Hardwood floors stand out as a sustainable flooring choice, making them a smart investment for any home. Whether you’re seeking to match existing hardwood floors with another room or to fix a small area, matching existing and new hardwood is important for preserving their cohesion and beauty.
Matching hardwood floors is more than just selecting flooring that resembles the surface of your existing hardwood. Factors such as species, grade, width, thickness, finish, and stain all contribute to achieving a seamless match. Follow our tips below to find the perfect match for your new hardwood flooring!
Species of Wood
Identifying the species (type of wood) of your current hardwood floors is a great start in matching your hardwood. Each wood species has unique characteristics and looks. The most popular hardwood flooring species are oak, hickory, maple, and walnut.
Click here for our guide on differentiating between flooring!
Grade of Wood
The grade of wood is critical in matching your hardwood floors. The grade of wood is a classification system based on quality, appearance, and strength. It evaluates factors such as knots, grain patterns, splits, warping, and overall appearance. A higher grade usually indicates less overall grain movement & knots.
There are systematic evaluations to determine the grade of your wood such as the the National Hardwood Lumber Association. Higher-grade flooring will have a more uniform appearance and grain pattern and fewer knots, blemishes, and defects. The color and tone can also affect the grade of your wood.
If you’re unsure about the grade of your hardwood flooring, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. At Barnum Floors we have more than 25 years of experience and a crew full of certified professionals.
Width and Thickness of Wood
To streamline new and existing flooring, measuring the width and thickness of your original hardwood floors plays a significant role. Installing hardwood that is not the same width can cause your flooring to look uneven, and installing hardwood with a different thickness can cause an uneven surface. A common project we assist customers with is adding hardwood to another area of the house. For instance, wood may be installed in the kitchen, entry & dining room, but the customer wants wood in the family room. This involves lacing or “sewing” the wood together to make it appear like all of it has been hardwood from the beginning. This makes it more critical to be sure all characteristics of the existing wood are matched.
Measuring the width of your existing hardwood can be done with a measuring tape, but measuring the thickness can be complicated, so leaving that up to a professional is best to find the right match.
Stain and Finish of Wood
Choosing the correct species, grade, width, and thickness is not enough; selecting the right stain and finish is equally important. Depending on the age and color of your existing floors, you may need to refinish them or customize a mix of stains and finishes for your new floors.
Reach Out To Barnum Floors!
With the untrained, normal eye it can be tricky selecting and matching a species, grade, width, thickness, stain, and finish of wood, so that’s why we’re here to help! Barnum Floors is a local, family-owned business specializing in hardwood floors, so we pride ourselves on living and breathing hardwood. We can help you decide on matching, installing, and refinishing hardwood floors. Contact us today!
Recent Comments