Wood Flooring Throughout the House

People tend to expect wood flooring to be in certain parts of the house, such as halls and other high-traffic areas and formal dining rooms, but it offers advantages in most areas of a home. Hardwood flooring will outlast other materials like carpet and resilient-type flooring such as vinyl or linoleum. It also provides a comfort level that ceramic floors cannot match.
Wood flooring can even work in kitchens and baths, as long as you take certain precautions: Water spills must be wiped up, bathrooms should have ventilation to remove humid air, and bath mats should be placed outside the shower.
I must have seen thousands of wood floors in bathrooms and kitchens, and the only problems I have come across were associated with leaking plumbing fixtures or dripping condensation from an un-insulated toilet tank.
Wood flooring is also a good choice for bedrooms. Carpeting can be nearly impossible to keep clean of dust and pet dander, and many people with allergies find they sleep better after installing wood floors. About the only place where wood flooring is not my first choice is the foyer. I prefer stone or tile, which stands up better to the puddles of water and bits of gravel my kids track in with their snow-covered shoes.

Types of Wood Flooring

There are three main categories of wood flooring: strip flooring, plank flooring, and parquet flooring. for the most part, all three categories are sold as 3/4-in.-thick, tongue-and-grooved boards. (Engineered flooring is an exception—while it can be plank or strip, it's usually under 3/4 in. thick and made up of different layers of wood glued together like plywood.) Strip flooring, the most popular category, has boards up to 3 in. wide.



Plank flooring can be considered any boards 3 in. or wider. (There is some confusion between the two, because some strip flooring manufacturers occasionally produce flooring up to 3/4 in. wide to ensure the greatest yield from the raw material supplied to the mill.) Parquet flooring is individ¬ual wooden tiles that can consist of many pieces. Strip, plank, and parquet flooring are available in solid wood or engineered, and as unfinished or prefinished.

BAMBOO AND CORK FLOORING San Francisco

  With the growing interest in all things "green," bamboo and cork have become more popular as flooring materials in recent years. Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant in the world and actually considered a grass. After harvesting,
the bamboo is cut into strips, steamed, dried, glued, and placed in a heat press. Bamboo makes a good flooring material, but its quality varies dramatically between manufacturers.
Cork flooring comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. The cork trees are unharmed by the harvesting of the bark, and they continue producing cork for an average of 150 years. Cork flooring has millions of microscopic air pockets that give it the ability to return to its original shape after impact.



At Kapriz Hardwood Floors, you’ll find an amazing selection of hardwood flooring from the world’s top flooring manufacturers. Solid hardwood, engineered hardwood in San Francisco, click hardwood and more are all available in a vast array of constructions, species and styles. Our volume buying power and largest warehouse inventory allow us to provide the biggest discounts on wood flooring and the fastest shipping.