ICI Woodcare reports that adding/restoring natural wooden features in your home can increase the value of it. Wooden features include (stripped) wooden doors, door and window frames, wooden banisters on stair and landing, real wooden kitchen cupboards (or only cupboard doors) and of course installing Natural Wooden Flooring in the main areas.
When deciding on Natural Wooden Flooring it's best to keep the most popular floor in mind, especially when you want to climb the 'property-ladder'.
The most popular wood-type is still Oak and the grade mostly sold (in the UK) is Rustic. A Rustic Oak floor added to your home sells it better than for instance a tropical wood-type. Even if you would choose a specific coloured Oak floor (like Smoked, White-washed, Antique stained or Castle Grey oiled), the new owner can change this more easily to his/her own liking than trying to change a dark tropical floor into a lighter coloured one.
Most customers (in the U.K. that is) find a premium grade Oak floor looks too 'neat' and resembles a Melamine (Plastic) Laminate floor too much.
And an oil/wax finish is slowly gaining in popularity, matte replacing the gloss and shiny look.
But it’s not just a ‘Solid Investment’ for in your own home; if you have a buy-to-let property there are also other advantages when you replace the wall-to-wall carpet with quality Natural Wooden Flooring:
- You can ask for a higher amount in rent because of the practical floor covering installed. Since more and more ‘affluent’ young people have increasing difficulties getting onto the property ladder themselves, but still want to live comfortable; putting a property for rent on the market with Natural Wooden Flooring can give you an edge over all other properties for rent.
- Buy-to-let is all about ROI (Return On Investment): how much do you spend on the property and how much does it bring in? In the first instance cheap carpet doesn’t look as much costs, but having to replace this (stained, smelly, ripped) carpet every year isn’t practical and will cost as much as having had Natural Wooden Flooring installed from the beginning, in the long run this constant replacing of ‘cheap’ carpet could cost even more.
- Tenants aren’t always as careful with your property/belongings as you self would be. The benefit of easy maintenance (and the ease with which small repairs can be done, especially with oiled finishes) you’ll have with Natural Wooden Flooring gives you more peace of mind in this matter.
