Hardwood Floors

13-12-23 00 / episode: 331

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I have hardwood floors in my school and my house. Today I want to talk about

What’s nice about them and why they give good air quality,
An easy way to do maintenance on them,
Hardness and
Alternatives to classic hardwood floors.

Introduction

Hi and welcome to the Les Perras podcast episode number 331.

This podcast is excellent for extensive English listening, to help you expand your listening vocabulary.

Today's podcast episode is about hardwood floors.

Benefits

Hardwood floors have lots of real nice benefits.

The first benefit is that it can enhance the look of your home.

Having a beautiful home is always a good thing considering you spend your time in the home and you want to be in a nice environment.

They're also low maintenance and easy to clean.

You can sweep them or vacuum them or wash them with a cloth anything is okay. They're strong and durable.

of course it's possible to scratch or dent them but in fact it's quite hard to do that.

They also give a better air quality this is because they don't trap dust or animals hair or pollen.

These are common allergens which can stay in your house but they won't be if you have wood floors.

Maintenance

Generally speaking, hardwood floors are very easy to maintain.

You should sweep or dust your floors daily or vacuum them.

By keeping them clean this way they are less likely to scratch.

Once in a while when they get really dirty you can wash them with a wet mop.

I just use a cloth and soapy water.

But you want to keep it dry so make sure you air dry it quickly after cleaning.

Hardest

the harder the wood, the better it is to resist dents and scratches.

I discovered that there's a hardness scale for Hardwoods.

It's called the Janka scale and all these woods get Janka ratings.

In America a typical hardwood is Hickory.

But there's also Tiger Wood which is somewhat harder

In general you should get the hardest wood you can because it'll last a lot longer.

Alternatives

There are alternatives to hardwood floors, and they can include engineered wood floors and vinyl flooring.

The vinyl flooring is actually really good because it's cheap and has the same beautiful look while also being very easy to care for.

Some of them are even waterproof.

But they often get dented or scratched more easily.

Engineered wood floors are often Superior to ordinary wood floors but they can't be refinished because they only have a thin veneer on top.

The engineered wood floor might be the best option in the long run.

If you like listening to English for your extensive English listening then hit the Subscribe button below so you can get more of my podcasts. I’d love it if you made a comment below, too. Tell me if you prefer carpets or hardwood.