There's nothing like a hardwood floor for natural beauty, warmth and ease of cleaning. Its distinctive grains and swirling offer a unique look that provide a classic touch throughout your home. Hardwood's rich character never goes out of style. Great looking, long lasting and a great investment in your home's overall value, hardwood flooring is the perfect marriage of practicality and elegance when it comes to home improvement. Hardwood Flooring Basics Styles All hardwood flooring comes in one of two styles, either strip or plank. Strip flooring comes in widths that range from 1½" through 2½" and thicknesses of 5/16" through 3/4". Strip flooring creates a traditional look, and can produce an illusion that a room is larger than it is. Plank flooring also comes in strips, but they are wider, usually from 3" through 7". Plank flooring can be used to create a more rustic or earthy look as well as a historical appearance with antique applications. Finishes Hardwood floors are manufactured either Prefinished or Site Finished, both offer unique benefits. Prefinished Hardwood is finished in a controlled factory environment with more than six coats, decreasing the fluctuation in color, grain and texture within each piece. This type of production creates a more consistent product that can bring aesthetic perfection to any room. Homeowners prefer a prefinished wood floor because of the lack of sawdust, harmful vapors of finishing coats, and immediate access following installation. Site Finished Hardwood usually requires two to three coats and provides a smooth, uniform surface. This type of finish allows the rich natural colors and grains of the wood to show which provides timeless beauty and character. Types There are three basic types of hardwood floors: Solid wood, Engineered wood and Hand Scraped Wood. Each type is available in any of the two styles and/or finishes listed above. Solid Hardwood has been used for many years and never seems to lose its charm. Solid wood planks are cut out of a solid block right from the tree, then are processed into flooring planks with tongue and groove edges. Engineered Hardwood is made up of 3-7 plies (or layers) of layered wood, each layer's grain orientation is perpendicular to its above layer, then glued together. This type of technology offers several advantages over solid wood. It can be installed in almost any room, even on concrete slabs, due to its structural composition making it less vulnerable to moisture. Engineered wood floors are the perfect marriage of both beauty and stability. Hand Scraped Hardwood is an absolutely gorgeous way to capture the look of an old distressed wood floor presented with today's fine finishes. Hand Scraped wood is hand sculpted, one plank at a time, to create a unique timeless look. Hand Scraped hardwood floors are available in both solid and engineered, and in both prefinished and site finished goods. Understanding Product Variations Many factors determine how your hardwood floor will look. Consider how much natural variation there is in the grain and coloring of a wood, a range that contributes to wood's endless appeal. Showroom samples and Product Photos can offer an example of each wood product, but they may not be a true representation of the range of color, or the grain and texture variations that could possibly occur upon installation of this elegant product. Sunlight, durability and moisture are other crucial factors that can affect a Hardwood floor. Constant abuse by sunlight can potentially cause either fading or darkening of the hardwood depending on species. Hardwood can also be scratched, dented, or dinged. Durability can be strengthened with specific species of wood or with certain finishes, but no hardwood is indestructible or unscratchable. All hardwood contains some moisture, but if moisture increases above a certain percentage, wood will begin to cup and/or buckle. This reaction can be managed with the use of some engineered hardwoods. Please click for information on Hardwood Care and Maintenance.