A buyer's guide to distressed wood flooring

Wood floors are relatively new. Until nearly the middle of the 1600s, most the the floors in buildings were dirt. In the Baroque era, wood floors became elegant with parquetry and marquetry designs. Tongue and groove flooring were popular in the Edwardian era, and pre-finished floors became popular in the 1980s. Distress wood flooring is a style of hardwood floor that is made to look old or is actually old. This article will cover three kinds of distressed wood floors.

Hand-scraped and wire-brushed wood floors

Hand-scraped wood flooring is exactly as it sounds: Each board of the wood flooring has been distressed by scraping it by hand with a tool in the direction - as well as other directions - of the grain. Due to the randomness of the patterns, the distressed wood floors look old and worn as if through use. These wood floors can actually be pre-finished or you can finish them yourselves after installing it in your home or building. Wire-brushed distressed wood flooring is another style. The wood of the floor in this case has been scraped randomly or deliberately in a pattern with a wire brush. Some of the flooring can be in different shades. Some of these floors are actually white and black in a zebra pattern.

Rough sawn wood floors

Rough sawn wood floors look distressed because they have not been smoothed in the same fashion. The marks of the saw are still visible as well as the knots in the wood. The wood that is used for this flooring is usually pine. Once a flooring for mountain cabins, it has become trendy to use in the home as well.

Distressed by time

Old floors have been distressed by years and years of use and not by machine or by design. Reclaimed wood floors can be taken from old buildings that are slated for demolition and used again. These floors have the richness of a finish affected by time as well as by marks of time and use that even the best hand scrapers cannot emulate. Reclaimed hardwood flooring may cost a little more, but it will add character to any home. They are available through flooring supply stores, and will look well with distressed wood furniture or antiques.