How To Select Wood Flooring {Our Go To Guide}

“What is your flooring source?” “Do you like it?” These are frequent question here at J&D and we know exactly why! We have lived through the stress of selecting wood flooring that is apart of any remodel or home build. We know those gut wrenching decision about flooring all to well. Floor covering is a huge part of the budget and it plays a critical role in the overall design of your space. This is one decision you don’t want to rush. Here are our wood floor selection tips.

We absolutely love our flooring selection and we are very happy with how well it has held up so far. Our satisfaction comes from the fact that we are happy with the quality, aesthetics within our budget. We typically follow the “Buy once cry once” policy when it comes to flooring in an entire home. Meaning its better to be fully satisfied with your decision then regret it only to spend more money and time down the road replacing it. So for us… We had to decide how and where to move around money to get the flooring budget where it needed to be.

“We typically follow the “Buy once cry once” policy when it comes to flooring in an entire home

How to select wood flooring:

Set your budget– Everyone’s budget is different. Stick with your budget and determine up front if this is going to be your “splurge”. This is a great time to decide if you will install it yourself or hire a professional.
Do your research– There are so many types of wood flooring. Hardwood, engineered, laminate and luxury vinyl to name a few. Spend time to understand the pros and cons of each. (This another blog post in itself but I will briefly touch on why I prefer engineered products below)
Give yourself enough time to make the right choice – The selection process takes time. Ordering samples and visiting showrooms is no small task. It’s never to early to start thinking about flooring when starting a new project.
Ask around- Don’t be scared to ask social media accounts for sources! Instagram is a great place to start.
Samples, samples, samples– When you are looking at spending thousands of dollars on a product it is essential to get your hands on samples. Many times floor companies will send samples for free. Ask for multiple pieces of each brand/color that you are interested in. This will give you a true representation of any color variation. Flooring showrooms will sometimes let you check out sample boards. Take as many as you can!
View the samples at different times of the day – Go to the job-site and lay out the samples in different areas of the house. Come back at different times during the day to view them. Sarah has been known to take samples to different high-end stores that have great flooring to compare colors and tones.
Understand the lead time and availability– This is how long it will take to order and deliver the product. You may need to pass on the perfect floor if it’s out of stock and does not fit into your timeframe. How long can you wait? Know your project timeframe and ask your salesperson about lead times.
Sleep on it– Not the flooring…sleep on your decision.
Order a box– We always do this! This is for those of you who are loosing sleep about color variation or just flat out worried! Buy a box and put your mind at ease. Its worth every penny.
All parties agree– This one is very subjective to your individual situation but for us, we decided not to move forward on our flooring choice unless we both were head over heals for the selection.

Our Flooring Details

We used an engineered white oak flooring From Build Direct: https://www.builddirect.com/p/Jasper-Engineered-Hardwood-Baltic-Oak-Collection–15001759. It is 1/2″ thick and the top layer is actual white oak wood veneer. We prefer engineered pre-finished hardwood floors for two reasons. Engineered floors are very stable and work great in the Minnesota climate. They install well and usually hold up great with our changing seasons. Secondly, pre-finished floors have an extremely durable factory applied finish. It is very consistent in color and quality. Pre-finished floors also eliminate the stress of selecting a stain. What you see it what you get!

We hope these wood floor selection tips help you feel confident about your next wood flooring project. Let us know if you have any questions!