09.2.2010 | 5:00 pm | Flooring
The weather is getting warmer and the flowers are blooming, but your home may still look and feel as though it is stuck in the winter holiday season. Most homeowners dread spring cleaning and the expensive home improvement projects that may accompany it, but freshening up your home this season should only account for a fraction of your time and budget.
These home improvement tips will help you create a comfortable living environment that will not only improve your home’s value, but welcome the quickly approaching spring and summer seasons.
Hardwood Flooring
After the ambush of holiday visitors, your carpet probably looks like it has seen better days. Instead of trying to save your dingy carpets, opt to install hardwood flooring.
Hardwood flooring has maintained its popularity for many years due to the high resale value it adds to a home, its durability, its ease of repair and its luxurious look. Hardwood flooring’s flexibility allows homeowners to refinish and stain their floors in a variety of dramatic colors. In order to create a fresh spring look, stick to the lighter hardwood flooring stains. A lighter shade of flooring will bounce light throughout the house, while a darker floor tends to absorb light.
Rugs
Rugs are great for camouflaging stained or worn flooring, yet they often times act as an overbearing touch to a cluttered room. Stash your dark and ornate oriental rugs and instead choose bright floor coverings. A few strategically placed area rugs in light, colorful shades will help hide stains, while incorporating a clean, spring look for your home.
Removing area rugs completely is another option that will create a streamline look throughout your home. This small, subtle change will not only help save the wear and tear of your rugs, but will also help create a simple, fresh look.
Lighting
During spring, days are longer and the sun seems brighter, creating the opportunity to use natural light. Take advantage of this opportunity and install window treatments that will allow the maximum amount of light into your home. One way to utilize natural light is to install plantation shutters, which are a popular window treatment trend this season. Plantation shutters’ versatility makes them appropriate for both traditional and contemporary home styles. This window treatment style provides a sophisticated beach feel to your home while adding to your home’s value, insulation and light regulation.
Visit www.westcoastflooring.com to learn more about plantation shutters and other spring window treatments for your home.
Whether you decide to spiff up your entire home this spring, or just remodel a few select rooms, it is important to improve features that enhance not only the look, but the value of your home.
This article is provided by West Coast Flooring Center, one of the largest flooring stores in Southern California, offering flooring services with a wide variety of quality flooring options and other home improvement services.
West Coast Flooring is currently offering weekly, limited-time specials to represent a different home improvement product or service that would work best in the kitchen, family room, bathroom and foyer. Find the latest West Coast Flooring offers for your spring home improvement projects today.
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08.11.2010 | 10:14 am | Flooring
You want to invite your office friends and want to make reputation also. Why not everyone wants praise to friend’s mouth but it may vain in all if your home is not shinning furnished. Yes home flooring is very important. Let’s look down at our floors. What do you see? Do you have granite flooring tile? Are they beautiful or not? Please sit down on sofa and think about home flooring that how to make shinning it? What can be done to the floors to make them pop? There are a lot of things that can be done. You can change home flooring.
Just we are talking about Indian granite tiles. That is natural and shinning better than all. That is pretty obviously. Indian granite tile is popular all over the world because millions clients used it. Indian granite flooring is itself naturally attractive and natural color also. There are not needs to polish to home flooring.
If you do not have the time to change the old flooring, then you will think of other options. Granite floorings are a great way to change the floor. Its take little time that are depend on flooring size and there are some that are small and can accent the room. Granite placing under the coffee table or in front of the TV and under it’s or design to a room according room design. You will be amazing how much just adding one can change the look of the room in short period. These granite tiles can be find different colors with a great design to enhance the home or it can be one that is shinning and adds character to the room.
Granite flooring is no need to change time to time, its long life. You can purchase granite tiles for just this purpose. You can find all color granite flooring tiles i.e. dark, yellow, green, white, and black for the floor. These flooring tiles are suitable for dinning room, sitting room, kitchen and more. If you wood painted your floor then you are able to replace. Take your time and renew the floor but home floor will great looks to all relations and friends.
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08.2.2010 | 12:02 am | Flooring
Madera Floors provides professional quality wood flooring services including installation, sanding, refinishing, repairs, maintenance, and custom design. At Madera, we only use the highest quality materials/finishes and are always up to date on technological advancements in the wood floor industry. We target contractors, designers, corporate clients, and homeowners in the Northern VA, MD and D.C. areas. Madera’s goal is to meet our client’s budget and timeline while exceeding expectations, thus resulting in repeat business.
Madera Floors specializes in custom finishing, installations and material sourcing for all of your hardwood flooring needs. As flooring contractors, we are always abreast of new techniques and materials in the industry, which allows us to grow while remaining environmentally friendly. As a certified CMP installer we can also perform self-leveling concrete installations. Every project represents our organization; hence our great strides to achieve perfection on each individual project.
Hardwood floors are an investment that will last for a long time with the proper installation and care. There are different modes of installation for engineered wood strips, solid wood strips, and parquet. With all modes of installation moisture testing is imperative to ensure proper installation. Installation can be a painstaking process but we take pride in leaving your home or business looking as beautiful as we found it. Our expert technicians have seen every situation and are proficient in the three different types of installation for hardwood flooring.
Nail Down/Staple Installation In this method we nail down or staple solid or engineered wood strips to the sub-flooring (usually either plywood or plank wood). The floor is done with random length strips. A few strips are placed down and arranged prior to fastening to ensure proper placement and tautness.Glue Down Installation In this method we glue down engineered wood strips or parquet directly to the sub-floor. In these cases the subfloor is usually concrete, so we pay extra attention to moisture.
With glue down installations, it is important to consider any kind of allergies and sensitivities to smell. We use an acrylic based glue which is more mild than some of the other options. Glue down installations can be walked on the next day and furniture can also be moved in.
Floating Installation In this method we glue together the tongue and groove of every plank and the floor floats over a foam cushioned padding. If the flooring has a locking system we can lock the pieces together without glue. This can be used with either laminate or engineered wood floor, but either way the flooring is pre-finished. Not all engineered surfaces can be floated. Floating installation can also be placed over sub-flooring of questionable quality unlike the other two modes. Also, floating floors are a great option if you have multiple layers of flooring and do not want to remove them all. With floating installation the wear layer is important to consider as the thicker the layer the more times it can be refinished. Generally, laminate flooring gives a hollow feeling underfoot with this mode of installation. Remember that floating floors expand and contract as a unit because the pieces are fused together. Allow for as much expansion area as possible.
Refinishing and sanding your hardwood floors is necessary to preserve their quality and beauty. Any refinishing is done solely to enhance the woods natural color and protect it from the elements. The best time to sand and refinish your hardwood floors is when you move into a new house or apartment as all of the furniture, rugs, etc. need to be removed from the area during the process. Proper refinishing should last about 10 years. However, high traffic rooms will need to be done more often.
Pre-finished Hardwood Floors These are the new main stream products in hardwood flooring. They can be acrylic impregnated, engineered, or solid. They have a tough factory finish, which is the main reason for its popularity. They are also extremely easy to install and eliminate the need for messy sanding. Most pre-finished floors done within the last ten years are urethane finished. Test this by placing a couple drops of water on an obscure area. If the area turns white after 15 minutes, you have a waxed finish. Older floors are likely to have shellac or varnish finishes. Unfortunately these do not work well with the newer urethane finishes and must be completely removed if you want a urethane finish. There is also likely to be some amount of aluminum oxide in the newer prefinished floors.
Unfinished Hardwood This type of flooring comes in solid and engineered, and both must be job site finished. They come in varying lengths and widths. Sanding and finishing can take anywhere from a few days to a week depending on size, stain, and number of top finish coats. Generally the finishes are oil or water based. Our first priority is to protect the beauty of your home so whether you have finished or unfinished floors, we section off other areas and furniture to prevent sanding dust from spreading throughout your home. Our expert technicians also use dust containment systems to limit the amount of dust in the air. And with refinishing, it is important to have as little air flow as possible in the area as airborne particles can become embedded into the newly applied finish. Something as simple as foot traffic or turning on the air conditioner/heating system can kick up dust. So it is better to allow more time to dry to avoid problem areas in your floors.
Many things can happen to a floor over the years. Termites, cable holes, leaky roofs, sink overflows, cats, dogs and reconfigured spaces can leave holes or very odd-looking stains in your hardwood. All is not lost!
Boards can be replaced in such a way that no one will be able to tell that new wood has been added to the floors. When replacing boards, we take care to lace the new boards in with the old ones, so there is not a square or rectangle shape where the boards have been replaced.Other precautions are taken to match up the wood as best as possible. As wood ages, it darkens. This is why we purchase reclaimed wood in various sizes and species. If aged wood is not available for your floor, we take care to stain the boards that we are replacing to match the color of your existing floor as close as possible.
Custom Wood Floors are a medium of specialty floor coverings that includes, but not limited to these Types of Custom Wood Floors: Accents, Borders, Domestic Species, Exotic Species, Feature Strip, Inlays, Marquetry, Mixed Media, Medallions & Crest, Painted or stenciled, Parquet, Parquetry, Plank, Reclaimed & Recovered,Distressed, Specialty Products, Stained-Tinted or Colors Developed during the middle ages in Europe, elaborate designs, borders, inlays & medallions were crafted for significant buildings such as castles, & monasteries. Today these wood flooring styles are reflected in the modern day manufacturing and can be enhanced with something as simple as a strip border around the perimeter of the room or as ornate as a coat of arms in a foyer or a great room. Using exotic woods from around the world, these custom designs & patterns can add to and become the center focal point of any room. Giving each room a Custom-one-of-a-kind wood floor. Custom designs can give a homeowner a “one-of-a-kind” floor and is a wonderful way to put your personality and individual character in a home. The choices of pattern, design, exotic woods sources and an artistic flare can provide a limitless number of possibilities.
Floors with oil and urethane-type finishes are extremely durable. With just minimal care your floor will look beautiful for years to come. The key to preserving your floor is protecting its finish. Hardwood floors require minimal care, but it is important that you provide regular care.
Visit us online at: www.maderafloors.com
Visit our blog at: www.maderafloors.blogspot.com
Thanks
Madera Floors. Fairfax, VA.
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