Simple, but classic and beautiful! Also a traditional and antique touch! That’s the reason why many people opt to choose wooden flooring at least for one or two rooms including living room and drawing room. Choosing master bed room or computer room is the latest trend. A few people design a particular area of living room with wooden floor, for special guests.

It suits with every style

Why are people choosing wooden floor? Trends are not constant and it keeps changing. Yet some ingredients from ancient architecture are still alive in modern art. That’s the reason why many people choose wood for interior. Even after 100 years, it looks fresh and simply beautiful.

Modern, traditional or ethnic – wooden flooring suits every style. Also, it gives a royal look to interior. It’s echo friendly and gives a feeling very close to nature. Wood – it gives a moderate temperature, not too hot or too cold. So, it gives a pleasant climate during winter and also rainy season.

Wooden flooring can be used in air conditioned rooms as well. Floor never absorbs too much coldness – that’s the reason. 

Wooden flooring – in three types

Laminated wood, engineered wood and hard wood – the three ingredients used for wooden flooring. Ready-to-use wooden panels are readily available in market.

Synthetic wood or HDF (High density fiber) is used for laminated wooden flooring. On the top of HDF, stickers with wooden designs (décor layer) are spread. Then it’s coated with a layer of Aluminum oxide to make laminated wood.

In engineering wood panel, processed wood is used. Processed wood is compressed in different layers and on the top a thin layer of wood is spread to get this wood panel. Wood layer ranges from 2 mm to 4 mm thickness. According to this thickness, grade of wood varies.

Hard wood is another form of processed wood panel. It contains anti-stain coating on the top to protect the floor from dirt and stains. It’s also possible to do flooring with normal wood available.

Price starts from 100

Laminated wooden flooring starts from 100 rupees per square feet. Labour charge may vary slightly. First step is to spread a plastic sheet on the level floor. Then piyu form is applied on the top and then panels are interlocked to do the flooring structure. Then this layer can be taken as whole and fix where it’s necessary.

For engineered wood, plywood sheet is laid first and wood is fixed using gum. It’s the case of hard wood too. Total expense of engineered wood furnishing starts from 400 onwards while it’s 500 in the case of hard wood.

Both these woods are available in market in pieces from 1 foot to 6 feet length. Thickness of the panel is 4 inches. Designs of more than 30 trees are available in market. A few examples are teak, mahogany, cherry and oak. Also, both mat finish with roughness and well polished glossy finished panels are readily available.

Now wooden panels for out door, such as swimming pools and deck are also available. It’s known as Outdoor wooden panels. 

Wooden flooring has some disadvantages

Moisture/water contact should be avoided as much as possible. You can clean wooden panels using moist cloth. But it should be dried quickly. Avoid contact with rain also. Cleaning liquids are often provided by flooring companies.

Wooden panels have a relationship with ancient times

In old traditional homes wood was the main element of constructions. They used wood for window panels as well as floorings, particularly for second floor. Also widely used for preparing furniture including tables. Now as, prize of wood has increased considerably, many such parts are substituted by glass, metals and other materials.

In old homes, flooring of second floor was completely done using wood and gum. Many cabinets and secret storage places were also built using wood. That’s the reason why heritage homes are valuable and renovated rather than re-constructed. Such old homes are very rare nowadays and that’s the reason why we are going back to past and adopting many things that reflects old culture and bring some nostalgic moments back to life. 

Now a small note on substitute for wood for your interior

I have given an idea of wooden panels for your interior. Now let me give a few examples for substitute of wood for your interior. Though they appear as wood, they are just synthetic forms of certain materials. Yet they can reduce your expenses a lot.

Now coating of Burma teak, mahogany, maple, oak, European beech wood etc are available in market. A coat is applied on the top of natural wood hardware or soft wood up to 0.5mm thickness. It’s also applied on plywood, black board or MDF as a coating. In the case of treated wood, it’s done by the application of high pressure and temperature.  It’s most used for interior decoration with minimum cost. It is commonly used every where except front door and windows.

Other commonly used substitutes for interior are treated woods having durability, plywood (marine and commercial), MDF (for card boards and kitchen cabinets), HDF (for flooring and doors), particle board and block board.

Through this article, I have given a brief description of wooden flooring and have mentioned a few names that can be used as substitute for wood while doing interior designing. Hoping these points will help you to design your home in a traditional way better.