Hardwood flooring brings unbeatable elegance and beauty to any home. Versatile, durable, and attractive, hardwood is one of the most popular flooring materials available today. However, despite its popularity, hardwood does have two major drawbacks: it can be prohibitively expensive, and installation is a drawn-out process that can take weeks! When you want the gorgeous appearance and long life span of hardwood flooring without the cost or messy installation, pre-finished wood flooring is your best bet.

Pre-finished hardwood flooring is a new type of floor that combines the beauty of wood with super easy installation. Unlike laminate flooring, pre-finished hardwood is real wood: a thin layer of hardwood is adhered to a backing of composite wood. This offers the same attractive looks of hardwood flooring, but since less of the high-end hardwood is used in the floor, the costs are much lower.

Pre-finished hardwood also has the benefit of being sanded, stained, and sealed at the factory, eliminating the need to do these steps in your home. Traditional solid hardwood flooring is installed unfinished and subsequently sanded and sealed. With the drying time needed between coats of polyurethane, this process can actually take more than a week! And, although dust containment systems are much more sophisticated than in the past, the sanding can create quite a mess. With pre-finished wood flooring, installation is a one or two day job and virtually-mess free!

Additionally, most pre-finished wood floors are installed as floating floors, an installation method where the flooring planks connect to each other, rather than being nailed into the subflooring. Again, this allows for quick, hassle-free installation. In fact, in many cases, you don’t even have to remove your old flooring first; pre-finished floating wood floors can be installed on top of linoleum, laminate, concrete, and even old wood floors without any adverse effects!

And, because the top layer of your pre-finished hardwood flooring is made of real wood, this type of floor can even be refinished like traditional hardwood. Unlike laminate that has to be replaced when it becomes scratched and worn, pre-finished flooring can be sanded and resealed to restore its gleam and luster. Depending on the thickness of the hardwood veneer, your pre-finished wood floors can be refinished several times over the course of their lifetime.

Although wood-look flooring is available today in startling number of options-from traditional hardwood to laminate-pre-finished hardwood flooring gives you the appearance and benefits of real wood without the cost or hassle of solid wood. If you’re ready to add pre-finished wood flooring to your home, visit your local flooring store to select your beautiful floor and schedule your easy installation.

Worn carpeting in the living room? Shabby-looking linoleum in the kitchen? Tired, outdated floors throughout your house? It’s time to update your home with new flooring! Not only do hardwood, laminate, and tile revitalize your house with clean, modern looks, they also increase the value of your home. So whether you’re thinking of selling your house soon or just want to freshen its appearance, new flooring is a win-win solution!

Hardwood Flooring

Without a doubt, hardwood flooring is one of the fastest, easiest ways to increase the value of your home. Homeowners love it’s glossy, elegant appearance, and buyers are frequently willing to pay a premium for this long-lasting, gorgeous flooring material. In fact, according to the National Wood Flooring Association, “in a national survey of real estate agents, 90 percent said that houses with wood flooring sell faster and for higher prices than houses without wood floors.” So if you’re putting your house on the market and want it to sell fast, hardwood floors are probably your best bet: you’ll sell quickly and for a better price than without wood floors!

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring is a beautiful, cost-effective solution for many areas of your home. You may especially want to consider laminate for areas unsuited to hardwood floor-such as finished basements or even bathrooms. Laminate offers the handsome appearance of hardwood, but stands up to moisture with greater durability; laminate performs spectacularly in high humidity rooms (basements and bathrooms) that cause swelling, warping, and other serious problems in hardwood. Especially if you’re finishing a basement or redoing an older style bath, laminate is the perfect choice for beautiful flooring and added value.

Tile Flooring

Tile flooring is durable, sturdy, and scratch resistant, meaning it will stand up to the wear and tear of years of use. For this very reason, many homeowners prefer tile for high-use areas such as entryways, mudrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. Tile floors have the added benefit of being water resistant, so it doesn’t matter if the kids leave their wet shoes by the door or splash in the tub! Because tile is so resilient, many consider it a “lifetime floor,” meaning it will last as long as the house: buyers often regard this as great value in a home.

If it’s time for new floors in your home, you can renew your home’s appearance and add value at the same time. Talk to your local flooring contractor about what types of flooring are best for your home and your needs. They’ll be able to recommend specific products to help you maximize your budget for the optimum increase in home value.

Most people focus on appearance when selecting a new floor for their home. However, material is perhaps even more important than looks-an attractive floor can easily be ruined if it’s not suitable for your house or climate. Particular types of floors are more susceptible to climate-based problems than others; we’ve highlighted a few types of flooring to help you understand what does and doesn’t work in the Boston area.

Carpet Flooring

Carpeting is probably the least susceptible to climate issues. Unless you live in an area with extremely high humidity (i.e. not the Boston area), carpet should perform beautifully in your home or office. Do keep in mind that if carpeting in Attleboro or the entire surrounding region is installed below grade, you need to protect it from moisture with an underlayment. For specifics about correct installation and more information about carpet in Mansfield and other area towns, check out your local flooring store.

Hardwood Flooring

Wood flooring can be especially susceptible to humidity. While the Boston area certainly doesn’t have the 90% humidity of the South, summer humidity is consistently in the 70-80% range. High humidity causes hardwood flooring to swell, expanding and sometimes even warping. While wood flooring is generally alright in homes throughout New England, if you live near the water (where humidity levels are the greatest), you may want to consider engineered hardwood floors. For example, we recommend this type of wood flooring in Providence because of the proximity of Rhode Island Sound. Engineered hardwood gives you the same beauty of wood flooring but reduces the vulnerability to humidity.

Tile Flooring

While most tile floors are perfect for indoor use throughout New England, many are not appropriate for outdoor use. Tile installed outside in places like Pawtucket, Wrentham, and the whole region will be exposed to a vicious cycle of freezing and thawing that can cause it to break, crack, and chip. To get the most out of your tile floor in Boston, it should be installed indoors, not as a patio, walkway, or porch. Indoor tile performance can also be enhanced by using a moisture barrier to protect subflooring as well as completely sealing the tile with a penetrating grout sealer.

Laminate and Linoleum Flooring

Laminate and linoleum flooring have a well-deserved reputation for durability, resiliency, and affordability. For the most part, they live up to that fame under all climate conditions. Linoleum can be faded by long-term exposure to bright sunlight, so even in northern regions like New England, you’ll need to use blinds as well as occasionally rearrange the furniture to prevent noticeable discoloration. And not all types of laminate can handle extreme temperatures, so for laminate in Stoughton and the rest of Massachusetts you may want to consider the additional durability of high pressure laminate. No matter what type of linoleum or laminate flooring you select, you should get great results with correct installation and care!

So whether you’re dreaming of luxurious carpet in Foxborough or elegant tile in Mansfield, be sure to consider the appropriateness of the floor you choose. Your local flooring store should be able to offer expert advice on durability and vulnerability to humidity and temperature to help you get a beautiful floor perfect for your area.

We’ve all heard the news reports about the dire state of the American real estate market, but just because the economy is down doesn’t mean that selling your home is impossible. Whether you’ve been trying to sell your home for months or you’ve been thinking about putting your house on the market, a kitchen remodel is a fail-safe way to add value to your home and decrease selling time.

The appearance of your kitchen is crucial to selling your home. Out of your entire house, the kitchen is likely the only single room that can make or break a sale. As California real estate agent Sherry Lee Cox stated in an article on the Real Estate Network, “Buyers are usually passionate about the kitchen in any home they are considering buying.” So, especially if you have worn linoleum or tired-looking Formica countertops, it makes sense to refresh your kitchen a bit if you’re trying to sell.

Now, just to be clear, we’re not talking about a complete top-to-bottom kitchen remodel. According to the Wall Street Journal, a full kitchen remodel (with appliances) cost over $54,000 in 2006, and sellers only recouped 80% of that cost! A small scale renovation is more cost effective and doesn’t drain as much capital from your pocket. The same Wall Street Journal article pointed out, “Less drastic jobs, such as changing out countertops and refinishing existing cabinets, bring better returns…”

There are a number of small changes you can make to bring out the best in your kitchen, from replacing an old porcelain sink to adding cheerful new curtains. The two best improvements you can make are replacing the flooring and installing new countertops; not only are these remodeling jobs relatively affordable, they also give you the most bang for your buck. That’s because in the last five or ten years, market standards for kitchens have shifted away from synthetic materials like vinyl flooring and laminate counters to hardwood floors and stone countertops. For your home to be competitive in the housing market, your kitchen needs to live up to these standards.

The most desirable kitchens today feature hardwood flooring and solid surface stone countertops. Depending on your budget, it’s best to remodel both areas of your kitchen in order to keep the overall look coherent; replacing your laminate counters with granite slabs only does so much good if your floor is still 20-year-old vinyl! The good news is that with all of the different stone countertop and wood flooring materials available today you’re sure to be able to find quality products that fit within your price range.

Remember, it’s best not to go overboard when you’re making small improvements as an investment. In order to recoup as much of your initial outlay as possible, you need to keep spending in check. Focus on the areas of your kitchen that would most benefit from an update and shop around for budget-priced materials. For example, imported granite countertops are gorgeous, but so are the less-expensive engineered quartz counters.

Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind that even if you don’t recover 100% of your investment, remodeling your kitchen is worth it in the end. Home buyers will fall in love with your fresh, modern kitchen, whereas a dated, tired, or nondescript kitchen might turn them off. The improvements you make to your kitchen will invariably be what sell the house: real estate broker Daniel Johnson of Colorado tells of two comparable homes in his area, one “with a refurbished kitchen, listed at $710,000, [that] recently sold, while an identical unit without the new kitchen, listed at $699,000, has had no takers.” So, even if your investment isn’t completely recouped, the kitchen renovations will attract buyers and produce results. As Johnson says, “Upgraded kitchens sell units.”