Teak hardwood flooring: is it worth the investment?
There is no doubt that teak hardwood flooring is a very popular flooring choice for those seeking a durable, resistant wood flooring. The unanswered question for most consumers is the high price. In short, is the investment in teak hardwood flooring worth the current asking price?
One can choose to look at this question in a few ways. The easiest to evaluate is the simple return on investment, while the hardest to evaluate may be the intangible benefits. Oddly enough, the latter consideration when summed up has the potential to actually be worth far more than the former.
Before attempting to evaluate teak hardwood flooring as an investment it is important to understand the basics of the teak industry and its history. Most affordable teak is cultivated from meticulously organized plantations around the globe. This is primarily due to the fact that the global supply of old growth teak forests is rapidly dwindling, and many old growth teak forests are falling under strict government protection.
The fact that teak trees take several decades to reach maturity, even when their growth is accelerated by modern agronomic techniques. Once teak trees are harvested the process of creating handsome and durable teak timber is also somewhat time consuming and expensive, especially if environmental concerns are important to the vendor.
The net effect of these facts is that the combined teak production from sustainable plantations is rapidly increasing. This might lead some consumers to speculate that as new plantations come online and existing plantations continue to increase output that the asking price of teak may be inclined to drop and thus it is advisable to wait as long as possible before purchasing.
This may or may not be true. As the world population continues to grow at approximately 1.8% annually and many heavily populated regions such as China and India continue the systematic reduction of generational poverty so the demand for wood products increases. One of the quickest growing segments of this surge in demand for wood products are those made with timber cultivated from forest trees such as teak.
It is hard to predict whether demand or supply is increasing factor and if the general supply for wooden products could one day cause a wider audience to be interested in products such as teak hardwood floors. Predicting the future trends for any commodity can be difficult but products made from teak are probably more difficult than most. For that reason it is exceedingly difficult to properly assess how a teak hardwood floor would affect the resale value of a house over any given period of time, apartment, or office.
What if a consumer has no interest in the resale value of a particular piece of property? There is another quantifiable question to consider: does the longevity of teak hardwood flooring justify the extra expense?
While it is true that teak hardwood flooring shows surprising resilience to fungus infestation as well as to elements such as rain, snow, and even mud, it is not totally impervious and still needs proper care. Teak hardwood floors also rate very high on the Janka hardness scale. The Janka hardness scale determines how difficult or easy it is for wooden flooring to be dinged, chipped, dented, or otherwise damaged.
A high Janka hardness score is very important for active families, especially those with large canine companions possessing sharp floor-damaging claws. Consumers fitting this profile are likely to be attracted to hardwood flooring in general due to its easy to clean nature, though may not know just how important Janka hardness ratings are to selecting an appropriate hardwood flooring that will become a long lasting investment. Excellent illustrations of the longevity of teak hardwood can be found in the ancient temples found in southwest India which have original flooring dating back approximately two thousand years.
For consumers still not swayed by the monetary benefits of teak hardwood floors or simply more interested in the qualitative aspects of teak hardwood floors these is much to consider. They create a very ‘homey’ atmosphere to any workplaces and homes in a way that is hard to accurately describe. An entire branch of psychology which focuses on colors and environmental elements suggests that hardwood flooring such as teak may be beneficial for the entire family.
The bottom line is that it is very hard to determine whether or not the investment in hardwood flooring is a wise one or not. It depends on a wildly fluctuating market an whether or not intangible benefits such as impressing visitors rates high on ones list of priorities.
March 11th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Laminate wood flooring is versatile and can be installed in most rooms in a house. Bathrooms are the exception. as the floor will damage easily if moisture seeps into the core of the flooring. This can be expensive and time consuming to correct. They do not require waxing or polishing and do not fade over time.