Carpets or hardwood flooring? It’s a debate that has been ongoing for decades. While carpet has its benefits, such as being inexpensive, quieter, and softer in your home, it also has many disadvantages. It shows dirt and grime, and it doesn’t last long. Here are nine reasons we recommend hardwood flooring for your home.
Hardwood Floors Work in More Areas in Your Home
Carpeting just isn’t appropriate for kitchens and bathrooms. Hardwood floors are better in these spaces, as there’s less worry about spills and water damage. Carpets can trap moisture, which is the first step to mold and mildew. While it may be softer to walk on carpet in the bathroom or kitchen, hardwood floors are easier to keep clean and more effective in rooms that share space with water or liquids.
Hardwood Floors Are Durable and Don’t Degrade
Even with the best care, carpets don’t take long to show off traffic patterns. Deep cleaning or moving furniture won’t prevent traffic patterns on carpet. Wood flooring is sturdy and more durable.
Carpet has a lifespan of 5 to 15 years, depending on the type of carpet, the fibers, and level of wear and tear. Ideally, you’ll want to replace or remove carpet after seven years. Hardwood floors can last decades when properly installed and maintained.
Hardwood Floors Don’t Accumulate Dirt and Stains
Messes on the carpet are often challenging to remove. Liquids can penetrate the padding below the carpet and hold smells and grime.
Hardwood floors are easier to clean and maintain. If you spill something, you can wipe it up with towels and ensure it doesn’t penetrate the floor. We recommend using a dustmop on the floor once per week to sweep up dirt, then spritzing dirty areas with water and wiping it with a microfiber cloth to remove any grime. No fuss, no smells, no stains on your hardwood floor.
Also, if you want some extra assurance of the cleanliness of your hardwood floors, you can use the BONA Hardwood Ultimate Cleaning Kit! Our friends at BONA believe in keeping homes clean in a sustainable way. Having designed their cleaning products to be better for the environment and safer for children and pets, BONA has ensured that you can keep your home as spotless as your conscience.
Hardwood Floors Reduce Allergies
Carpet fibers not only attract pollen, dust, and dirt, but they trap these allergens, as well. Allergens can even get trapped in the carpet pad beneath the carpet, which means you’ll never get them vacuumed up. When someone walks across the carpet, it releases these tiny particles into the air.
The toughest vacuums can’t always pick up the tiniest particles, so getting rid of allergens in the carpet is difficult and time-consuming. Choose an elegant, engineered hardwood floor that replaces the dirtier carpet and enjoy cleaner air in your home.
Hardwood Floors Upgrade the Home
Wood is a popular material for home furnishings and décor. It’s warm and inviting, elegant and luxurious. When used correctly, a wood floor can make your home look more prestigious. Some woods are very sustainable, but there are also types of hardwood flooring materials that are completely recycled and sustainable. You can find options that suit your needs and budget to make your home look the way you want.
Hardwood Floors Increase Your Home’s Value
Home buyers respond well to wood floors. Realtor.com confirms that home buyers are looking for hardwood floors in the kitchen, living room, dining room, and even the master suite. You may be able to recoup up to 80% of the investment when you sell. But what if you already have hardwood floors? Well, by simply having them refinished, you could recoup up to 100% of your investment!
When you sell, hardwood floors can give your home more value in the marketplace. They are an investment in your home, whether you’re planning on moving soon or not.
Wood Flooring Is on Trend
Home styles come and go, but if there’s one material that has been on trend for many decades, it’s wood. Wood brings us closer to nature, which is just one reason that so many people incorporate wood into their living design.
There are many wood floor designs for any aesthetic, from rustic to industrial to contemporary. Even if you change your furnishings or paint the walls, you don’t have to worry about your flooring fitting into your new scheme. Carpeting can look outdated after a few years when color trends change.
Hardwood Flooring Is Versatile
Once you install carpeting, it’s hard to change it without completely tearing it out. With engineered wood flooring, you can use rugs to soften the space or change the décor. Depending on your mood and style, you can also choose to leave the hardwood exposed. Area rugs come in all colors and styles, so you can change them with the season as much as you want.
You don’t get that with carpeting. If you do want a significant change to your hardwood floors, you don’t have to replace them altogether. Most flooring options can be re-stained and re-sealed. You can go darker or lighter to get an entirely new look.
Hardwood Floors Are Sustainable
It can be difficult to recycle carpet, but most recycling centers can more easily process hardwood flooring when you do need to replace it. The process of making carpet involves more chemical emissions from manufacturing which impacts the environment more than the process for hardwood floors. Although you can find biodegradable carpet materials, they tend to be expensive and won’t last as long as hardwood.
Is Hardwood Right For Your Home?
We’ve all been spending more time at home these past couple of years, so if you’re ready to swap out your carpets for hardwood flooring, talk to the experts at SVB Wood Floors in Kansas City.
We offer free consultations and quotes to help you transform your floors with elegant hardwood flooring. With professional installation, your hardwood flooring will enhance your home. If you already have wood flooring that needs some maintenance, we have repair and restoration services, as well!
