Hardwood flooring is exotic, beautiful, durable and adds value to your home. Although color is the #1 choice for flooring shoppers when deciding on a floor, don’t go by color when buying your hardwood floor for very good reason:

Some of the most beautiful and eye-catching hardwoods also happen to be the softest and damage prone. Your pines, walnuts and cherry’s have unsurpassed beauty. I’ve seen many shoppers literally lock their eyes on them and drift towards them like hypnotized zombies.

But these woods are very soft. So soft, you can scratch the sample boards with your fingernails. They are not meant to withstand a family of 7 children with rollerblades, soccer shoes and bicycles being ridden around. Nor are they for elephant sized dogs with claws like werewolves.

So where would you put these hardwood floors? Think of a very low traffic area – a rarely used dining room, your cabin getaway where it doesn’t see much action or even an elderly person’s home where the wear and tear will be minimal.

PSI’s or pounds per square inch measure hardwoods in hardness. The higher the number, the harder the wood. Pines, cherry’s and walnuts are around 1000 PSI’s. Oaks around 1600. Maples – 2300. Hickory – 2600. This gives you an idea of each hardwood’s relative strength.

But don’t be deceived.

The question I get a lot of is will a 2600 PSI Hickory Hardwood floor withstand my zoo of a home? Will it scratch? Have you ever seen a tree that doesn’t scratch? Look, wood is wood. It’s a natural product so yes it will scratch given enough abuse has been thrown at it. Don’t fall for a salespersons story that it will look great after 7 years worth of Times Square traffic. It won’t! If this is the type of traffic, you are anticipating, stick with laminate or tile.

Think about it. When your dog is running on your hardwood floor, at one point while it’s momentarily airborne, its entire weight transfers to its front legs. Now if you have a heavy dog, all that weight is being put on its front claws as it gets ready to launch off them for the next stride. So yes, a hardwood will scratch given the right conditions.

Tip #1: If you’re laying tile flooring and want to make the room look bigger, use larger sized tiles (18 x 18 or larger) and lay them on a 45 degree angle (diamond pattern). What this does is draw your eye to the two widest points of each tile, giving your flooring the illusion of a larger space. And the larger sized tiles have less grout lines to look at so your flooring doesn’t look as ‘busy’ across your a larger area as say a 12 x 12 would.

Just keep in mind installing tile on a 45 uses more tile because there are more cuts to be made.

Tip #2: If you want a clean, contemporary look, ask your installer to use the narrowest grout lines possible, either a 1/8 or 3/16 and for natural stone 1/16. Larger grout lines give a more rustic, earthy look. And higher gloss (polished) tiles are contemporary whereas heavily grooved and rough give an aged, worn look.

Tip #3: To give your flooring another illusionary trick, lighter colors give the room a more spacious feel while darker colors give it a cozier, smaller feel.

Tip #4: There are many flooring patterns available so don’t hesitate to use them! Too many shoppers I met would obsess over what flooring everyone else is doing. This is your home, not anyone else’s and you should get the floor that makes you happy. Don’t be afraid of not looking like everyone else. That’s the whole point! if you want to differentiate a room, then lay different flooring.

Tip #5: I’m a big fan of using matching or contrasting inserts to transform the flooring into a masterpiece. But not many really can create a room. You know, these deco pieces, listellos and natural stone inserts may cost you a couple hundred dollars all up but they give your room an unsurpassed look. Now I strongly recommend when doing these special flooring designs to only hire a certified flooring installer. DON’T TRY and do them yourself unless you really know what you’re doing. I’ve seen it too many times.

For example, for every insert, you need to make 4 cuts, one for each connecting tile. These cuts need to be pretty much right on, otherwise any unevenness will flash at you right away once its installed. And if you insist on doing it yourself, just remember two very important words: wet saw and diamond blade!

One of the most common flooring solutions for the bathroom is ceramic tiles. However, who wants to be like everyone else when you can be unique. An alternate solution for flooring in your bathroom is cork flooring. Cork flooring is made out of cork from the cork oak tree (Quercus Suber) which is grown in southwestern Europe and Northwestern Africa. One of the major benefits of cork flooring is the fact it’s eco-friendly and safe for the environment. The method used to harvest cork doesn’t harm the cork oak tree and allows it to re-grow and be harvested over and over again. So, not only would you have unique flooring in your bathroom, you would also be helping the environment.

One of the primary things you need when look for a bathroom flooring solution is a floor type that can withstand moisture and water. Unlike other types of wood flooring cork is an excellent product for this type of situation. Cork flooring has a waxy substance that naturally occurs in it called Suberin. This substance allows cork to withstand moisture, mold, mildew and bacteria growth. This makes cork flooring an excellent bathroom flooring solution. Tests have proven that cork flooring is also resistant to insects and has anti-static properties to prevent the build up of allergens and dander.

Cork flooring is also easy to keep clean and require little maintanence; monthly mopping with a damp mop and a PH balanced detergent is all that’s required to keep your cork flooring looking brand new. It’s also simple for the do-it-yourself type to install, many types of cork flooring don’t even require glue. If you want to learn more about cork flooring than visit the CorkFlooringPros.com website and view how-to guides, articles, faq and pictures of cork flooring.