Buyers' Guide to Hardwood Flooring

The purchase and installation of hardwood floors throughout the house or certain rooms of the house is a costly affair and has to be undertaken only by qualified specialists and certified technicians as you want to avoid damage or sub-quality installation of the floor. 

What you can do instead is make a decision on what will be the  most suitable type of wood to be used for your floor. In case you are a newbie to wood floors installation specialist stores will be able to provide you with quality, sensible information concerning types of wood, installation methods, maintenance requirements and lots more. Many of the new types of hardwood flooring have specially grooved edges on either side which click together with the next board, similar to the way parquet is clicked together to give complete floor coverage. In general, floorboards are two centimeters thick and the click grooves are five millimeters deep, respectively the edges, known as tongues protrude five millimeters on the other side of the board for snug fit. 

After a proper installation of the floorboards there should be no nail heads showing, there is some nailing required besides the click-on method. What you need to see or rather not see are the nail heads. There are special techniques which allow for the nail heads to be concealed within the board. Make sure your technicians are doing it properly and there are no nails or other construction traces showing on any of the boards. Again, if you are new to wood flooring London based specialists will be able to organize  the installation of the floor properly so ask them when you purchase the floorboards – don't attempt to do it on your own, not because you won't manage, but in case you don't – the mess will be colossal. 

Another thing to consider is Janka, this isn't a lady from Eastern Europe but an average hardness rating given to different wood species thus determining their suitability for the flooring task. A Janka rating of about five is soft wood, whereas ratings of about fourteen is tough stuff.