Choosing Your Distressed Hardwood Floor

If you’ve ever noticed that the games you played as a kid have been reintroduced for your kids, or that your daughters are wearing styles that were popular thirty years ago, you’re experiencing “everything old is new again.”

Distressed hardwood flooring is a perfect example of the old becoming new. When hardwood floors went out of style years ago, one of the reasons was that many wood floors were distressed. At the time, this was a bad thing; the floors looked old and worn, and people wanted new, shiny hardwood floors, or, at one point, carpeting to cover the old hardwoods.

Wood flooring has come back into style, and as it has, the distressed hardwood look in flooring has become more popular. What was once seen as a bad thing, the distressed look in hardwood floors, has become enormously popular, especially in new homes.

The texture of distressed wood flooring can be created by machine or by hand. A machined "distressed hardwood floor" will look more artificial and created than distressed wood flooring created by hand scraping.

The skill of the craftsperson doing the scraping makes a huge difference in how distressed hardwood floors appear. The best floors mimic the wormholes, splits and other natural appearance of truly distressed wood floors, rather than just sanding or wearing the surface.

Hardwood floors vary in their finishes, and many distressed wood floor installers allow the homeowner to apply their own finish to their distressed hardwood flooring if they choose, but the best choice is to have your distressed hardwood prefinished by the manufacturer.

This is because the preparation of distressed hardwood floors for finishing is much different than for traditional hardwood floors. The very sanding that prepares the hardwood floor for finish can destroy the texture of a distressed hardwood floor-the very texture that was sought in the first place.

All good providers of distressed hardwood flooring provide hand-distressed hardwood floors, prefinished by experts before they are installed.

Prefinished distressed hardwood floors also carry other advantages. Your distressed hardwood flooring can be installed more quickly, and is much more convenient to install if prefinished.

In addition, prefinished hardwood floors allow the distressed hardwood floor planks to move very slightly in reaction to the humidity in the home. Hardwood floors finished on-site are not able to move independently, and the planks split slightly apart with this movement. When installing a distressed hardwood floor, it makes sense to have the very best, which means prefinished hardwood floors.

When deciding on distressed hardwood flooring, another thing to consider is the shade and finish. Darker finishes show the scraping more. Before selecting a distressed hardwood floor, it is a good idea to visit manufacturers' web sites or visit dealers' showrooms to see and feel the various distressed hardwood flooring options.

When buying distressed hardwood flooring, some homeowners worry about the extra expense of hand-scraped distressed wood floors. Hand-scraped distressed hardwood floors are not cheap, but the extra investment is worthwhile.

A machine-scraped distressed wood floor normally runs about ten dollars a square foot. Hand-scraped distressed hardwood flooring is about five dollars a square foot more. This is a well-spent five dollars because hand-scraped distressed wood floors look more authentic and give more pleasure.

In addition, when the time comes for selling the home, machine-scraped distressed wood floors will not add as much value to the home as authentic, hand-scraped distressed hardwood flooring.

Distressed wood floors, like any type of hardwood floor, add a very warm, human touch to a home and make it look more inviting. As a homeowner, you will enjoy your hand-scraped distressed wood floor and be glad, in future years, that you made the investment in this beautiful real wood floor.