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Are you thinking about purchasing a new wood floor and trying to decide if you should go with an unfinished, site sanded and finished or a prefinished hardwood floor? It can be confusing with more options in the marketplace today than ever before.
Prefinished hardwood flooring is not only a beautiful interior design feature, but also a smart investment. It offers the homeowner great advantages over an unfinished hardwood floor that must be site sanded and finished.
The main advantages include, but are not limited to:
- Ease of Installation - Installers can install much more square footage in less time.
- Quality of Finish - Prefinished floors have been coated or "finished" in a controlled environment rather than on a job site, which is not a controlled environment. This avoids having inconsistencies in the finish such as dust, dirt, hair etc. Additionally, there is no risk of mop marks from the finish being applied.
- Less Mess - Prefinished floors result in a much tidier job site. There is no sanding dust all over your home.
- Allergies - Allergy sensitive people avoid chemical odors from floor finishes being applied.
- Warranty - Prefinished hardwood floors come with a manufacturers warranty, which can provide peace of mind for your purchase.
- Appearance & Durability - Prefinished hardwood floors have coats of finish applied in a clean and controlled environment. This guarantees you have a high quality finish appearance matched with incredible durability.
When considering a new prefinished hardwood floor, there are several myths to be aware of in your search. First, the number of coats of finish is often used as a marketing tool to impart the idea that the more coats, the better or higher quality the product. This in fact has nothing to due with the durability of your new floor finish. Floor finishes are layered or "built" differently. The key is to build a flexible and hard finish so that it provides a forgiving surface rather than being too hard which would make it brittle. This means a floor advertising 10 coats of finish does not inherently mean it has a better finish than one advertised as 8 coats.
Second, microbevels are not "dust traps," but rather are used to disguise any slight milling variations in the production of the flooring. Everyone wins with a better and more consistent looking product. Microbevels have become highly popular now as they accentuate the plank appearance of your floor and create a design statement.
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