Flooring

Smooth, shiny flooring might be the norm these days, but it doesn’t suit every home. If you’re looking for something with a little more character, handscraped hardwood flooring has plenty of personality to offer.

Also known as hand-sculpted flooring, handscraped flooring is finished with traditional hand tools to give it a rougher surface and the mark of individual craftsmanship.

How Handscraped Flooring is Different

For the last several decades, glossy and satin finishes have been the most popular choices for hardwood floors. Finishes like these haven’t always been possible, though. Before the advent of electrical equipment that could create a flawless surface, floor makers typically used a draw knife to smooth the surface of each board.

It’s a method that requires mastery, but ultimately, it still produces somewhat imperfect results. The uneven dips, scoops, pits, and scrape marks it leaves give every board a unique pattern. Once the only option, this labor-intensive woodworking method is now a rare art.

Traditional, Rustic Character

Original handscraped hardwood flooring is most often found in homes built before 1800, making them reminiscent of times when traditional craftsmanship flourished. If you own a historical home that doesn’t have one of these floors, installing one will add to the authenticity of the interior.

If your home is newer, but you love the ambiance of antique and handcrafted furnishings, a handscraped floor can help you achieve that feeling. Thanks to their modest appearance, these floors suit almost every room in the house, including bedrooms, dining rooms, and entrances.

As another interesting feature, the exact look of the floor’s uneven surface changes with the level and angle of the light. Your floor might look rough and rugged in bright, direct light, but softer in more diffuse lighting.

Carefree Durability

One of the biggest benefits of handscraped flooring is that it can hide minor damage within the other variations in its surface. While a scratch on a glossy floor will be fairly conspicuous, a handscraped floor easily camouflages sizable scrapes and dings. That makes this floor a practical choice for high-traffic areas such as the entryway, living room or kids’ rooms as well as for families with young children or active pets.

Better yet, if your floor does pick up a scratch that stands out, you can repair it yourself just by covering it with a little matching stain and finish.  

Cleaning can be tricky because the floor’s pits and grooves collect grime that’s sometimes hard to get out. Dry-mopping, sweeping or vacuuming once or twice a week helps keep this problem under control.

For deeper cleaning, wet mop once every one to three months. Many handscraped floors are finished with tung oil or another oil, so use a hardwood floor cleaner designed for oil finishes or a solution of 1/2 cup white vinegar in 1 gallon warm water.

The biggest threat to this floor is water. It’s somewhat less water resistant than other types of wood flooring and frequent spills or mop water left standing too often can cause permanent damage. It’s something to consider before you install this flooring in your kitchen.

Refinishing the floor is another potential challenge. If the existing finish becomes damaged, you’ll need to find a floor finish product that requires only buffing and a little hand sanding before application.

If you want to change your floor’s color, though, there’s a good chance the floor will have to be sanded, which can smooth out the handscraped features. Too much sanding and the features will disappear entirely, meaning you’ll need to handscrape the floor again or pay someone to do it.

What to Consider When You Buy

The skill and labor involved in making genuine handscraped flooring means these floors don’t come cheap. Because so many people love the look, but don’t have the budget for the real thing, manufacturers have developed other ways to reproduce a handscraped appearance.

Machine scraping is one of these methods. The problem with this method, especially on cheaper products, is that the machines used give each board the same pattern of pits, scrapes, and other features. It might look all right on one or two boards, but fill the whole floor with them and you’ll end up with a repetitive, tile-like effect that looks anything but handcrafted.

If you decide to go for machine-scraped flooring, make sure you know what the boards look like on a large surface before you buy.

Don’t confuse handscraped hardwood flooring with distressed flooring, either. Distressed flooring is made to mimic the look of a floor that’s gone through years of wear and tear. Distressing is done by machine, usually a brush-like device that repeatedly hits the wood with wires to wear it down.

Handscraped floors are made to look new, but with an artisan’s touch. The amount of handscaping features varies from maker to maker. Some have only light scratches, while others deep groves and other prominent marks.

If you’re hiring a craftsperson to handscrape your floors, you’ll need to discuss the look you have in mind.

Getting the Installation Right

If you decide to have handscraped hardwood floors installed in your home, choose a contractor with experience installing these or other artisan flooring materials.

To create an attractive effect, your installer will need to select each board carefully, so the pattern of handscraped features looks natural and similar boards aren’t placed too close together. Doing the job well takes an installer with an eye for aesthetics.
 
No matter how skilled your contractor, though, the leveling of your floor will be slightly uneven because handscraping produces boards of varying thicknesses. It won’t make much practical difference, but you might notice it when positioning small, light pieces of furniture.

After decades of being disregarded for shiny finishes, handscraped hardwood flooring is coming back into its own. If you’re a fan of handcrafted goods or you want to maintain the traditional character of your older home, these floors can give you the look you want.

While the purchase and installation costs can be high, you’ll get the benefit of a floor that can last many years without visible wear even in high-traffic areas.

A sad-looking old carpet can make the whole room look dated, but a replacement isn’t the only way to get the floor back into shape. Dye can breathe new life into a carpet and save you both money and time compared to a replacement. It’s an especially practical choice if your carpet’s pile is still in good condition, but the surface is faded or stained.

Consider Your Options

For all its benefits, dyeing a carpet still takes a fair amount of work, and it’s irreversible. Before you start picking out dyes, make sure re-coloring is really the best solution to your problem.

If your carpet has stubborn stains, ask a professional about deep cleaning. If you have just a few stains on new carpet, it might be easier to cut out the stained sections and patch them with carpet remnants.

If you do decide to dye, you’ll need to choose between spot dyeing to re-color stained or faded areas and dyeing the whole carpet to change the color.

Think Through the Pros and Cons

Dye is a relatively fast and inexpensive way to rejuvenate a carpet and a skilled application can give you beautiful results. It can’t always produce the color you want, though, and depending on the dye used, you might find it fading faster than you hoped.

Pros: Like-New Carpet for Less

Restored beauty – Especially with kids and pets in the house, carpets can quickly pick up stains that even deep cleaning can’t remove. In sunny rooms, the carpet can fade within just a few years.

In both these situations, the pile might still be perfectly fine, so replacement isn’t really necessary. Dye can restore your carpet’s beauty, so you’re not stuck looking at a splotchy floor. 

A fresh new color – Maybe your carpet isn’t faded or stained, but you’re tired of the color. Dyeing lets you get a new, on-trend color without the cost and waste of tearing out your existing carpet and buying a new one.

Cost savings – Dyeing a carpet costs between 20 to 60 percent less than replacing it, including the cost of labor. If you’re willing to do the job yourself, you’ll save even more. Your only costs will be the relatively inexpensive dye and rental of a sprayer.

Dye is also a cost-effective option if you’re planning to sell your house and want the interior in top form, but you don’t want to invest in brand new carpet.

Less odor – New carpet has a distinct odor that typically comes from the compound 4-phenylcyclohexene (4-PC). It not only smells bad, but can also irritate your eyes and respiratory tract.

You can reduce your exposure by choosing a low-VOC carpet, but even then, you’ll want to stay out of the room for a day or two after installation. Dye produces less odor, and you can use the room the same day. Some dye manufacturers even claim their products are entirely odor free.

Cons: Fewer Color Choices and Potential for Wear

Doesn’t work on all carpets – Dyeing works best on nylon, wool, and silk carpets, but fortunately, most modern carpets are nylon or wool. Acrylic, polyester, and polypropylene fibers don’t absorb dye well and can end up unevenly colored. Some stain-resistant and high-pile carpets, such as shag carpets, don’t dye well, either.

Older, worn carpeting might have to be replaced soon even with dyeing. If you’re unsure, take a sample to a carpet store or have a professional visit your home and help you choose a coloring method.

Limited color choice – A carpet can only be dyed darker, not lighter. The darker the stains you want to hide, the darker the dye you’ll need, and that color might not be exactly what you want. If you have a beige carpet, dyeing it light tan might not be enough to hide all the stains.

Takes some effort – Dyeing a carpet is cheaper than replacing it, but it’s not a quick and easy job. First, there’s the time it takes to find the right color to hide any stains. Then, for the dyeing work, you’ll need to spray the dye onto the carpet with a pressure sprayer and scrub it into the fibers by hand. On the plus side, most dyes dry within an hour.

Potential for staining – Some homeowners find the dye transfers to their socks when they walk on the carpet the first few weeks after dyeing. That also means dye can end up on your pet’s paws and the hands of any small children who play in the room. While most residential carpet dye is non-toxic, the idea of it getting onto your kids and pets can be unsettling.
 
Unpredictable longevity – How long your newly dyed carpet stays looking good depends on the quality of dye, the application, and the condition of the carpet.

Even if the dye is formulated to last for years, if it’s applied incorrectly, you might start seeing stains or uneven coloring show through after just one year. A high-quality dye applied by a knowledgeable professional can last 10 years or longer.

DIY Dyeing Versus Hiring a Pro

Dyeing your carpet yourself is doable, but you’ll need to approach the job carefully. First, make sure your carpet can be dyed and choose the right type of dye for the carpet. For example, if you have a stain blocker carpet, look for a dye formulated to work on these carpets.  

Before you get to work, you’ll need to move the furniture out of the room and cover the baseboards and at least 6 inches of the walls above them to protect them from dye.

During the application itself, there’s a risk of getting an uneven or oversaturated color. This is even more likely if you use a basic, consumer-grade pressure sprayer, which won’t offer the same level of control as a commercial-grade model.

Spot dyeing is even trickier because it takes a good eye for color, an understanding of how to use dye to counteract stain colors, and skill at blending dyes.

 A professional can get attractive results within one to six hours, depending on the room size. They’ll clean the carpet, remove stain blocking agents as needed, then perform a dye patch test. After applying the dye, they’ll reapply the stain blocker and dry the carpet.

A skilled dye job can restore your stained or faded carpet to the beautiful floor covering it once was. As long as you don’t mind having a darker carpet and you can tolerate some risk of dye transfer or early fading, you’ll save both money and time.

You can do the job yourself if you’re on a budget, but for flawless, long-lasting results, consider hiring a professional

For some, the smell of a new carpet is an innocuous reminder of a recent home upgrade. For others, though, it’s an irritating stench that can make a room nearly unusable. However you feel about it, new carpet smell isn’t the healthiest thing you could be breathing, and it’s reasonable to want it out of your house as soon as possible. With the right approach, you should be able to get rid of the smell within a week or two, if not sooner.

What’s That Smell?

The odor of new carpeting is caused by chemicals known as volatile organic compounds or VOCs. This broad group of chemicals includes many that are frequently used in the manufacture of household products such as paint, vinyl flooring, and pressed-wood furniture.

Volatile in this case means they evaporate at room temperature. As a new carpet gradually releases, or off-gasses chemical residue, the chemicals enter the air where we can smell them. Within a few days to a few weeks, these fumes dissipate, and the carpet no longer smells.

The VOCs responsible for new carpet smell are 4-phenylcyclohexene (4-PCH) and, to a lesser extent, styrene. These usually come from the synthetic latex in the carpet’s backing, as well as from the padding and adhesives used to secure the carpet during installation. Dyes, water repellents, anti-static agents, and other chemical auxiliaries can also bring VOCs into your home if they weren’t completely rinsed out during manufacturing.

Staying Safe Around New Carpet

Carpets have some of the lowest VOC emissions of any household material, and you can find low-VOC and even VOC-free carpets if you don’t want to deal with new carpet smell at all. The padding and adhesives have somewhat higher emissions, however, and because carpet often covers a large area, it’s usually one of the main sources of VOCs in the house.

Even so, the amount of VOCs a new carpet releases won’t affect the average person’s health and there’s no known link between 4-PCH and any adverse health effects. You should be fine as long as you follow the carpet manufacturer’s guidelines, which usually recommend thoroughly ventilating the newly carpeted room for around three days, and not using the room for that time.

In particularly sensitive people or those with health conditions such as asthma, VOCs can sometimes cause nausea, headaches, dizziness, and eye, nose and throat irritation. If you notice these symptoms or you just don’t like breathing in that chemical smell, it’s worth going to a little extra effort to clean up your air.

Clearing Your Air of New Carpet Smell

The first step in limiting the VOCs a new carpet brings into your home is to choose a low-VOC or non-VOC carpet. Look for carpets that carry the Green Label and Green Label Plus labels from the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI). These indicate a carpet produces very low emissions. Choosing carpet made from natural materials and dyes, such as wool in natural or plant-dyed colors, also helps.

Ask your installer about using a non-adhesive installation method, such as a floating installation. If that isn’t possible, ask them to use low-VOC adhesives. Before the carpet is installed, unroll it in a dry, well ventilated area for a few days first. If possible, tack it down to keep it flattened. This lets the carpet off-gas most of its chemical fumes outside your home.

If your new carpet is part of a larger renovation job, wait as long as you can to have the carpet put in. This way your carpet won’t absorb VOCs from other materials and substances, such as paint.

Once the carpet is installed, ventilate the room as much as you can until you no longer smell an odor or for at least 72 hours. Open the windows and put fans in the room turned up to their highest settings. Keep the door to the room closed.

After this, just giving your carpet a good vacuuming might be enough to get rid of any odor still hanging around. If it isn’t, sprinkle baking soda on the carpet, let it sit for 24 hours, then vacuum again.  The baking soda will absorb a certain amount of the off-gassing chemical fumes.

For a really stubborn odor, steam cleaning can help by rinsing away any chemical residue that might be left in the carpet fibers. Using a basic steam cleaner rented from a home improvement store is a good start, but having a professional carpet cleaning will be even more effective.

To get rid of new carpet smell lingering in the air, try a portable air purifier with an activated carbon filter, which can trap gaseous air contaminants. You can also find activated-carbon filters designed for your air conditioning system. With one of these installed, you can run your A/C to ventilate your newly carpeted room even faster. Standard fiber media air filters, HEPA filters, and electronic air cleaners don’t work against airborne VOCs, so choose your air purifier carefully.

Some plants, including Boston fern, spider plant, bamboo palm, and English ivy, can break down certain VOCs in the air, so they’re a healthy addition to your living space and might reduce odors seeping out from your newly carpeted room.

If your new carpet is giving off a smell, chances are you have nothing to worry about. The small amount of chemicals in that odor is unlikely to make you ill, and the odor should be gone within a week or two as long as you properly ventilate the room. If that new carpet smell is making you unwell or it’s just too unpleasant to be around, vacuuming, steam cleaning, and using an activated-carbon air purifier can help you get your air cleaner faster.

Few types of stone offer the grandeur and character of granite. With so many color variations and finishes available, this stone fits well in traditional and contemporary homes as well as rustic decor schemes. While it’s certainly not the cheapest flooring material around, it’s exceptionally durable and will reward you with its beauty for as long as you own your home.

Pros: Appearance and Durability

Granite flooring is available in a wide variety of styles, so you can easily find flooring tiles that suite your preferences. As one of the hardest flooring stones out there, granite easily resists wear.

Available in a Range of Styles

Shades of black, grey, brown, pink, blue, and green are all among your choices for granite flooring. Whatever your decor style or color palette preference, you’ll be able to find a suitable shade.

Use just one color for a traditional look or combine colors in a pattern or random arrangement to liven up your home with something fresh and modern. Even if you stick with a single color, the natural color and pattern variations in granite mean your floor will still be unique from any other. The sparkling quartz that makes up much of this stone gives it even more personality.

You also have several options for finishes including polished for a shiny surface, honed for a matte surface or flamed for muted colors and a time-worn look. For a little more texture with an overall smooth surface, consider a brushed finish. If you prefer a more pronounced texture, antique and brush-hammered finishes will deliver.

Highly Durable

With just a little basic care, a granite floor will last a lifetime. Harder than marble or travertine, granite resists scratches and cracking. It’s an excellent choice for high-traffic areas, even in homes with active kids or large dogs. Because the colors resist fading in sunlight, granite retains its beauty even when used outdoors as patio flooring.

To help your granite floor stand up to wear, moisture, and stains, and to maintain its luster, you might need to apply a sealer periodically. If your floor requires sealing, the ideal schedule depends on the type of floor you have and how much use it gets, although once every four years is the average.

Keep in mind your floor’s color and finish also affect its durability to a certain extent. For example, darker colors show scratches more readily, and honed granite is more prone to staining and etching than polished granite.

Comfortably Cooling

Like other stones, granite conducts heat well. When you stand on it, it draws heat away from your body, which is a major plus in a hot climate. By keeping your feet cool, it makes your whole body feel cooler. A granite floor gives kids a comfortable a place to play and pets a refreshing place to rest.

Cons: Pricey and Difficult to Install

Due to both the cost of the stone itself and the difficulty of installing it, a granite floor comes with an impressive price tag. Even if the cost is within your budget, there are a few attributes of this stone that might mean it’s still not a good fit for your needs.

High Cost

Granite is one of the most expensive flooring stones on the market. In fact, even marble generally costs less. While you can find cheap granite flooring at home improvement stores, this is usually lower grade stone that lacks the beauty and durability of higher grades.

When you’re pricing granite flooring, consider which grade you want.

• Commercial grade – The cheapest granite flooring available, this grade offers only simple, plain coloring with noticeable faults. It’s usually cut quite thin, meaning it requires reinforcement. Some of the very cheapest in this grade are composites of granite and resin.
• Standard grade – This grade has some type of fault and minor irregularities in thickness and cut.
• Premium grade – Flooring tiles of this grade come with uniform thickness and flawlessly cut edges. This is where you’ll find less common colors in more complex, eye-catching patterns.

For the greatest character and durability, look for premium grade granite and expect to pay at least $10 to $15 per sq. ft., with exotic colors running as high as $40 per sq. ft.

Difficult to Install

Installing a granite floor is not a do-it-yourself job if you want optimal results. Before laying the tiles, your installer must make sure the floor is perfectly level. An uneven floor can cause the tiles to crack. The weight of the stone makes the tiles hard to handle, so it takes skill to lay them correctly. Lower-grade granite takes even more work because the uneven edges of the tiles make it difficult to use spacers. Given how hard granite is, it’s a challenge to cut, which adds to the workload if your installer needs to cut sections to fit irregular spaces.

Not Suitable for Every Home

Granite is a particularly heavy stone, so before you decide to use it, make sure your floor can support its weight. Polished granite is slippery, especially when it’s wet, so it’s not the safest choice in a household with elderly adults or small children. If you plan to use it in the kitchen or bath, you’ll want to put down rugs with rubber backings or non-slip pads to reduce the risk of falls.

In a moderate or cold climate, a granite floor’s cooling effect might not be so comfortable. While granite is safe to use with underfloor radiant heating, it doesn’t conduct heat well enough to be highly efficient, and it’s prone to cracking due to temperature changes.

If you’re looking for flooring that will bring a sense of stately elegance to your home for decades to come, granite is an excellent choice. While it costs more up front than most other flooring options, it will pay you back in beauty, longevity, and increased property value. If you live in a cold climate or you need a low-cost flooring option, however, another type of flooring might meet your needs better.

A shiny, newly refinished floor can freshen up any room, but the process of getting a worn floor back into condition tends to involve mess most of us would rather avoid. Sandless refinishing seems to promise the best of both worlds: a beautifully clean floor without the messy sanding work. The reality, however, is somewhere in between. Sandless refinishing has its advantages, but it isn’t always the better choice.

How Sandless Refinishing Works

Sandless refinishing, as the name implies, involves no sanding. Instead, a technician uses a machine with abrasive pads and a liquid solution to remove surface debris from the floor. The floor is lightly scuffed as the liquid etches away debris. Because no sanding is done, very little, if any, dust is produced.

What dust and dirt is removed is absorbed in the liquid, so nothing ends up in the air or on your furniture. Finally, the technician rinses and details the floor, then applies a protective sealer to give the floor strength and shine.

The whole sandless process is similar to the final step in the full floor sanding and refinishing process. It’s a touch-up, not a replacement for a complete sanding and refinishing

When Sandless Makes Sense

Sandless refinishing can remove old, dull floor wax and polish, as well as paint splatters and certain other minor stains. It can’t remove scratches, dents, sun fade, grey areas caused by oxidation or most pet stains. It doesn’t remove the floor’s polyurethane finish or stain, which means you won’t have the option of changing the floor color.

That makes this type of refinishing a practical way to spruce up a floor that’s in good condition, but starting to show minor signs of wear. Having your floors refinished this way can keep them looking good longer, so you can delay a complete refinishing for up to five years. This is especially helpful if you’re sensitive to dust and prefer to put off sanding for as long as possible.

With age, wood floors accumulate dings and dents that some people find add character, particularly in an older home. If you prefer to keep these appealing imperfections, but still want to touch up the floor’s surface, sandless refinishing will let you revive the floor’s shine without removing the marks of age.

Some thin floorboards can be sanded only two or three times in their lifetime. Average floorboards can take up to eight sandings. Any more than that and they become so thin they’re at risk of cracking. Because sandless refinishing doesn’t remove wood from the floor, it’s a safe way to clean up thin and older floorboards without reducing the floor’s lifespan.

Sandless refinishing is budget-friendly and convenient. As a less labor-intensive process than sanding, it costs less and can be done within one day, while a full sanding and refinishing job usually takes around two days.

Know What You’re Getting

If you’re considering sandless refinishing, keep your expectations in line with what the service is actually capable of. It may be cheaper and faster than sanding, but it doesn’t provide the same results. It’s essentially a deep cleaning followed by a coat of colored finish. Afterward, your floors will look sparkling clean, but not “like new.”

Some homeowners have been left disappointed thanks to salespeople overselling the benefits of the service or exaggerating the drawbacks of sanding. Be wary of any salesperson who tries to convince you sandless refinishing will totally refurbish your floor or who steers you away from sanding by suggesting it will take a week and fill your home with dust.

Dustless Refinishing: A Cleaner Way to Restore Your Floor

If you’ve been looking into sandless refinishing, you’ve no doubt run into the term “dustless refinishing,” too. Although sometimes promoted together, these are two different processes, and they provide two different results.

While sandless refinishing is good for superficial cleaning and restoring shine, it can’t remove most forms of damage, such as scratches. For that, you’ll need to sand the floor.

In the past, sanding a floor meant ending up with a thick layer of dust on the floor and furniture, and having dust floating around in the air for days afterward. Modern dustless floor sanding equipment has made this kind of mess a thing of the past.

This equipment is connected to a vacuum tube and filtration mechanism that sucks the debris into a dust containment system. A technician sands the floor one to three times, removing not only surface dirt and old floor wax, but also a thin layer of the wood itself.

Then the floor can be stained with your preferred color and a finished with a sealer. Dustless sanders provide the same results as traditional sanding equipment. It isn’t completely dust-free, but it leaves very little dust in your home.

If your floor is still in good shape, but you want to give it a quick, low-cost touch-up to bring back the shine, sandless refinishing is a practical choice. To smooth out damage and fully restore your floor to like-new condition, however, a full sanding and refinishing job is the better option. If you’re not sure which type of care your floor needs, talk with a floor restoration professional before you decide.

With its combination of strength and beauty, maple has become one of the most popular hardwood flooring options in the United States. It’s a tough wood that stands up to decades of wear and its light, neutral color suits almost any decor style. It’s also highly affordable.

Despite its popularity, though, maple does have a few downsides you’ll want to be aware of before you decide to install this flooring in your home.

Pros: Understated Appearance and Durability

Even coloring gives maple a sleek, subdued look that lets your furniture take center stage. As one of the most durable and affordable wood species, it’s a practical choice for a busy home.

Timeless Appeal

Maple’s smooth, sand blonde tones and delicate grain pattern provide a neutral base for both light and dark furniture. While it works well for traditional and rustic homes, it’s ideal for contemporary interiors that lean toward minimalism and lighter color palettes, such as modern Scandinavian, mid-century modern, and coastal. Maple takes whitewashing reasonably well, too, although it’s more difficult and expensive to do than with oak or ash.

The light color also helps optimize daylight, making it a good choice for dark or small rooms. On the other hand, with little variation in color and grain pattern, maple provides the consistency needed for large spaces.

Damage Resistance

Although there are several species of maple, the sugar maple and black maple are the hardest and therefore the ones used for flooring. The fact that bowling alley and gym floors are typically built from these maple species tells you all you need to know about how hard they are. Maple can easily stand up to dropped pans in the kitchen and rolling toys in the living room and kids’ bedrooms without serious damage.

Affordability

Maple grows relatively quickly and abundantly around the U.S., which keeps the cost of this wood low. It’s comparable in price to oak, cherry, and ash, which are also American hardwoods. Exotic hardwoods, such as teak and mahogany, will cost more.

To bring your flooring costs down even further, consider second or third grade maple wood. These lower grades have some color streaks and small knot holes, but no flaws that will compromise their durability. In fact, if you’re going for a more rustic look, the irregularities of the lower grades make them a more fitting choice.

As an added benefit, the fact that maple grows so plentifully makes it a more environmentally friendly choice than wood from slow-growing trees such as oak, walnut or cherry.

Cons: Color Limitations and Visible Scratches

Changing the color of a maple floor isn’t easy, and even minor damage tends to be highly visible.

Staining Difficulties

If the natural color of maple doesn’t appeal to you, think twice about using this wood for your floor. The tight grain of maple means the wood doesn’t absorb stain well in most areas. In those few spots that do have a more open grain, however, the stain will soak in more and create a darker color. The result is often an uneven, splotchy look.

This is a particular problem when you’re trying to lighten the color of a maple floor. If you want a light floor, instead of staining, look for a high grade of maple, which is often nearly white. You’ll have better luck getting an even finish with a darker stain, but a dye is ultimately a better option. Both staining and dying maple are tricky jobs best left to a professional.

Conspicuous Scratches

The hardness of maple helps it resist scratches, but when a scratch does show up, it will stand out more against maple’s smooth grain than on a wood with a more complex, prominent grain. To keep your floor looking good, apply a protective seal in areas that get heavy foot traffic. You can then use a wax rubbing compound to polish out small scratches.

If you want to keep your floor looking pristine, maple isn’t a good choice for busy areas or anywhere the kids will be dragging their toys around. Heavy use won’t cause serious damage, but over the years, it can lead to a collection of visible superficial dents and scratches.

As you might have noticed on gym floors, rubber soled shoes tend to leave dark scuff marks on maple. Just rubbing the spot with an eraser or even your shoe should get rid of these marks.

Humidity Issues

While maple is hard, it’s not as stable as some other woods. That means it’s more responsive to changes in the environment. Dramatic fluctuations in temperature or humidity, such as in extremely damp or dry climates, can cause the floor boards to shrink, warp or split.

You can protect your maple floor by keeping the room at a more or less constant temperature and humidity level, which might mean using a humidifier or dehumidifier. Incorrect drying and careless storage can also leave maple flooring prone to damage, so when you buy, choose a supplier who can guarantee the wood has been handled correctly.

Maple’s simple, understated beauty has made it an enduring classic and a particular favorite for contemporary homes. Its modest price has helped its popularity too. As one of the hardest wood species used in flooring, maple is highly durable as long as you don’t mind the risk of superficial scratches and you can keep your home’s humidity under control.

If you prefer darker flooring or appreciate the complex grain patterns in wood surfaces, however, you might be happier with walnut or cherry, rather than maple. In a very dry or humid climate, a wood species better suited to your environment will be a more practical choice.