Three Reasons To Consider Wide Plank Floors In Your New Home

When you move into your new home, you may find some things you didn’t notice at first. The floor, which was covered by rugs and staging furniture, suddenly doesn’t look so pristine and clean. If you decide to choose a new floor, there are many options now.

It’s likely that your original flooring came with relatively narrow floorboards, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you are looking to change things up, a wide plank floor might be the way to go.

Today, wide planks are considered more modern than narrow planked flooring, but ironically, it dates back to the days of life on the prairie, so they work with nearly every style of home.

Generally, wide plank flooring is considered to be anything over 3 inches. Some, more expensive flooring, can go up to 11 inches. Most come in 5 to 7 inches. Wide planks can give you a number of benefits, including:

Greater variety

Wide plank flooring is available in just about all floor woods and colors. You can find all the same varieties as with narrow floors, but you can experiment with more variations without it looking too busy. Not only that, the wider size shows the wood grain in ways narrow flooring can’t.

Faster installation

Since there are fewer boards to install, installation goes much faster with wide planks.

Makes a small room look bigger

This may be counterintuitive, but wide plank flooring makes small rooms look larger because there aren’t as many lines breaking the room up. It can also make a too large room look smaller.

Because of the width of the flooring, make sure your floor acclimates to your environment for at least three days. Warping and shrinkage is much more obvious with wide planks than with narrow planks.

Wide plank floors can be pricey since they require larger trees and there is often more waste. Engineered floors can save you some money and offer you more durability. Some engineered floors cannot be refinished, though, so it’s good to discuss your needs with a reputable flooring retailer or your flooring contractor.

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