The design and construction of a house are considered a dream for some people. If you are in the process of making this dream come true, you will be making numerous decisions to get their sought-after results. May it be the exterior or interior areas of the house, you must consider using materials that would be suitable for your plan. Though the cost of such materials may cause some compromises to the plan, you should always remember to find those that are of good to excellent quality.

Regarding the flooring of your dream house, you have a lot of things to consider and compare since technology has brought upon us multiple alternatives on the choices of flooring. Considering that there are synthetic materials or plastic used to make flooring, and price ranges catering to all market segments, no one type of flooring will ever lose its place in the market.

If you are in for the quality, then it is hard to beat hardwood. Installing this type of flooring may be on the costly side, but that is the price of a material that lasts a long time. Not to mention, it is beautiful and blends with most house designs. One particular species that you should look out for is white oak.

White Oak Hardwood Flooring Overview

White Oak is a deciduous tree. This species has a slow growth rate, which results in the wood material becoming denser. It is this trait that makes this material durable and suitable for use as flooring.

Solid or natural hardwood flooring, though, caters mainly to the high-end market due to its high price. As an option, manufacturers also make engineered hardwood flooring that is much more affordable. These two differ in their composition wherein, solid hardwood is composed solely of solid wood. Engineered hardwood flooring, on the other hand, is made by combining different layers of wood veneer (also called a ply).

An engineered hardwood flooring panel/panel may be composed of 6-8 plies of different wood veneers like solid wood or plywood. Its durability and strength are determined by the quality of materials, quantity of plies used, positioning of the plies, and the adhesive used to bind all the layers together. It is not made purely from the solid hardwood taken directly from the tree. The pureness of the material found in solid hardwood is the reason why it costs more than engineered hardwood. The top layer uses the solid hardwood of a specific tree which determines its type of engineered hardwood flooring.

White oak is known for its rich grain and light tones. Compared to the red oak variety, it has tighter and smaller grains. This is the reason for its excellent durability and strength. The Janka hardness test has given it a score of 5,990 N (newtons) while the red oak has a hardness of 5,700 N. This Janka test is used to determine how well each would withstand dings, wear, and dents. The higher the number means it is harder. This gives it a slight advantage when being planned to be used in areas where there would be constant pressure and external factors being applied to the flooring.

Installation of White Oak Flooring

The first thing you must decide on is if you plan on using solid hardwood flooring or engineered hardwood flooring. To help you decide, it is recommended that you get in touch with flooring experts to get a consultation on which would best fit your design and location. Furthermore, it would be better if you let professionals handle the installation process to avoid any health risks, damages to the raw materials, and possible future back jobs.

Problems may occur if you decide to do all the cutting and sanding that needs precision and accuracy by yourself so as to not waste any of the materials you have purchased. Prior to buying the materials, you should first check if your preferred type of hardwood flooring would be compatible with your subflooring. If there is a need, you must do extra preparation to make them compatible. If you purchased unfinished solid hardwood flooring, you would need to sand the hardwood panels, which is considered a dirty job as the area becomes dusty when you are sanding.

Pre-finished solid hardwood flooring and engineered hardwood flooring do not need to go through the sanding process. Prior to the start of the installation process, you should also check the sizes of the panels if they would fit the areas perfectly. Cutting the panels would be needed for smaller spaces that can not fit one whole panel of flooring. If available, use a floor saw that uses carbide-tipped blades to ensure that the cuts will be straight. Then make sure the subfloor is clean before placement of the hardwood flooring panels.

After all the preparations are done, start placing the boards onto the subfloor and secure them with staples and nails, if needed. The last step involves the application of sealant, depending on the hardwood flooring you are using. Sealants are used to add to the durability of the flooring. Plan this well as it would take 24 hours to dry which means you cannot step on the floor until the sealant has dried up.

How Much It Cost to Install White Oak Hardwood Flooring

It is highly recommended that you get into contact with our experts first to get a proper evaluation of the space and location where the flooring will be installed. For those who wish to get an idea of the average cost it takes to install white oak hardwood flooring, we must consider the average market prices. As an example, let us use the following information:

Based on the information above, you must first multiply the average price of engineered white oak hardwood flooring per square foot by the total floor area. The amount would come up to CAD 4,550. Then the labour cost per square foot is multiplied by the total floor area. This results in CAD 5,000. To get the total cost, just add both the totals. The final cost to finish the job will be CAD 9,550.

Advantages of Using White Oak Hardwood Flooring

Depending on which type of hardwood flooring you use, there are specific attributes and characteristics that make white oak hardwood a good option for your flooring needs. Below is a list to help you understand the advantages white oak hardwood flooring can give you:

• It is one of the stronger kinds of hardwood. The Janka hardness rating clearly shows its advantage over red oak, American cherry, American walnut, and white ash. Considering their prices, white oak gives a better value compared to its cost.
• Being a closed-grain wood, it has improved water resistance characteristics. This makes it a good option for areas that have a greater tendency of getting spills and getting wet with rain.
• The price is lower compared to the more exotic hardwood types. As this type of wood is available in multiple locations across the globe, supply is not really a problem. Because availability is not an issue, price increase rarely happens.
• Its colour undertones make it versatile. Having a grayish-brown undertone makes white oak hardwood a good fit for different house designs.

White oak hardwood flooring can be considered as one of the flooring types that is worth its price. Having excellent quality and natural beauty to it, you will never go wrong placing this in different areas of your house. This type of flooring elevates any style you wish to give your house because of its flexibility to different designs. White oak hardwood flooring exudes elegance to your home.