Spending time outside is one of the greatest rewards of living in Colorado. Using natural materials to build an outdoor living area for outdoor gatherings, parties, and events will help compliment the surrounding landscape and create a beautiful living space. Despite being surrounded by trees, we often overlook hardwood as a material for outdoor flooring. Here’s how you can bring your hardwood floors out into the open to enhance your outdoor living area.
Hardwood floors outside
Cedar and Redwood are naturally resistant to weather, rot, and insects.
One thing we know about hardwood is that it can be temperamental. Controlling the environment is essential to maintain your hardwood floors, so many don’t even consider hardwood when choosing flooring materials for outdoor spaces. However, porches have been made of wood for centuries. When you’re looking to put down flooring to create a luxurious, yet cozy, outdoor living space consider these hardwoods.
Cedarwood
The most important features of the wood you choose for outdoor use is that it is durable and weather-resistant. Cedar is a relatively soft wood, but it is highly weather-resistant and has been used for outdoor decking and flooring for centuries. Cedar is also native to Colorado, so it knows the climate and has resins that make it resistant to bugs, insects, and rot. These resins make it naturally resistant to outdoor threats and will require fewer treatments with toxic chemicals.
Redwood
Twisting, warping, and cupping are major concerns when choosing a wood for outdoor spaces. Like Cedar, the Redwood is also highly resistant to the outdoor elements. Redwood also has a natural resistance to rot and decay, and it is also famous for keeping it’s shape and straightness, even in temperamental outdoor environments. Choosing Redwood will keep your outdoor hardwood floors looking beautiful for years to come.
Cedar and Redwood will age to a beautiful warm grayish brown.
Aesthetics of Cedar and Redwood
Both Cedar and Redwood are aesthetically pleasing with soft grain and soft, golden color that is easy to stain. Heartwoods will tend to have hues of pink and red, but you can also choose the sapwood which will come in more golden tones. Both types of wood will age beautifully in their natural state.
Changes in the wood
Since both kinds of wood are naturally resistant and durable, you can easily leave them in their natural state. Both will age and settle on a deep, warm, grayish tone. However, you can also stain the wood to be the color you desire, as long as you keep in mind that any stain you use will also change. In almost 100% of the cases, aged wood is going to become more beautiful over time.
Talk to a hardwood flooring expert about hardwood floors for outdoor living spaces.