Adding Value to Your Home With Hardwood
Mazama Hardwood – Smooth Acacia Collection SKU: 10082297
Your home is a major investment that requires money and time to keep or increase its value. If you’re one of the many homeowners who hopes someday to see a return on your investment, you might wonder what you can do right now to immediately increase your home’s value. One of the fastest and most cost-effective options is to upgrade your floors to hardwood. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that you can invest in your home with hardwood flooring.
Why is Hardwood a Good Investment?
Image via Flickr by brad.coy
Installing hardwood flooring raises the value of your home for a couple of reasons. First, you lower the risk that future buyers will disapprove of your flooring. Consider a home that’s on the market and has carpeting. While many people love the plush feel, carpet can be a major deal breaker if someone thinks the carpet is too dirty, too shaggy, not shaggy enough, or the wrong color. People see carpet through a subjective lens. Many realtors recommend installing hardwood floors to people who want to add value to their home before putting their property on the market.
On the other hand, well-maintained hardwood floors throughout your home have a timeless look that’s less likely to cause a potential buyer to have a strong negative reaction.
In addition to its aesthetic appeal, hardwood floors are a better choice for anyone who has allergies. A buyer who struggles with airborne allergies is likely to prefer hardwood flooring over carpeting, which tends to hold allergens. Making your home habitable to more buyers is always a good thing.
Finally, hardwood floors do not retain odors like carpeting. If your home has had dog accidents, cigarette smoke, mold, or strong kitchen odors inside it, the carpet likely is holding those scents in its fibers. While professional cleaning can help, some odors may still linger. In contrast, hardwood flooring doesn’t typically retain odors in the same way as carpet. When pets plague hardwood floors, you can make some simple cleaning fixes to remedy the problem.
The Best Flooring for the Household
Since hardwood is a more resilient flooring option, many buyers with kids or pets might find hardwood more suitable for their lifestyles. If you have children or pets, you may also find hardwood floors are easier to maintain than carpet, creating fewer hassles for you when you’re ready to sell your house. Instead of fearing permanent stains to the carpet, you can refinish the flooring to make it look like new again.
The time-saving aspect of hardwood floors is another reason flooring appeals to home buyers. It’s quicker to sweep off dirt or pass a damp mop over a floor than pull out the vacuum and clean the carpet. Hardwood floors also tend to outlast carpets by years, and any thrifty home buyer will appreciate flooring made to last.
Finally, hardwood floors are versatile. Homeowners who like to change their interior designs to match current trends can add rugs with the coolest designs. When they’re ready for a change, they can roll up the rug and put a new one over the hardwood floor — a cheaper and faster alternative than changing installed carpet.
How to Choose the Right Hardwood Flooring
Several factors impact which hardwood flooring option is right for your home. Dryer climates are ideal for true hardwood floors, while engineered wood flooring is best suited for environments where humidity is a concern. Homeowners who want a more eco-friendly flooring option can go with sustainably harvested woods that have a nontoxic finish.
Next, choose which species of wood you want. With its textured appearance, acacia is a popular choice. People who like a more formal look opt for darker woods such as walnut. Want a reddish hue? Go for flooring made from ash trees.
Regardless of which hardwood flooring option you choose, the appearance of your home’s floors will remain attractive for years to come, and the value of your home will increase because of it.
Questions about hardwood flooring? Ask us in the comments section below.
