Flooring is one of the elements in any home that has to cope with massive loads. However, floorings also have a high standard to meet. They have to be smooth, level, look appealing and nice as well retain durability throughout the entire exploitation process. This is not an easy task and many different factors can impact the life of any flooring and either cause it to exceed expectations or more often then not – break down, crack, get deformed. Here are five main reasons why floorings in homes break down.
Reason No. 1 – load miscalculations
The most important aspect before choosing the flooring material and before fitting a floor is calculating the loads it will deal with. Some materials can handle a lot more than others. For example, wood of equal thickness and density is more capable than plastic while concrete is superior to wood.
If loads aren’t calculated properly, the flooring has a high chance of breaking, cracking, deforming and etc.
Reason No. 2 – Too much moisture
Especially if the floors are wooden, moisture is a cold-hearted killer. Regular wood absorbs moisture and over time, wooden flooring can suffer devastating blows of constant expansion and shrinkage. Floors that aren’t protected from moisture see massive deformations, mostly in the form of bumps.
There are waterproof options out there like the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban. In essence, it’s just wood that’s treated with fire, but it looks so much more luxurious and beautiful than regular lumber. See Degmeda.eu for more info about this unique wood charring technology which makes the wood waterproof but allows it to remain breathable.
Reason No. 3 – Improper or no care at all
Washing, cleaning and fixing dents in their early stages is very important. Floors are usually low on maintenance requirements but they’re not something you can just forget about. If something falls and leaves a dent, make sure to take care of it because even a small gap in a regular flooring can lead to further damage like rot or something else.
Reason No. 4 – They’ve just gotten old
Yes, this is a fairly common situation. If your flooring is 20, 30 or even 15 years old, it could have seen a lot of wear and tear. Replacement should be considered in the near future.
Reason No. 5 – Extreme temperature variations
You may very well have slept through this physics course in school, but if you know anything about the correlation between temperatures and materials, you are familiar with the fact that heat causes expansion and cold causes shrinkage.
With some floorings, like wood this effect is very problematic because if wood absorbs moisture and faces temperature changes, the shrinking-expanding processes will hurt it badly and do it very quickly. Other floorings are less, but nonetheless vulnerable.