Hardwood

• Start with trust  BBB   A Rating .

Solid vs. Engineered

First, perhaps the most important decision is WHERE in your house do you plan on installing the hardwood floor? Solid Hardwood must only be installed on a plywood subfloor at or above ground level. If you are looking to install a hardwood floor directly to a cement slab, below ground level, or in a humid location, you should consider an Engineered Hardwood floor. An important note is that engineered floors can also be installed on plywood, or above ground, however we recommend installing a solid hardwood floor whenever possible.

Solid Hardwood

As you may already understand, must be nailed directly into a wood subfloor, such as plywood or 2"x6" lumber over joists. Nowadays, many homes lie over a cement slab. In order to install a solid hardwood floor on a cement slab, it is necessary to seal the slab and install a plywood subfloor onto the slab (by hammering nails through the wood into the cement)._ Not only is this expensive and time consuming, but also adds to the thickness of the floor, raising it 1/2" or 3/4" higher than the rest of the house, not even counting the thickness of the hardwood which will be installed shortly thereafter.

Engineered

Wood Manufacturers have created a product which eliminates the need to lay a plywood subfloor. Called Engineered Flooring, the product is made of multiple layers of a plywood base, with a hardwood veneer top layer. The wood veneer and all the layers of plywood base are glued and dried under extreme pressure to ensure a strong bond. This product, a hybrid of plywood and hardwood, can now be glued directly to the cement slab. There is no need to install a plywood subfloor, saving time and money!

Floating Installation

Modern engineered hardwood flooring can be installed as floating floors over purpose made underlay, with no permanent fixing between flooring and sub-floor. This installation method is efficient & cost effective, and where necessary enables the introduction of an acoustic underlay into the flooring specification. An acoustic underlay can be especially useful in shared dwellings.

Depending on whether the product chosen is a glue system or glueless system, adhesive will or will not be applied to the tongue and groove joints.

. First a high quality purpose made underlay must be installed over the prepared sub-floor.

. Install flooring ensuring that header joints are randomly spaced with not less than two boards widths between them. Be careful not to repeat the end joint positions on alternating rows. Random spacing of header joints helps avoid excess header-joint movement and associated creaking, and is preferable aesthetically.

Plank

Wide plank hardwood floors are making an enormous comeback after years and years of standard skinny

strip flooring popularity. For those that m

Prefinished or Unfinished? Are They Stained?

Many medallions and borders today have the option of arriving prefinished. However, the majority come unfinished only. All 3/4" medallions will require very light sanding. All finer quality medallions and borders are natural hardwoods and not stained.

If you're seeking colors out of the realm in hardwood floor species in the likes of green, red, and blue, impregnated hardwoods can be utilized, but not all manufacturers offer such; exceptions being large custom orders.

ay have much older colonial style homes or converted farmhouses built in the18th and 19th century, older more prized heart pine, eastern white pine, and other variations can be found. Wider planks provide more of a country motif. Older more prized floors are not your standard 3/4 inch thickness either. In earlier days settlers just wanted functional flooring and thicker stock was the norm. Lumber was rough sawn because electric power and milling technology hadn't reached the building trade or interior design of the time.