When you move into a home that has wooden floors, you will need to identify what type of wood the floor is made from so that you can ensure that you care for it properly. When you maintain and take excellent care of a wooden floor, it can look beautiful for many years. If you have wooden floors but you do not know which type of wood they are made from, below is a guide to help you identify them so that you can care for them correctly.
Getting Under The Surface
It does seem counter-intuitive, but you are going to have to strip back some of the floorboards so that you can identify it correctly. You will want to take a small patch of your floor in an area that is concealed and scrape off the finish of the wood. Some wooden floors you can tell what type of wood it is from looking at it, but some manufacturers make one species look like another through the finish, and it can be misleading from your first look.
You can also not tell if the floor is solid wood or engineered by looking at it, so move your sofa or TV cabinet and scratch of a small part of the finish to get a better look at it. After you have finished and you see that it’s timber, you can always find a supplier of timber flooring In Melbourne or in your local area to provide you with what you need in order to repair the damage and get your floor looking like new again.
Hard Or Soft Wood?
You can quickly tell whether the floorboards are made from a hard or a softwood once you have stripped back the finish. You can do this using a fingernail, and all you need to do is press down on and it if it leaves a make it is a softwood. If there is no make, you have a hardwood floor.
Identifying Solid Or Engineered Flooring
You may need to get yourself a wood species catalogue to help with the identification, and you can also check online. You will need to lift the end of a floorboard at a doorway or near the skirting board so that you can look at it carefully. Once you have raised this, you will need to sand it to remove any of the glue that may have been used, and you will then be able to tell if you have a solid floorboard or if it is more than one type of wood combined.
Ask An Expert
If you are afraid of damaging your floors, then the best thing to do is ask the advice of an expert. You can ask them to visit your property to inspect your flooring or take detailed pictures of it and let them look at them. They will then be able to help you identify the type of wood on your floors, as well as give you excellent advice in keeping them in tip-top condition.
