Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood Flooring!  These words alone conjure up visions both luxurious and elegant.  An impressive addition to any home, hardwood floors add natural beauty as well as provide durable ‘5th walls’.  Wood will beatify your home while adding value.  Read any real estate listing; if a house has hard wood flooring in it, it will be prominently mentioned, as it is one of the most desirable feature that a home can have.

The choices are vast, and without the proper knowledge, selecting the right floor for your home can be overwhelming.  We’re here to make it just a little easier for you.  The first thing that you’ll need to consider is whether you want a prefinished floor or an unfinished floor. There are pros and cons to each.

Unfinished floors, or on-site-finished floors, are generally strips or planks of milled wood that are nailed straight in to your home’s decking.  After nailing, the entire floor is first sanded to a smooth surface, then stained to the color of your choice.  Finally, the finish, which is generally two or three coats of polyurethane, is applied.  The process takes three days for one or two room jobs, and increases depending on the size of the area being done.  If you opt to go the unfinished route, plan on being unable to walk on your new floors for several days.  The result, however, is a beautiful, smooth floor custom made just for you.  Unfinished wood is usually less money per unit than its pre-finished counterpart, although you’ll find that the price of labor offsets the savings.

Prefinished floors are just that—prefinished.  After the raw wood is milled at the factory, it is assembled in panels and sent down a conveyor for the finishing process.  After sanding and staining, most mills apply seven to 10 coats of polyurethane, which is baked in by ultraviolet light as it travels down the belt, resulting in a wear layer which absolutely cannot be duplicated by the on-site-finishing method.  When it comes time for installation, if a durable finish is important to your lifestyle, prefinished floors are the way to go.  It’s also the way to go if you’re planning on tackling the job yourself.  Take the wood out of the box, nail it in following the instructions in the box and voila, you have a brand new wood floor that can be walked on and enjoyed immediately.  Prefinished wood is generally more money per unit than unfinished wood, but for the extra cost you get a much more durable finish and an easier, more streamlined installation process.

After deciding which kind of finish best suits your needs and lifestyle, the next thing to consider is construction of the flooring.

Solid hardwood floors can be found in several thicknesses, but the most common is ¾ inch thick.  Solid wood must be nailed to the substrate, therefore cannot be installed over a concrete slab without first adding an additional subfloor.  Because of the thickness of the wood, the installation method must be nail-down to give the wood the stability it requires.  Solid hardwood can be refinished more times than most engineered wood.

Engineered hardwood floors can come in a variety of thicknesses and are ideal for homes that are a slab construction.  This type of construction can be glued down, which is possible because the wood is not solid.  Engineered floors are made of layers of plywood bled laminated together for stability, then topped with a solid wood wear layer.  Don’t let the words plywood and laminated fool you.  Engineered wood is indeed real wood, and can be refinished; the number of times will depend on the thickness of the wear layer.   Depending on your individual project, engineered wood may very well be the product that will work best for you.

Wood flooring is a living, breathing system, even years after it’s installed in your home.  Expect to see some expansion and contraction, especially in your solid wood products.  It the cool, dry winter months, your floor will shrink, so it’s not unusual to find some minor gapping between boards.  Conversely, the heat and humidity of summer puts moisture back into the floor, allowing it to expand back to its original state.

So, we know about finishes and construction; it’s time to talk a little about species.  Red oak, maple, cherry, ash, walnut.  These are just five out of dozens of species used to make fine hardwood flooring.  Some species are harder than others.  Some are more photosensitive.  Some are exotic, native to South America, Africa or Asia.  Some are darker, redder, lighter.  Each species of tree is unique.  Some things to consider when selecting species is your lifestyle, your interior style and price.

Whichever combination of finish, construction and species you choose, know that you’re investing in a warm, stylish and elegant background on which your life will be lived.