Hardwood Floors
Natural beauty and lasting durability. The enduring appeal of hardwood flooring is in its timeless look and the value it adds to your home. Armstrong offers the most choices in styles, finishes, and installation options to fit your taste, lifestyle, and budget.
But with so many choices, there’s a lot to think about beyond choosing the right color and wood species. Armstrong takes the guesswork out of the selection process by explaining the important considerations you need to know before buying. To learn more, check out our hardwood flooring guide. Your local flooring store can also help in finding the perfect match for you and your home.
Customer Review
We recently had the Armstrong Hickory American Scrape hardwood floor in the River House color installed in our entire first floor. We are very happy with the finished look of the product and the durable construction. We choose a hardwood floor with a more distressed finish because we have two dogs and the distressing helps to hide any scrapes or scratches caused by the dogs. This wood flooring does have a lot of knots and rough patches, but that is one of the things we really liked about it. Our contractor did say he had trouble nailing in the boards because the wood is so hard, but overall the installation looks beautiful.
Steph53, Ohio
4/16/14
Very Rustic, Very Nice Looking Floors
Is Hardwood Flooring The Right Choice?
A hardwood floor is beautiful in its own right. The richness and character of natural wood grain enhances just about every décor and design style. Still, these floors are an investment. By knowing the answer to why buy a hardwood floor?, you’ll feel confident that you made the right choice.
For example, hardwood floors can last for generations, so they don’t need to be replaced as often as other flooring options. They’re non-allergenic, a big plus for homeowners with allergies or pets. Hardwood also offers the environmental benefit of being the most abundantly renewable flooring material available. And, of course, hardwood flooring increases the value of your home and boosts its appeal when it comes time to sell.
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Kids, Pets, And Durability
Hardwood flooring is typically durable for most areas in your home – even high-traffic areas. But keep in mind that hardwood is a natural product. Things like athletic shoes with cleats, a stone in a boot tread, and pet claws can leave scratches or marks if you’re not careful. For rooms where hardwood flooring is installed, use area rugs and ask friends and family to leave their athletic shoes or boots at the door. Where your pets are concerned, it’s a good idea to get their nails trimmed regularly.
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Solid Hardwood vs. Engineered Hardwood
Each board manufactured for solid wood flooring is cut from a single piece of wood. Thickness and width can vary greatly, and surface treatments may affect the finished look, but the board is still a solid piece from top to bottom. Solid wood flooring can be installed above or on grade (above or at ground level).
Engineered hardwood consists of a top layer of high quality wood with several cross-directional layers, including a high density fiberboard (HDF) core, underneath. The layers are fused together under heat and pressure to create a board with enhanced structural integrity that makes them less reactive to changes in temperature and humidity. When comparing engineered vs solid hardwood flooring, keep in mind the key distinction is the installation method and location.
Hardwood Flooring Cost
It’s important to know the cost factors involved with a hardwood flooring installation, so you can plan your budget and get the hardwood floor you really want. The primary factors are: the flooring (priced per square foot) and the labor for installation.
Armstrong’s project estimator is a great tool for getting an approximate hardwood flooring cost. The project estimator will guide you through sometimes overlooked expenses, such as the removal of existing flooring, subfloor replacement, additional materials like underlayment, trims, and moldings, and installation costs.