Wood Floor Overview

1217 S. BLOSSER RD. STE. A SANTA MARIA CA. 93454

Hardwood flooring is beautiful

The elegant look of a hardwood floor can add warmth and character to any room in a home. The natural characteristics of wood add depth and a visual appearance that many other types of floors try to duplicate. As the consumer demand for hardwood floors has grown so has the manufacturer's ability to produce better quality finishes and superior construction techniques. With these advancements wood floors can now be installed throughout the home and over a wide variety of subfloors.

Today, homeowners looking to use wood floors have the option of purchasing three different types of wood flooring. Although the end results may look the same there are distinct advantages for using each type under different situations.

• 3/4" Solid Wood Floors
• Engineered Plank Floors
• Longstrip Plank Floors

Once installed it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between a solid wood floor and the other wood floors. Both the engineered and the longstrip have thin layers of wood that are glued together. By gluing the plies together you get better dimensional stability within the plank itself, which allows these floors to be used on job sites that have a higher percentage of moisture content than normal. This includes basements and over concrete slabs where solid strip wood floors are considered off limits.

Another choice you have today is whether to go with a pre-finished wood floor, or an unfinished wood floor that is finished in your home. The pre-finished floors offer a wider variety of wood species and saves hours of labor and cleanup. While the unfinished wood floors allow you to have a custom, job-site finish and a completely smooth, uniform surface. You also get an extended factory finish warranty with pre-finished floors, but not with most job-site finishes.

Plank Edge Styles

Hardwood floors come in either a beveled edge, or a square edge. Today, most hardwood floor manufacturers are calling their beveled edge " eased edge " because the tapered edge is dramatically reduced from the old deeply grooved edges. The beveled edges do serve a purpose. The manufacturer can produce beveled edge planks faster than square edge, which in turn lowers their production costs. Also, a beveled edge floor is more forgiving when installed over irregular subfloors and you don't have the problem of overwood.

Square Edge

The edges of all boards meet squarely creating a uniform, smooth surface that blends the floor together from board to board. The overall look of this floor gives a contemporary flair and formal feeling to the room.

Eased Edge

Each board is just slightly beveled. Some manufacturers add an eased edge to both the length of the planks as well as the end joints. Eased edges are used to help hide minor irregularities, such as uneven plank heights. Eased edge is also called microbeveled edge.

Beveled Edge

These products have a very distinctive groove in them. Beveled edge planks lend themselves to an informal and country decor. With the urethane finishes applied at the factory today the beveled edges are sealed completely making dirt and grit easy to be swept or vacuumed out of the grooves. Beveled edge floors help hide subfloor irregularities that could result in variations in board height, which is often called "overwood".

Wood Species
Relative Hardness Table

Below are listed the relative hardness for numerous wood species used in flooring. These ratings were done using the Janka Hardness Test, which measure the force needed to embed a .444 inch steel ball to half it's diameter in a piece of wood. The higher the number the harder the wood. Although this is one of the best methods to measure the ability of wood species to withstand indentations, it should be used as a general guide when comparing various species of wood flooring. The construction and finish also play an important role in the durability and ease of maintenance of any wood floor.

Engineered Plank Floors

Engineered wood floors are generally 2,3, or 5 thin sheets of wood that are laminated together to form one plank. These floors will range from 1/4" to 9/16" in thickness, and from 2 1/4" to 7" in width. The lengths will be random and range from 12" – 60" in length. The top finish layer can be cut from a variety of domestic or exotic hardwood species.

In the construction of engineered wood floors the wood plies are stacked on top of each other, but in the opposite directions. This creates a floor that is dimensionally stable and far less effected by moisture than a 3/4" solid wood floor. This is why you can install engineered wood floors over concrete slabs below ground level, as well as anywhere else in the home. (Note: the concrete slabs must still be dry and clean.)

Wood always wants to expand in a certain direction. In the presence of moisture solid wood planks will always expand across the width of the planks, rather than down the length of the boards. To avoid this problem, manufacturers of engineered planks place each ply in the opposite direction of each other. This is called cross-ply construction. Once the wood layers are glued together the plies will counteract each other which helps prevent the plank from expanding, or shrinking with changes in humidity. If moisture is a concern, then you should strongly consider an engineered wood floor versus a solid wood floor.

The top ply, or finish layer of an engineered wood floor can be a different wood specie without driving the costs out of sight. Engineered floors come in a variety of wood species, just by changing the top, finish layer. If you a looking for some of the more unusual, or exotic wood species than you should definitely take a look at engineered wood floors.

Most engineered floors can be nailed-down, stapled-down, glued-down, or floated over a wide variety of subfloors, including some types of existing floors, such as vinyl flooring. Caution should be used to be certain the existing flooring is well adhered and that your installation application meets the manufacturer's installation recommendations.

You can also buy engineered floors in varying widths. They generally come in 2 1/4", 3", 5", and 7" widths and widths can be mixed, such as 3-5-7 inch planks installed side by side. By varying the board widths you can change the total appearance of the floor.

WOOD PLANK STYLES STRIP FLOORING 2 1/4" width traditional linear look PLANK FLOORING 3" width casual elegance RANDOM FLOORING 3",5", & 7" widths more patterned look

Wood Floor Finishes

The days of having to wax and scrub your hardwood floors are pretty much gone forever. Manufacturers of pre-finished wood floors have developed sophisticated techniques to quickly apply hard, durable, urethane based finishes right at the factory. By using ultra violet lights the prefinished wood planks can have several coats of urethane applied within a matter of a few minutes. This is helping make hardwood floors both more affordable, and much easier to maintain. Recently, the hardwood flooring manufacturers have begun to add small chips of Aluminum Oxide directly to the floor's finish which dramatically increases the life of the urethane finish.

Most factory finished hardwood floors have several coats of finish applied to the wood's surface. As example, some wood floors are applying 6-10 coats of a ultra-violet (UV) cured urethane over the stained wood finish layer.

The job-site urethance finishes have been improved dramtically as well and will add years of performance to your wood floors.

This does not mean you should wash your floor with a wet mop, but it does mean that these wood floors won't watermark like the old waxed, strip wood floors. The the UV cured urethane wood finishes are extremely durable and much more abrasion resistant than waxed floors.

Factory Prefinished Hardwood Flooring
Wood floors that have been factory finished before they are installed.

UV-cured – Factory finishes that are cured with Ultra Violet lights versus heat.

Polyurethane – A clear, tough and durable finish that is applied as a wear layer.

Acrylic-urethane – A slightly different chemical make up than Polyurethane with the same benefits.

Ceramic – Advanced technology that allows the use of space-age ceramics to increase the abrasion resistance of the wear layer. See Award Hardwood Floors WearMax finish.

Aluminum Oxide – Added to the urethane finish for increased abrasion resistance of the wear layer, which is becoming extremely popular on the better grade wood floors.

Acrylic Impregnated – Acrylic monomers are injected into the cell structure of the wood to give increased hardness and then finished with a wear layer over the wood.

Note: With factory finished wood floors chances are your pre-finished wood trims and molding will not match your floor, rather they will be color cooordinated.

Job-site Finished Hardwood Flooring
Wood floor is installed, stained and finished at the job-site

Job-site finish means you start with a bare (unfinished) hardwood floor and than the floor is sanded, stained, and finished in the home. If you want a custom stained hardwood floor, or a wood floor to match existing trim than a job-site finish is your answer. The other advantage of a job-site finish is if you are concerned with uneven heights between planks, the sanding process will smooth out the floor.

Water Based Urethane – Water is used as part of the chemical make up of the polyurethane finish.

Solvent Based Urethane – Oil is used as part of the chemical make up of the polyurethane finish.

Moisture Cured Urethane – A similar chemical make up as solvent based urethanes but, this finish needs the humidity (moisture ) in the air to cure.

Installation Options

Nail Down – Typically used with the 3/4" solid products, however there are adapters available for thinner flooring sizes as well. 2" nailing cleats are used with a wood flooring nailer and mallet to attach the flooring to the subfloor. Solid Strip floors or Plank floors can only be installed on wooden subfloors on grade or above grade. 

Staple Down – 1-1/2 to 2 inch Staples are used versus nailing cleats to attach the wood flooring to the subfloor. A pneumatic gun is used to drive the staple into the wood flooring and subfloor. This procedure is easier than the nail down for do-it-yourself installations. Not all wood flooring manufacturers recommend the same staple gun. Read the manufacturers installation manual to assure you have the right staple gun and right size staples.

Glue Down – The recommended mastic or adhesive is spread on with the proper sized trowel to adhere the wood flooring to the subfloor.

Engineered wood floors and parquets can be glued down. Solid strip floors and plank floors can only be nailed or stapled. There are many types of adhesives on the market, please use the manufacturers recommended adhesive when installing their flooring. Not using the manufacturers recommended adhesive and trowel size could void any warranties you may have.

Wood Floor Care

• Don't Damp Mop - Water and wood floors don't mix! Use only the manufacturer's recommended cleaning products on your hardwood floor.
• Vacuum Regularly - Small stones, mud and gritty dirt tracked in from outside can scratch the finish of your wood floor's finish. To help combat this use long bristle welcome mats placed at all outside entrances for people to wipe their feet on before entering onto the floors. Also, vacuum using a soft bristle brush attachment.
• Use the Proper Chair Glides - Narrow wheels, sharp wooden legs or metal furniture legs can scratch and dent hardwood floors. Any furniture that rests directly on top of a hardwood floor should have felt protectors, or furniture coasters under all it's feet. For extremely heavy objects such as a piano, use wide, non-staining rubber cups. Purchasing floor protectors is cheap insurance for protecting your hardwood floor investment.
• Don't Use Oil Soaps - There are many over the counter oil-based soaps and wax based cleaning products that may damage or dull the finish of your wood floor. The best suggestion is to only use the manufacturers recommended cleaning products on your hardwood flooring.
• Never Wax a Urethane Floor - If your hardwood floor has a polyurethane finish never use a paste wax on the floor's surface. A paste wax may form a sticky film on your floor and allow tracked in dirt to stick to your wood finish. Polyurethane finishes will not adhere to any wax and adding a fresh coat of polyurethane to your floor will be very difficult.
• Wipe Spills Immediately - when accidents happen and some liquid gets spilled on your hardwood floor, you should use a slightly damp white cloth, or paper towel to immediately clean up and dry the effected area. For more difficult spots, follow the manufacturer's recommended cleaning procedures.

CARPETS UNLIMITED COLOR TILE OF SANTA MARIA
1217 S. BLOSSER RD. STE. A SANTA MARIA CA. 93454
  805 925-8113