Wood Floors Are Good For Your Home

hallway and view of staircase and banister, white walls and oak wood floors

Explore V4 Wood Flooring’s  top five reasons to have wood flooring in your home.

light airy room with a plant and oak furniture

1. Improved air quality in your home

Unlike many flooring alternatives, wood flooring is hypoallergenic meaning that it is an excellent flooring choice for anyone that suffers from allergies. Whereas other flooring solutions such as carpet can trap various types of pollen, dust, dirt, and pet hairs in its fibres. The use of wood flooring in your home you can reduce the amount of debris in your home, which in turn will help to reduce any odours improving cleanliness. What’s more, have you ever wondered why a butcher’s block is made from wood? Wood naturally contains anti-bacterial properties, with oak and pine being some of the greatest wood species at inhibiting the growth of different bacteria.

In addition to being hypoallergenic, wood is also hygroscopic meaning that it can absorb moisture from its surroundings, making it an excellent material for your home. Research has shown that an average family can produce up to 14 litres of vapour in just 24 hours. Thanks to the hygroscopic properties of wood, when the relative humidity rises the wood will absorb moisture and expand, and when the humidity falls the moisture returns into the air, creating an equilibrium of moisture in your home. It is natural for the wood to expand and contract as this process happens, which in turn can cause the wood to move. Although this can be problematic for solid wood, an engineered wood floor is much more resilient to this movement. The cross-ply construction limits lateral movement as each layer is laid 90° from its prior, helping to bind the layers together restricting the movement of the floor.

Finally, wood floors naturally have low VOC emissions in comparison to other flooring alternatives. Man-made materials, including building materials such as vinyl flooring, can be detrimental to your health due to the toxic substances used in their creation. These substances, including PVC, have been associated with health issues such as respiratory disorders, skin irritations, multiple myeloma, and reproductive disorders.

oak floors with a sage green kitchen design, plants in foreground

2. A timeless design for your home

Another fantastic benefit of installing engineered wood flooring in your home is the timeless design wood flooring creates. With a warming and elegant appeal, the use of engineered wood flooring is a fantastic way to add a classic design to your home, without the limitations of solid wood blocks. Whether you are looking for a traditional oak design or want to venture into more contemporary colours, here at V4 Wood Flooring we will have the perfect wood floor for your design.

In addition to adding a timeless design, the use of hardwood floors in your home’s interior design is a fantastic way to increase the value of your home. Studies have shown that over 50% of buyers would be willing to pay a higher price for a home that was complete with hardwood floors, making wood flooring a fantastic investment for not only your current design but your future plans.

Dark velvet blue couch and midnight blue wall on a natural sustainable oak flooring

3. Engineered wood flooring is a fantastic sustainable choice for your home

Engineered wood flooring has a fantastic number of sustainable benefits. From offering a higher yield per log than solid wood flooring due to its engineered construction to being one of few carbon-negative building materials available worldwide, the use of an engineered wood floor on your project is a great way to increase your sustainability. During the process of photosynthesis, trees and plants take in carbon dioxide from the air and store it away for centuries until the tree decays or is burnt. However, by using wood as a building material, the carbon locked in the timber is stored away for a lifetime, reducing the harmful greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere through deforestation methods such as burning. Studies suggest that the amount of carbon stored in each log can offset the amount of carbon produced during the material’s manufacturing process, making timber have a minimal, and sometimes even negative carbon footprint.

One change we at V4 Wood Flooring decided to make many years ago is focusing solely on engineered wood flooring and stopping the production of our solid wood collections. Maintaining all the benefits associated with solid wood, engineered wood flooring bring additional benefits such as strength, versatility, and importantly, sustainability. In more recent times, we have switched our 15mm flooring to 14mm, reducing the solid oak wear layer by 1mm. Although this sounds minimal, this has enabled us to yield an extra 20% from each log, whilst maintaining a high level of structural integrity and durability, further increasing the sustainability of our engineered wood flooring.

warm and inviting herringbone oak floors covering an open plan dining room and living room. Walls are painted warm coral and midnight blue

4. Wood Flooring offers a warm and tactile finish to your home

When it comes to the flooring in your home, it is important to use materials that help create a welcoming environment. A fantastic benefit of wood flooring is that it can provide a warm feeling underfoot, helping create a welcoming environment in your home, unlike the cold feeling of other flooring alternatives such as tiles. Wood can help move the heat through your house, and retain the warmth, meaning that it can contribute towards a consistent temperature in your home. What’s more, engineered wood floors are compatible with underfloor heating systems, unlike solid wood floors, meaning that you can enjoy the warming benefits throughout the colder months. Click here to read our guide on underfloor heating and engineered wood flooring.

In addition of feeling warm underfoot, wood flooring helps connect your home to nature through providing a tactile sensation. Depending on the level of brushing, the depth of the texture can vary from a subtle texture to a deeper feeling of the grain underfoot, exposing the natural feel of a wood floor. Not only does this texture offer a characterful aesthetic that could only belong to a real wood floor, but it also aids in blending any scratches that could naturally occur throughout the floor’s lifetime, as opposed to a smooth flooring alternative.

stylish white kitchen cupboards and island featuring a herringbone oak wood floor

5. Our engineered wood floors are made to last a lifetime

Unlike other flooring alternatives such as carpet or vinyl that will need replacing after several years, our engineered wood flooring is built to last a lifetime. When maintained properly, your wood floor could last a hundred years, whereas a carpet will only last on average between 5 to 10 years depending on the quality of its construction, with lesser quality carpets only lasting for an average of 3 to 5 years. After this time, a carpet can show signs of wear and tear, with stains and odours becoming more apparent and visible matting of the fibres becoming more prominent.

Although vinyl flooring has a slightly longer lifespan than carpet, with higher quality vinyl lasting on average between 10 and 20 years, there are still some disadvantages to prolonging your floor’s life with vinyl. Unlike a wood floor, a vinyl floor cannot be repaired and rejuvenated down the line, meaning that when your vinyl floor begins to look lacklustre, you will need to replace your vinyl flooring, which can be costly. However, with wood such as our engineered wood floors, you can easily restore your floor back to its original condition and keep your floors looking rejuvenated for years to come, rather than replaced. With a simple re-oil or re-lacquer, your wood floor can look brand new at a fraction of the price it would cost you to replace them. To learn more about wood floor maintenance, read our handy guides here.

Our Warranty

close up of oak wood floors

Here at V4 Wood Flooring, we know that our floors are going to stand the test of time, and this is supported by our 35-year domestic use guarantee.

Click here to find out more about our promise.

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