How To Tell If Floor Is Real Wood

Here s the easiest way to know if you have wood floors.

How to tell if floor is real wood.

If you stare long enough you will likely find boards with the same wood grain. It may not be obvious right away but that s only because you re not looking for it. Today hardwood flooring options include engineered wood that looks a lot like the real thing but at a lower cost. Look for tell tale signs of engineered or laminate flooring on the surface of the floor such as beveled edges that form a groove between sections single pieces that are three or four planks.

Brush up on the basics of 8 popular options before choosing yours. 4 look at the wood grain. Hardwood floor finishes have varying levels of ease durability even glossiness. If the room has a floor vent remove it they re rarely screwed in carefully push your fingers under the pad to lift reveal.

Test for wax by rubbing an out of the way floorboard with the edge of a coin and looking for telltale wax buildup on the. First of all make sure that you re looking at a solid piece of wood as opposed to a veneer applied to plywood or mdf or even a stamped piece of fiberboard this is key to wood identification. Manufactured wood such as mdf osb and particleboard all have a distinct look that is in nearly all cases easily distinguishable from the endgrain of real wood. Traditionally hardwood floors were made of lumber from regional species.

With so many options on the market it s hard to know which one is best for your living space. Solid hardwood flooring is available in a wide array of wood species including oak maple and black walnut as well as regional specific choices like pecan mesquite and others. If you can feel the graininess and texture of the wood the floor probably has a coating of penetrating oil and perhaps wax. You can usually tell different types of wood apart by looking at the wood grain color and the visibility of growth rings.

Hardwood flooring is made from solid wood so every board will be different. Look for growth rings formed by the yearly growth of a tree which will be a dead giveaway that the wood sample in question is a solid genuine chunk of wood taken from a tree. Laminate flooring will have a repeating pattern.