Hardwood Floors and Sunlight

Recently, while on a listing appointment I visited a home that had just added additional hardwood floors to their home.  They had most of their main floor in hardwoods, but had not done the Great Room. They decided to add hardwoods to the Great Room after about 8 years of living in the home.

The installer of the hardwoods said that he could match the flooring.  He did not!  These floors adjoined the Great Room in the Hall and the Kitchen.  This proved to be disasterous.  What happened? Had he not matched the colors.  Afterall, they were the same names, manufactuer and color as what was installed.  The culprit--------SUNLIGHT!

Well, sunlight had really done a number on these floors and had faded them.  The client had an octagonal rug under their kitchen table.  Now they have a fabulous faded floor in the shape of an octogon.  They had this problem with several other areas in the home as well.

If you have hardwood floors be cautions about putting down area rugs.  You may want to invest in some window tinting to preserve the integrity of the flooring. This is especially hard on lighter hardwood floors.

In addition, make sure you work with a qualified contractor who will match your floors or tell you he can't before he starts the job.  You don't want to have mis-matched flooring up against each other.