant. They can also bring a blast of color to a room and liven up a space. In a more neutral room, a colorful carpet can draw the eye, or in a busy room, a more muted carpet can mellow the room. Carpets can also reduce noise, provide a little extra insulation, and and minimizing injuries if someone falls or slips.
If thinking about putting your home on the market, be sure to pay attention to your floors and how they look! An upgrade to either your floors or your carpets could have major selling potential in the long run.