Why a Wooden Floor?
Hardwood floors make sense for a number of reasons. At Turgon we would point out that, apart from the beautiful aesthetics achievable with the huge range of species and patterns, hardwood floors make sense for other reasons too.
A well installed hardwood floor will last anywhere between 50 and 250 years with the right care and attention. It will not wear out like a carpet, it will not get dirty and stained like a carpet, and it will keep on going year after year, saving you thousands of pounds in the long term. A real hardwood floor will increase the value of your property and make it much more desirable to potential purchasers.
Health Benefits
Much is made of the health benefits of hardwood flooring, and rightly so. Carpets are ideal breeding grounds for Dermatophagoides Pteronyssinus, more commonly known as the European Dust Mite. Invisible to the naked eye, these mites live in bedding, couches, carpet, stuffed toys and old clothing.
Dust mites feed on dead skin that falls from the bodies of humans and animals, and on other organic material found where they live. When they grow, they shed their skin, which can cause allergic reactions in people; in fact dust mites are second only to pollen in this regard. Allergic reactions range from itchy noses and eyes to severe asthma attacks.
Complete elimination of dust mites is unlikely; reducing populations is the only likely way to reduce allergens in the air. One obvious way to reduce populations is to reduce the environment in which they thrive by replacing carpets with hardwood floors.
Chris Ogden of Turgon gives two examples from his own experience of the difference hardwood flooring can make in providing a clean and healthy environment in which to live.
My nephew suffered from occasional asthma attacks, especially at night. Although these attacks were not too serious, his mother was rightly worried. After suffering a more serious attack one night, my brother and I arrived at the house the next day and replaced his dusty bedroom carpet with a new hardwood floor. His health has improved markedly and he no longer suffers asthma attacks at night.
When we first fitted hardwood floors in our house in 1997, my wife constantly complained that she seemed to spend her entire time cleaning up dust, fluff, hair and other bits and pieces from the surface of the floor.
“It was never like this when we had carpets.” she said. It was then that I pointed out that all that dust, fluff and hair had always been there, but before the carpet had absorbed it. When we really thought about this, the thought of having carpets again or even sitting on other people's carpets made our skin crawl. We are now hardwood flooring evangelists and have persuaded most of our friends and family to follow suit, who all agree that they would never go back to carpets.
Financial Benefits
Is it worth investing money in a hardwood floor when you do not know how long you will remain at your current property? The answer is that a hardwood floor is much more than just decoration for your property; it is in fact an investment in your property. Estate agents will tell you that homes with real hardwood floors - not laminates - have many advantages over properties with carpets.
Properties with real hardwood floors will:
- hold their value better,
- sell (or let) faster,
- fetch higher prices for both lettings and sales.
Real hardwood floors are associated with quality. When a potential buyer or tenant sees a hardwood floor they will automatically associate the entire property with quality building materials. When you come to sell your property make sure that your real hardwood floor is mentioned in the house details; it will attract potential buyers and will increase the number of viewings.
Environmental Benefits
Carpeting ages quickly with accumulated dirt and grime and requires expensive and potentially toxic cleaning treatments to extend its life. Unlike a carpet, a real hardwood floor will not absorb household smells, enhancing the air quality in your house. In this age of increasing allergy suffering, it makes sense to make your family home as pleasant a place to be in as you can.
At Turgon, the environment - both that inside your home, and that of the wider world in which we all live - is most important. Through the setting of targets we strive to minimise the use of all materials and energy during the development, production, distribution, marketing and sale of our products and, where possible, we use renewable and/or recyclable materials.
The comfortable feel of real wood flooring conveys a clean and natural impression. It is therefore in our interest that all the raw materials we use are from well-managed forestry where nature's long-term balance is sustained.
Choosing from the wide range of floors on offer allows a number of environmentally-friendly options, such as engineered wood. At Turgon the wood we use comes from foresters that sign up to environmental responsibility, social consideration and economic sustainability.
Our floors are durable, healthy, and made to your taste. These are just a few reasons why we are so passionate about hardwood flooring.