♢  Enhanced Natural Beauty: Wider planks showcase more of the wood’s unique grain patterns, knots, and color variations, creating a richer and more organic look. It’s like displaying a larger piece of natural art on your floor.

♢  Sense of Spaciousness: Fewer seams in wide plank flooring create a cleaner, more continuous surface, visually expanding the size of a room, especially beneficial in smaller spaces. Imagine a smooth, unbroken expanse of wood that makes your living area feel airier.

♢  Timeless Elegance: Wide plank hardwood offers a classic and enduring style that complements a wide range of interior designs, from rustic and farmhouse to modern and contemporary. It’s a foundation that adapts to evolving tastes.

♢  Luxurious Feel: Wider planks are often associated with high-end homes, adding a touch of sophistication and grandeur to any space. They create a subtle “wow” factor.

♢  Design Versatility: Available in various wood species, stains, finishes (matte, glossy, distressed), and even textures (like wire-brushed or hand-scraped), offering numerous customization options to match any aesthetic.

♢  Faster Installation (Potentially): Covering more area with each plank can lead to quicker installation times compared to narrower planks, although professional installation is often recommended due to the size and weight of the planks.

♢  Fewer Seams: Fewer seams not only enhance the visual flow but also mean fewer places for dirt and dust to accumulate, potentially simplifying cleaning.

♢  Durable Material: Hardwood, in general, is a durable and long-lasting flooring option that can last for decades with proper care.

♢  Resistance to Warping (Potentially): Some argue that wider planks, especially engineered options with a multi-layered core, can be more dimensionally stable and less prone to warping or cupping compared to solid narrow planks in fluctuating humidity. However, this can depend on the quality of the wood and the environment.

♢  Potential for Refinishing: Like other solid hardwood floors (and some engineered options with a thick wear layer), wide plank floors can often be sanded and refinished multiple times to restore their original beauty.

♢  Increased Home Value: Hardwood flooring, including wide plank options, is a desirable feature for homebuyers and can increase a home’s resale value.

♢  Better Air Quality: Unlike carpets that can trap allergens, hardwood floors are easy to clean and don’t harbor dust mites, pollen, or pet dander, contributing to better indoor air quality.

♢  Good Insulation (Potentially): The thickness of some wider planks can offer better insulation compared to thinner options, potentially contributing to energy efficiency.

♢  Cost: Wide plank hardwood is generally more expensive than narrower planks due to the higher quality of wood required (often from older, larger trees) and potentially higher installation costs.

♢  Humidity Sensitivity: Solid wide planks can be more susceptible to expansion and contraction with changes in humidity compared to narrower planks, potentially leading to gaps. Engineered wide plank options are often more stable in this regard.

♢  Maintenance: While generally easy to maintain with regular sweeping and damp mopping, proper humidity control is crucial to prevent issues like warping or gapping.

By highlighting these “must know” facts, you can effectively communicate the numerous benefits of choosing wide plank hardwood flooring to potential customers. Remember to tailor your pitch to their specific needs and preferences, addressing any concerns they may have.

Wide plank hardwood flooring, while offering a beautiful and spacious aesthetic, does come with several potential disadvantages:

☒  Material: Wider planks often require larger and older trees to mill, making the raw material more expensive and scarce. Trees suitable for very wide planks (10-20 inches) are particularly limited.

☒  Manufacturing Waste: Milling wider boards can lead to more waste compared to narrower planks, further increasing costs.

☒  Installation: Installation can be more labor-intensive, especially with reclaimed wide planks that may require more skill to handle cupping, cracking, and achieving a gap-free fit. Installing random-width wide planks also demands more expertise. You might need to factor in an additional $2 to $4 per square foot for professional installation.

☒  Expansion and Contraction: Wood naturally expands and contracts with changes in humidity. Wider planks show these movements more noticeably than narrower ones because a larger surface area is affected. A 6-inch plank will expand or shrink three times as much as a 2-inch plank under the same moisture fluctuations, leading to more visible gaps.

☒  Gapping:  Seasonal changes in humidity can cause wider gaps to appear during dry winter months when the wood loses moisture. These gaps can become traps for dirt and affect the floor’s appearance.

☒  Cupping and Warping:  Wide planks can be more prone to cupping (edges lifting) or warping in environments with significant humidity fluctuations. This is especially true in regions with steamy summers and dry winters. Maintaining a consistent humidity level (ideally between 28% and 48%) is crucial.

☒  Genuine wide plank flooring, especially solid hardwood in very wide dimensions, is not as readily available as standard-width options. They often need to be special-ordered, which can extend the timeline of your flooring project.

☒  Repairing damaged wide planks can be more challenging. Replacing a single board might require a professional to ensure a seamless match, especially if the flooring is reclaimed or face-nailed.

☒  While some wide plank flooring utilizes reclaimed wood, which is environmentally friendly, the demand for new, wide planks can put pressure on old-growth forests. Sustainable sourcing is an important consideration.

☒  While wide planks can create a sense of spaciousness, in very small rooms, they might sometimes feel overwhelming or out of proportion.

While wide plank hardwood flooring offers a unique and often desirable look, it’s important to be aware of the higher cost, potential for moisture-related issues, limited availability, and the need for professional installation and careful maintenance. Considering the climate which experiences seasonal  humidity, particular attention should be paid to moisture control and proper installation to mitigate potential problems.

Hallmark’s wide range of flooring gives you quality alternatives to select the best flooring or floor variations that fully matches your needs in design, type, colors and styles. Ever since our inception in 1998, Hallmark Floors continues to be driven by our love for wood and our passion for developing, producing and offering the most beautiful, smart and innovative flooring. Handcrafted in small batches by professional hardwood craftsmen, our wood floor collections are developed and designed to enhance the beauty of all types of homes and interiors, from cozy and traditional to cool and contemporary living. Our relentless work and developments of our flooring collections have made us one of the fastest growing wood flooring companies on the market, and we are pleased and proud to offer you over 100 uniquely designed hardwood and waterproof floors. Our mission at Hallmark Floors is to design and make beautiful, quality flooring with genuine support—one floor, one customer at a time. We have a passion to design and create the best quality product possible for our customers at a fair value. Our focus is always on producing quality products and meeting our customer’s needs, everything else comes later. It takes a team of exceptional people, working together to create and design quality floors. “Our success are a reflection of the relationships with our partners, team members and the excellent customer service we strive to provide on a daily basis.”