Use Hardwood Flooring

Archive for the ‘FAQ’s’ Category

There are five main reasons why it makes a great investment for your home. This includes both solid and engineered flooring. The first reason is that it provide a since of elegance as well as a timeless sense of quality to any home whether it is a stately mansions or a small home located in a subdivision. The second reason is that it is durable. With the proper care, it can last for several decades without having to be refinished. All they require is sweeping and an occasional damp mopping. The third reason is it is a great investment is that they add value to your home. In fact, it is one of the only flooring options that can actually increase the value of your home.

The fourth reason they make a great investment is that it never goes out of style. Think about it, how many of you grew up in a home that had a Harvest Gold kitchen, or wall-to-wall shag carpet? Of course, today, these are considered retro. Hardwood flooring has a timeless quality that will ensure your house never looks outdated because of its flooring. The fifth reason hardwood flooring makes a great investment is that it is hypoallergenic. With hardwood flooring, you don’t have to worry about it hiding mildew, mold, pet dander, dust mites, or any particles, which can trigger an allergic reaction

Although I’m sure that you can think of a hundred more reasons why it is a great investment, these were the ones that were given to me from a real-estate agent. If you want to add a sixth reason, homes that have hardwood flooring sale on an average of 5 times faster than homes that do not. It is just a sound investment.

In recent years, bamboo flooring has gained immense popularity in the United States, mainly because of its hardness, stability, and appearance. Once thought as an exotic flooring only to be used in the most influential homes, today bamboo flooring is being installed in homes all across the country as more and more people are going green.

Bamboo is not a wood at all, but a grass that is environmentally friendly and does not contribute to the deforestation of our planet. In addition, it only takes approximately 5 years for the stalk to mature as compared to 50-100 years for other hard woods. Once bamboo has been harvested, it simple grows back, ready to be harvested again in another 3 to 5 years, unlike hardwoods, which must be replanted. Another reason for bamboos popularity, it that it resembles wood in color and form, however, bamboo is considerable more durable and stable than Northern Red Oak.

It is available in natural or carbonized, which is a dark brown resembling oak. This carbonized color however is not a stain but a rich color that goes completely through the bamboo. This color is achieved by steaming the bamboo and caramelizing the sugar within the stalk. The grain patterns can be either flat or vertical and just like solid wood flooring; bamboo flooring can either be nailed, or floated on top of a sub floor. Bamboo flooring can be floated or nailed. If you plan on nailing your bamboo floor, it is advisable that you purchase or rent a pneumatic nail guns.

The average cost per square foot is $4 to $8 per square foot. This price does not include any installation costs. The average warranty offer is from five to twenty-five years, depending on the manufacturer. A good rule of thumb being that the longer the warranty, the better the quality of bamboo flooring. This also hold true for any hardwood flooring.

The other reasons for its great popularity is that bamboo is also relatively easy to care for, requiring only an occasional damp mopping and sweeping to remove any dirt and debris from the surface. However, just like hardwood flooring, water and heavy moisture will ruin your bamboo flooring.

If you are considering installing hardwood flooring in your home, consider going green and install beautiful, durable bamboo.

Radiant heat is becoming the most popular form of heating for homes simple because instead of circulating heat with moving air through a room, radiant heating systems heat the floors, and as the heat rises, it warms the air within the room. The most popular for of radiant floor heating, is a system that uses electric cables or small tubes of hot water that are embedded in a concrete floor underneath a ceramic tiled floor. The heat passes through the floor, warming all objects in the room, including the ceiling.

Many people are worried that because heat dries out wood, that they would not be able to enjoy the warmth of radiant heat or because the already had radiant heat would not be able to enjoy beautiful hardwood floors. You can use radiant heat with wood flooring.

Two factors cause wood to expand and contract, the first is a change in temperature and the second is moisture. When introducing heat to any wood flooring, you make the attention to moisture that more critical. Gaps between the boards and cracks in the boards occur when the content in the wood is too low and the wood has dried out, on the other hand, cupping is the result of too much moisture. However, both of these problems could have been avoided had the wood had proper time to acclimate to the environment before being installed.

When installing any type of wood flooring with a radiant heating system, you want to ensure that the system had be allowed to run for a minimal of 72 hours before placing the cartons of hardwood flooring in the room. Next, you want to open the flooring cartons up to allow the wood to acclimate to the condition in the room for 72 hours before installing.

It is also important to understand that not all-wood flooring is recommended for radiant heat. The best types of flooring for radiant heat systems are engineered flooring and laminates because of their stability. In addition, floating floors, whether they are engineered or solid are also acceptable because they are designed to move as a unit to accommodate changes in moisture.

When making a decision of installing hardwood flooring over a radiant heat system, consult the hardwood flooring and your radiant heat systems manufacturers guidelines for compatibility and instructions to guarantee that you have selected the correct wood flooring so that neither warranty will be voided.

When purchasing your hardwood floors, you have to know more than the specific type of wood; you also have to understand about the differences in the durability. When speaking about durability and hardwood flooring, this is often defined by the stability and hardness of the surface of the wood. Hardness will affect how well the hardwood flooring stands up to foot traffic and impacts (something heavy dropped).

Stability:

Stability refers to the woods ability to resist swelling and contracting when exposed to changes in temperature and in humidity. To some, this may not be an issue, if you live in a stable climate or keep your home set at a constant temperature, however if you are like so many others and like to have your windows open, this can be a very big issue.

The unit of measure for comparing stability is often the Northern Red Oak, which is given a 0%. If a hardwood receives a percentage higher, than its stability is that much higher than Northern Red Oak and is less reactive to moisture changes within the environment. Woods that are more stable than Northern Red Oak are: American Cherry, American Walnut, Ash, Birch, Hickory, Northern Hard Maple, White Oak, and Reclaimed Pine, Australian Cypress, Rosewood, Teak, and Mahogany to name only a few.

Hardness:

When we speak about hardness, this reflects the woods durability. When speaking of wood hardness, this refers to the woods ability to withstand indentations. Once again, Northern Red Oak is often used as the hardwood to which this comparison is made, with Northern Red Oak given a 0%. American Cherry and American Walnut have lesser hardness rating than Northern Red Oak, but reclaimed pine has a much higher hardness rating. Reclaimed pine is wood that has been taken from old homes, distillers, and even factories from around the country. Many times this wood is over 100 years old. What makes this wood harder and more stable than oak or other hardwoods is because the pinesap has dried and hardened making the wood extremely hard.

Many people dont understand what laminate flooring truly is, however they do know about Pergo flooring. Pergo was the first company to produce and sell this type of flooring in the United States. Now there is more than 30 other brands of laminate flooring.

Laminate flooring is comprised of three separate layers. The top layer is a tough aluminum oxide photograph of wood, stone, or brick. This layer is adhered to the core, which is usually MDF (medium density fiberboard). This core layer is adhered to a layer of plastic laminate backing, which protects the entire plank against moisture, making it possible to install laminate flooring over concrete and below grade floors.

Possibly the larges benefits of laminate flooring is its cost-effectiveness as well as its easy to care for surface. Because laminate flooring is tongue and grooved, it can be installed in nearly any room that has a firm floor surface. Other benefits include that it is more moisture tolerant than cork or other flooring materials. However, not all laminates are moisture tolerant therefore, make sure that the manufacturers warranty does cover moisture.

In addition, laminate floors usually include lifetime warranties against most problems and defects, which makes it perfect for homes that have a lot of traffic. If you want the look of hardwood but have a sub-floor, which is not compatible for real hardwood floors, then consider installing laminate flooring.

When choosing a hardwood floor that complements your style and decor will be easier if you follow these simple tips:

1. The first step is to look at your hardwood floors as a design element and imagine it in a room full of your furniture. Whether you have ceramic tiles, carpet or hardwood flooring, how you decorate your flooring will either tie rooms together or completely distract from the room. Your flooring has to complement the existing furniture and walls.

2. The Light and Dark of it Many people have a difficult time deciding between rich darker shades or warm lighter shades of hardwood. A good rule of thumb is, if the room has plenty of natural light, or if it is a room that demands a formal look, then you may wish to consider using darker shades of flooring, which can be found in many of the exotic woods. However, keep in mind that darker shades will give the illusion that the room is smaller than it really is.

Lighter shades are perfect for rooms, which do not have sufficient natural light. Lighter shades of hardwood also offer a more casual look, which is why they are often used with country and contemporary dcor. Another advantage of lighter shades is that they work more easily with a wider range of color schemes.

3. The edge treatment of your hardwood boards is another important design feature you must consider. Square beveled boards do not show seams, which offer a more formal as well as contemporary look. Whereas beveled boards display a line or crease between every board. This style has a more relaxed, casual, and old look to it. For cleaning purposes many people prefer the square boards as they do not trap small particles of dirt and grim.

4. Board width Hardwood flooring planks come in a verity of different width. When choosing your board width, you should consider the overall size and scale of the room where the flooring will be installed. Rooms with high ceilings and open space can accommodate the wider boards. Wider boards often make a bold grand statement and can over power smaller size rooms. When using small width boards in large rooms, the smaller boards are often lost within the room. Therefore, for smaller rooms it is best to use narrower boards so that they complement the room.

5. Borders, accents, and patterns Hardwood flooring can be installed at 45o angles, in a basket weave pattern, and in a herringbone pattern. These diagonal patterns help to draw the eye across the room, giving the room the illusion of being larger than what it is.

Another unique way of installation is to use your hardwood floors to create inset borders by using a board of a contrasting color. This is an inexpensive option. However, if you home is open, then you can create the illusion of different rooms with in one room by using domestic with exotic hardwoods or combining hardwood flooring with marble, stone or tile to separate the kitchen area from the living room, or the living room from the dinning area within the same floor.

Growing up, I hated my grandparents old home. You couldnt walk in any room that the floors did not squeak. Squeaking floors are caused by two pieces of wood rubbing together. One way of stopping the squeak is to reduce the friction caused by the two pieces of wood with ultra-fine graphite powder.

You can purchase ultra-fine graphite powder at your local hardware stores. By pouring a small amount of the graphite between the boards, it could greatly reduce or eliminate the squeaking sound.

If the graphite does not eliminate the squeaks, then you can use well-placed nails. First, you will need to pre-drill into the wood and angled slightly toward each other. Once you have completed this, you will then carefully drive the nails into the wood. You want to be very careful not to let the hammer mare the surface of the hardwood floor.

You want to finishing nail, which has a very small head. You will have to use a nail set and sink the nails below the surface of the wood. To eliminate squeaking floors this way, you will require a hammer, cordless drill, and a small drill bit. The entire process should require not more than 20 minutes to complete. Your hardwood floor should be quite as and as good as new.

Engineered hardwood floors are wood floors that consist of three to seven layers of sealed laminated wood with the top visible layer being that of a desired species of hardwood such as oak, maple, teak, etc. Because of how the layers are placed, the stability of engineered wood floors is more stable than that of solid hardwood floors, meaning that they do not swell or contract as much as the solid hardwood floors. In addition, engineered floors can be installed on dry concrete and below-grade.

Many people want the warmth, style, and atmosphere of solid hardwood floors, but are not happy with the limited areas in which they can be installed. Solid hardwood floors cannot be installed in areas that have high humidity on dried concrete slabs or below grade as this can cause them to swell or cup.

Engineered hardwood floors are an attractive solution to these environmental changes, in that engineered floors because of their construction are more stable. The only drawback to engineered floors is that because the top layer is thin, they can only be refinished once.

Engineered hardwood floors consist of two main elements, which are the top layer and the core. The core is usually constructed of stacked layers of medium or high-density fiberboard. However, the core can also be 3-ply to 7-ply plywood construction. It is this stacking design, which counteract the effects of humidity on the natural wood, by permitting each individual board to expand and contract without warping or cupping.

The top layer of the engineered hardwood floors is a thin layer of real wood in the desired species, such as maple, oak, etc. Engineered floors are in fact REAL wood floors; just as solid hardwood floors, are real wood. The only difference is that during the winter when the heat has dried out the wood flooring, with engineered floors, you will not have huge gaps between the planks and in the summer, the floors will not be cupped. With engineered hardwood flooring, you have the beauty or solid hardwood floors with the functionality, and toughness of a stabilizing core system.

Engineered flooring is made from real wood; it is as durable yet more stable than solid wood flooring is as beautiful. Engineered flooring consists of three to seven layers of thin wood (plys), which are stacked and laminated together, with the top layer being that of a thin veneering of domestic or exotic hardwood. The boards or planks range in widths from 2 1/4″ to 7″ and various thickness with the most common bein3/8. Engineered flooring is popular because of its stability. All wood, no matter its quality will expands and contracts depending on changes in humidity. Engineered flooring, however, is constructed so that the layers of wood are stacked in opposite directions, thus they counteract each other’s movements they expand and contract. This is known as cross-ply construction and it gives the floor product its dimensionally stability. For this reason, engineered flooring can be installed over concrete slabs at or below ground level, where solid hardwood flooring cannot be installed.

The method of installation of engineered flooring is by nailing it down or by gluing it down method; however, many manufacturers also offer the option of floating floor installation.

Advantages and Disadvantages of engineered wood flooring:

Is more dimensionally stable than solid hardwood flooring. Can be installed below grade over concrete slabs. Can be installed over a variety of subfloors including concrete and offers a variety of installation methods. Engineered flooring can only be sanded and refinished once or twice, depending on the thickness of the hardwood veneering.

Solid wood floors are as their name implies, they are constructed of a single solid piece of wood, which has been milled with a tongue and groove edge. Solid hardwood flooring is available in unfinished or prefinished. Unfinished hardwood floors require staining and varnished after installation, whereas prefinished floors come finished from the factory and are ready for your enjoyment after installation.

Advantages and disadvantages of solid hardwood flooring: It can be sanded and refinished multiple times. Depending on its thickness it can be installed over wood subfloor using a nail-down or glue-down method of installation. Does react to moisture. Solid hardwood flooring should only be installed above grade and acclimated properly. Is hypoallergenic Will last for years to come.