Wally Darmaga's family business has been putting hardwood under Ontarians' feet since the 1940s. He has a simple piece of advice for people mulling over a new hardwood floor.“Make sure you know who's coming into your house,” says the owner of Darmaga Hardwood Flooring of Richmond Hill.True hardwood floors lend a home an air of timeless elegance, but they can be a royal pain if the wrong choices are made at the outset and the floor ends up badly scratched or warped by moisture. A four- or five-figure investment becomes a gift that keeps on taking.Many homeowers want more stimulating floorboards than what's available at the home renovation store.
Interesting choices are coming onto the market all the time, from reclaimed antique boards to irregularly shaped floors dreamt up by sophisticated software. But the basics still have to be done right — and be aware that builders don't always pay attention to the fine details. The wood must be properly acclimatized and installed, and the floor and finish must be appropriate to the local climate as well as the knocks and scrapes it will be subject to.And forget about real hardwood if you're looking to put a floor in a condominium or basement.“It's technically not really possible to install real wood on concrete,” explains Joanna Gerber, a realtor and co-owner of Gerber Hardwood Flooring in Barrie. Moisture buildup would warp the floor, and quickly.
“You would need to actually build up subflooring and most condominium boards will not allow that. For many reasons — the noise, the damage to the unit — the most useful type flooring for a condominium would be engineered hardwood flooring,” she says. Engineered hardwood is a product that combines a thin, decorative surface layer of true hardwood with a particleboard base.Whatever the floor type, installation is a job for a professional. Testimonials are key, say experts in the industry, because it will be up to the installer to play matchmaker between hardwood and homeowner.
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