So you are thinking of installing some strip hardwood flooring in your home. Before you embarking on this important renovation there are a few things that you should know about both strip hardwood and laminate hardwood flooring.

First of all keep in mind that strip hardwood flooring is called several things including a prefinished hardwood floor, an engineered floor or an interlocking floor.  This strip hardwood flooring is usually sold in widths of less than four inches. If you see prefinished plank flooring strips that are wider than four inches than avoid it like the plague. These floors tend to shrink, collect dirt and show large seams that expose your subfloor. In fact here is a rule of thumb to remember – the wider the floor plank the more likely it is to shrink, swell, contract or warp according to the amount of dryness or moisture in the air.

When you are shopping for strip flooring try assembling a few of the pieces of strip flooring yourself before you take it home. The sales people will hate you but try assembling about ten to fifteen feet of the interlocking pieces yourself. This is the only way to tell if the pieces are well milled and if they interlock easily together. You should also check to see if the floorboards seem uneven or if the seams seem like something that can catch your toe.  Make sure the ends are well finished and have a bit of a bevel.

The reason that it is recommended that you go to all this trouble to check the quality of the floorboards is because the strip floorboards that most stores have on display often contain pieces that are superior or heavier in weight than what is usually contained in the box that you take home.  So to avoid future problems such as bumpy or rough looking floors, “try before you buy!”

Keep in mind that hardwood flooring only really looks any good on subfloors that are perfectly straight. So what do you do if you are stuck with a crooked floor?

One very popular solution for the crooked sub floor is the floating laminated floor. These types of floors don’t have to be glued down like the heavier hardwood floor strips. These come as separate boards that look like strip floor segments or as panels. In most cases, you simply install these buy gluing them to each other over a foam pad.  One word of advice when it comes to buying laminated floating stores is to buy the thinnest panels or strips possible. Although the larger laminated strips or panels are easier to install, after a few months you will notice that they collect quite a bit of dirt between their seams.

Finally try to avoid laminated wood planks that have softwood cores. Softwood backed laminated wood planks have a habit of absorbing moisture and warping your floor. This is because hardwoods and plywood have two very different ways of absorbing moisture from the air.