Transform Your Home: The Ultimate Guide to Hardwood Flooring

Transform Your Home: The Ultimate Guide to Hardwood Flooring Transforming your home begins with the foundation beneath your feet, hardwood flooring. This timeless choice not only enhances the aesthetic of any space but also adds substantial value to your property. The warm tones and natural textures of hardwood can complement any decor style, from rustic charm to modern elegance. However, like any investment, maintaining your hardwood floors is essential for longevity and beauty. In this ultimate guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about choosing the right hardwood flooring for your home, along with expert refinishing tips that will breathe new life into tired floors. Whether you're a seasoned DIY enthusiast or a first-time homeowner, our comprehensive insights will empower you to make informed decisions, ensuring your floors remain stunning for years to come. Types of Hardwood Flooring When it comes to selecting hardwood flooring, the array of choices can be both exciting and overwhelming. Each type of hardwood brings its own unique characteristics and charm, making it essential to understand the options available. One of the most popular choices is oak, known for its durability and classic grain pattern. Oak comes in two varieties—red [...]

jennifer Griffin2025-10-14T13:41:17+00:00October 14th, 2025|Engineered Hardwood Floors, Hardwood Floors, Hardwood Refinishing, Pre-Finished Hardwood Floors|

Oil based vs. water based polyurethane

What is the difference between water based polyurethane and oil based polyurethane? Both oil and water based polyurethanes are like a coat of armor for the hardwood floor below, protecting the wood from damage. Each type of polyurethane is a sacrificial layer that will show scratches and wear marks over time, and both oil and water based polyurethane have their strengths! DURABILITY: If each product is applied properly using quality products, the difference in durability is indiscernible. A lot of clients think that water based poly is not as durable as an oil based poly, but a newer brand, quality water based poly will last just as long if it is well taken care of! COLOR: Oil-based poly has an amber hue, whereas water based poly is clear. An oil based polyurethane will continue to amber and darken over time, while water-based poly will remain clear for the lifetime of the hardwood floor. This color difference is less noticeable over a stained hardwood floor, but an oil based poly will still exhibit an amber hue that will continue to darken over time. DRYING TIMES: Oil-based poly takes much longer to dry and cure, and only one coat [...]

jennifer Griffin2021-03-25T03:37:09+00:00July 15th, 2019|Hardwood Floors, Hardwood Refinishing|

Pre-finished versus Unfinished Hardwood Floors

When it’s time to buy hardwood flooring, there are so many decisions to be made. You have to decide which rooms to floor, color, material, plank size and more. Here’s one you may not have heard of: pre-finished or unfinished flooring. If you haven’t had a wood floor installed recently, you may not even know about this option. To make the decision even harder, there are pros and cons to both types of flooring, and it may come down to simple preference. Installation Prefinished wood flooring planks are cut, sanded and finished in the factory, which makes them sturdier, longer lasting and easier to install. They can be installed in as long as it takes to lay the floor, and you can walk on them right away. Unfinished wood floors, sometimes called site-finished, have to be installed, sanded, stained and sealed in your home. Layers of polyurethane can take hours to dry. If you live in your home at the time of installation, this can be an inconvenience. The finish Pre-finished hardwood floors have beveled edges on the planks, leaving tiny grooves in the floor once installed. While some may find that to be a beautiful [...]

jennifer Griffin2021-03-25T03:37:09+00:00February 4th, 2019|Hardwood Refinishing, New Hardwood Floors and Stain, Pre-Finished Hardwood Floors|

How to Pick the Right Flooring Company

How to Pick the Right Flooring Company Installing new hardwood floors or refinishing your current hardwood floors is a big investment. Done right, they will bring comfort and joy to your family while increasing the value of your home. With such a large investment on the horizon, it is crucial that you invest some time and energy into picking the right hardwood flooring company to work with. While there are many home improvement projects that homeowners can successfully take on themselves; flooring is not one of those projects. There’s too much that can go wrong and the stakes are too high. We recommend that you choose an experienced professional! Here are just a few things you should look for when researching and talking with flooring companies in your community. Great Customer Service: When you pick a flooring company, you are agreeing to let them make changes to one of the most valuable assets you own. Referrals are always good but make sure you also look at online reviews. Read through the reviews to make sure the flooring contractor has been timely, respectful of your property, trustworthy, and of course, delivers a quality product. Access to Good Product [...]

jennifer Griffin2021-03-25T03:37:09+00:00September 13th, 2018|Hardwood Refinishing, New Hardwood Floors and Stain|

A Quick Guide to Refinishing Hardwood Floors

Whether it’s a secret treasure discovered under carpeting or hardwood floors you’ve had for years, uncovering and refinishing hardwood floors will bring new life and a completely new style to your home. Hardwood flooring has stood the test of time, stylistically and literally, because of its ability to be refinished. Floors can be refinished to restore the wood’s original appearance and shine, change its color or finish, or blend to with newly added wood. What’s involved? There are several steps involved in the process of refinishing and recoating, and many depend on the particular home and flooring situation. You should plan on several days for each step – even better, plan to go on vacation and come home to fabulous new floors! The following are the basic steps involved: Step 1: Sand the floors. When there is a wax coating on top of the floor's polyurethane finish or when the wood underneath the finish has been damaged or stained, the finish must be sanded down. During this step, the existing finish on top of the hardwood floors is sanded down to just bare wood. At Highland Hardwood Flooring we use a dustless sanding system which will reduce the [...]

jennifer Griffin2025-05-19T20:56:23+00:00July 25th, 2018|Hardwood Refinishing|

One Stop Shop Flooring Project

We just completed this flooring project for a client. In addition to putting in new flooring, repairing old flooring, and matching stain we helped this customer take down a wall to open the floor plan up. In addition to flooring skills, our team is skilled in other areas of construction and renovation. Daniel Holyfield, the owner of Highland Hardwood Flooring also owns a renovation and construction company called Paramount Homes.

jennifer Griffin2021-03-25T03:37:09+00:00March 27th, 2018|Hardwood Refinishing, New Hardwood Floors and Stain, reconstruction|

Something New…Something Old for Hardwood Floors!

Hardwood Floors - Something New and Something Old On this job we took the older hardwood floors from the bedroom and reinstalled in the hallway which is open to the living room. We then installed new oak floors with a custom stain to match the original hardwood flooring from the bedroom. A little bit of repurposing and a little bit of new. We love when we can save old hardwood floors and bring them back to the original shine.

jennifer Griffin2025-09-28T21:35:38+00:00February 23rd, 2018|Hardwood Refinishing, Historic Hardwood Floors, New Hardwood Floors and Stain|

Saving A Piece of Hardwood History

We just completed this refinishing job in Butchertown neighborhood in Louisville. What a fun project. These floors were trashed and all other flooring contractors who bid the job were bidding it recommended a whole new hardwood floor installation on top of the old flooring but we saved the hardwood floors for this customer and saved her thousands of dollars. We also kept a small part of history intact in a historic part of Louisville.

jennifer Griffin2021-03-25T03:37:10+00:00February 22nd, 2018|Hardwood Refinishing, Historic Hardwood Floors|