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Choices
of Wood
Location of Floor
Before determining the wood floor to select, you should decide where you plan on installing them and compare it to the chart below. As an example, 3/4" solid hardwood floors are more susceptible to moisture and are not recommended to be installed in any basement area. The desired installation method may also determine what wood floor you choose to buy.
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SOLID
WOOD FLOORS |
ENGINEERED
PLANK
WOOD FLOORS |
LONGSTRIP
PLANK FLOORS |
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GENERATION ENGINEERED FLOORS |
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Where
floor can be installed.
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Where
floor can be installed. |
Where
floor can be installed. |
Where
floor can be installed. |
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Can be
installed over plywood, wood, or OSB sub-floors. Nail or
staple down installation only.
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Can
be installed over most sub-floors, including concrete Glue-down,
nail, staple, or floating installation. |
Can be
installed over most sub-floors, including concrete Glue-down or floating
installation method.
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Transparent overlay,
wear resistant
Various melamine layers
Decor layer
HDF base board
Melamine under layer.
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Installation
methods
Nail Down – Typically used with the 3/4" solid products,
however there are adapters available for thinner flooring sizes as well.
1-1/4 - 2" nailing cleats are used with a wood flooring nailer and
mallet to attach the flooring to the sub-floor. Solid Strip floors or
Plank floors can only be installed on wooden sub-floors or sleepers on or
above grade.
Staple Down – 1" to 2"
inch Staples are used versus nailing cleats to attach the wood flooring to
the sub-floor. A pneumatic gun is used to drive the staple into the wood
flooring and sub-floor.
Glue Down – The recommended mastic
or adhesive is spread on with the proper sized trowel to adhere the wood
flooring to the sub-floor. It is not recommended to glue down
3/4" solid.
Engineered and parquet floors – Engineered
wood floors can be glued, nailed or stapled; parquets can
only be glued down. There are many types of adhesives on the market,
Floating – With the floating
installation method the floor is not mechanically fastened to any part of
the sub-floor. There is a 1/8-inch thick pad that is placed between the
wood flooring and the sub-floor. A recommended wood glue is applied in the
tongue and groove of each plank to hold the planks together. The padding
protects against moisture, reduces noise transmission, softer under foot,
and provides for some additional "R" value. Some Engineered
floors and all Longstrip floors can be floated. This is a very fast, easy
and clean method of installation.
The added benefit to engineered and
floating floors are more dimensionally stable in areas subject to higher
moisture, and are an excellent choice for those who prefer hardwood
flooring in a basement, family room, or playroom. Engineered floors can
also be floated over the top of an existing vinyl, or ceramic tile floor,
which can eliminate the cost of tearing up the old floor covering.
Glueless Engineered floors – Is
the next generation of engineered flooring that does not require glue.
They interlock together by clicking planks to one another to form a
suitable floor covering. This product is constructed in cork, laminate or
real wood.
Laminate – This product is not
real hardwood but is being used increasingly to obtain the look and feel
of a hardwood floor. Laminate
flooring is the newest entry in the flooring business. It is usually made
from medium or high-density fiberboard (fine grain particle board) with a
photo reproduction of hardwood or other material covered by a tough
plastic top layer. These floors offer excellent scratch and wear
resistance but contrary to many people's conceptions they are not
indestructible.
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Solid Wood Floors
3/4
Solid Wood Floors
Solid - These floors are one piece of solid wood from top to bottom. They are generally 3/4" thick, however also come in 5/16" thickness as well 3/8". The most commonly recognized width is 2 1/4" strip flooring, but also comes in sizes from 1 1/2" strips to custom orders wider than 7" wide planks. Lengths will be random from 12" - 96" long. Custom Milled solid hardwood flooring can also be milled to your specifications and usually comes in long lengths up to 14'-16' foot long. Solid strip or plank floors can only be installed with the Nail or Staple Down procedure on a wooden subfloor.
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Part of the difference
between 3/4" solid wood floors and most engineered wood floors is how the
wood is cut from the tree. As the illustration above (left) demonstrates
the 3/4" solid wood planks cut (sliced) lengthwise to the log. Most engineered
type wood flooring (right) is rotary cut using a razor sharp blade into
veneer sheets of up to 1/8" thick that are later glued and pressed to the
top of a plywood type substrate for stability and strength.
SOLID HARDWOOD flooring is also available in PLAIN SAWN (FLAT), which is most common, QUARTERSAWN that must be custom ordered or RIFT SAWN
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Plain
Sawn |
Quartersawn |
Next Generation Engineered Floors
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Plain sawn, or Flat sawn, is the standard way of cutting logs into
lumber, or flooring. Plain sawn can produce wide grain patterns
(depending on the wood species)
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Quarter sawing, means that the log is cut at right angles to the growth rings. This flooring has a very decorative grain patterns and produces more stability during changes in humidity.
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The next generation of engineered hardwood includes the introduction of the UNICLIC system, which is a glue-less technology offered in cork, real wood and laminate format. The laminate is a combination of wood fibers and synthetic resin. The real wood product is constructed of wood veneers. |
| Riftsawing is similar to quartersawing with many of the same advantages and restrictions. It highlights the vertical grain and reduces the flake effect common in quartersawn oak. The angle of the cut is altered somewhat so that fewer saw cuts are parallel to the medullary rays, which are responsible for the flake effect. Riftsawing produces more waste than quartersawing, making it normally more expensive.
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Different
grades of solid hardwood flooring
Solid hardwood flooring come in different grades. The grading is done by the appearance of the flooring boards. Different manufacturers may have their own names for the different grades, but Rose Wood Flooring follows the guidelines set by NOFMA. NOFMA (National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association) has within their association of mills rules governing their milling and grading of standard 2 1/4 strip oak flooring. Below are their descriptions. Mills producing hardwood flooring that are not members of NOFMA are under no
guidelines.
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Unfinished Oak, which is the most
widely used flooring material, has four basic grades. Three of which can
be purchased as either Red Oak or White Oak.
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- Clear Plain, or Clear Quartered - Is the best grade and has the finest appearance. It is the most uniform in color and has little or no defects. The lengths of the boards are longer, the average being 3-l/2 feet with the longest generally being 8 ft.
- Select Plain or Select quartered - Is less uniform in color than the clear grade, but has an excellent appearance. There may be some minor defects (pinholes, knots, flags), which add character to the flooring. The lengths are shorter than the clear grade. The average board being around 3 feet some generally being 7
feet.
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Select & Better - A combination of Clear and Select grades.
- No. 1 Common - This flooring has a varied appearance with light and dark boards. The character marks such as knots, flags, pinholes and others are much more prevalent than on the select grade. The average lengths are very short around 2-1/2 feet long.
- No. 2 Common
- This grade of flooring has a very rustic appearance. Bundles
may contain Red Oak and White Oak mixed together. There is an
abundance of character marks and other imperfections. The
average length is around 2 feet.
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| Unfinished Hard Maple,
Beech and Birch come in five different grades.
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- First grade - This has the best appearance. There are
natural color variations and limited character marks.
- Second grade - This has a variegated appearance with good
wood characteristics of the species.
- Second & Better grade - This grade is a combination of
First and Second grades.
- Third grade - A serviceable grade with a rustic appearance.
All wood characteristics of the species.
- Third and Better grade - This is a combination of First,
Second and Third grades.
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Life expectancy of Solid ¾" Hardwood
The solid ¾" flooring may be sanded up to approximately 7 times before replacement is required which may be well over a hundred years.
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Engineered Wood Floors
Engineered - Refers to products that have 2, 3, or 5 layers of wood laminated together to become one board. These products will range in thickness from 1/4" to 9/16" and widths from 2-1/4 to 5". Lengths will be random from 12" - 60".
Engineered wood floors have several layers of wood that are applied in opposite grain directions resulting in a floor that is more dimensionally stable than 3/4" solid wood floors. This means engineered floors can be installed in basements, at ground level, or above the ground. Most of these floors can be installed by nail down, staple down, glue down, or the floating installation method. Engineered floors can literally go anywhere in the home and on a wide variety of sub-floors.
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. After the engineered planks are manufactured the plies counteract each other that drastically reduces the expansion and contraction problems associated with solid wood planks. This is called cross-ply construction. This concept where one ply expanding to the left, while the other ply expands to the right counteract each other and reduce expanding, or contracting.
Engineered planks come in several different widths from 2" - 7" wide and the board lengths will vary from 12" - 60". Imagine combining various board widths to create an exciting pattern.
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| Longstrip engineered plank flooring |
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Engineered - Longstrip - refers to floors that have several different layers glued together. Longstrip planks are approximately 7.5" wide and 95.5" in length. They generally have between 17 and 35, 2-1/2 " inch wide slats that make up the top hardwood layer of each board. This gives the appearance of regular strip flooring.
Longstrip / Floating floors are engineered pre-finished flooring in which the joint of each panel is glued to the neighboring panel. This enables the floor to move or float as a whole when the wood expands and contracts from the moisture content. When installing a floating floor, a foam pad is recommended as a moisture retardant and cushion. Longstrip flooring can also be glue down, and/or stapled down. These floors can go over a variety of sub-floors, and on all grade levels. Like engineered floors, longstrip floors come in a variety of wood species.
Some engineered flooring can be sanded up to 3 times for an average life of approx. 30-60 years. Acrylic impregnated flooring should be lightly sanded and polished.
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| Next Generation Engineered Floors
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The next generation of engineered hardwood includes the introduction of the UNICLIC system, which is a glue-less technology offered in cork, real wood and laminate format. The laminate is a combination of wood fibers and synthetic resin. The real wood product is constructed of wood veneers.
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Unfinished or prefinished hardwood
Most all types of wood flooring are available as an unfinished product. Clients can be creative with their personal choices pertaining to certain wood species and size of boards to be used. Clients can also custom select stain color and finish sheen to match or accentuate existing decor.
Prefinished strip, plank or parquet floors are either factory finished or acrylic impregnated (Liquid acrylic and stain are impregnated throughout the pores of the wood) when manufactured. Prefinished floors can be purchased as solid 3/4" thick wood or as a engineered wood. Prefinished flooring may have up to 10 coats of finish applied at the factory and
may have a 25 year wear warranty. |
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Relative Hardness
Chart for Wood Species
The Relative Hardness Chart of Selected Wood Flooring Species helps determine the hardness of a particular wood species. These ratings are performed using the Janka Hardness Test, which measure the force needed to embed a .444 inch steel ball to half its 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 only used as a general guide when comparing various species of wood flooring. The region in which the wood is grown from and the particular botanical name from within the same wood specie may vary the rating.
Will the wood floor dent?
Hardwood floors as with all wood are comprised of basically soft wood fibers and millions of cell structures. The density of these wood fibers technically makes one wood harder than another. But all wood will dent if something heavy is dropped on it. The spike end of a high heel shoe can indent the surface of the wood as well, i.e. a 110 ten pound woman will exert 2000 pounds of pressure at the tip of the heel. |
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Plank Edge Styles
Hardwood floors come in either a square edge or a beveled edge, Today, most prefinished hardwood flooring manufacturers are calling their beveled edge "eased edge" because the tapered edge is dramatically reduced from the old deeply grooved edges. The new Micro beveled edges provides a smoother more uniform surface and eliminates some of the problems seen with some manufactures prefinished square edge flooring that has sharper edges (called overwood).
Square Edge
The edges of all boards meet squarely creating a 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
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Micro or Eased Edge
Each board edge 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 that are often called "overwood". Eased edge is also called micro-beveled edge. These micro-beveled edges are factory finished and so small there is very little room that will allow dust or dirt getting trapped in them.
Heavy or full Beveled Edge
These products have a very distinctive groove in them and show off each plank. 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". |
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Subfloor Information
Generally any flooring can be installed over a subfloor of plywood, or a solid 3/4" wood surface. Rose Wood does not recommend wood flooring to be nailed or stapled into particle or fiberboard.
If your subfloor is concrete or stone, your choices maybe limited. Excessive moisture that may be in concrete, or stone will be absorbed into the wood flooring installed on top of these surfaces. Without using a vapor barrier, wood flooring may buckle, and/or cup from the excess moisture. If a moisture reading of the concrete or stone were over 12% moisture content, wood floor of any type should not be recommended. If the moisture reading of the concrete were below 12%, the best choice of flooring in these instances would be either a floating floor with a foam pad and a 4-6 mil. plastic vapor barrier, or install a glued down engineered hardwood floor with a waterproof adhesive. If a 3/4" solid wood floor were desired, a raised system of 1x2 sleepers 12 - 16 inches apart would have to be constructed with a plywood platform on top. It is critical prior to the construction of sleepers to put a vapor barrier of 4 -6 mil polyethylene plastic down with all joints taped with duct tape. |
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Wood flooring acclimation
Before any flooring is delivered Rosewood Flooring recommends that the conditions are right. All concrete, masonry work, plastering or anything else that deals with moisture must be thoroughly dry. Normal living conditions should be maintained 7 days before any flooring is delivered, i.e. heating, air conditioning. When the flooring is delivered, it should be stored
only in the rooms where it will be installed. This is so the flooring can acclimate to the conditions in which it will be installed. Average acclimation time is generally from one to two weeks. A moisture reading should be taken of the flooring and subfloor before installation to ensure the levels of both are within the range of relative humidity for the area. (Generally between 6-9%.)
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Expansion and Contraction of hardwood flooring
Hardwood flooring like all woods are considered "Hydroscopic", which means that they have the ability through their cell structure to absorb and release ambient moisture that is prevalent in
its environment. Hardwood flooring at the time of manufacturing is kiln dried from approximately 30% moisture content to between 6-12% moisture content. This figure of 6-12% moisture content represents the standard normal relative humidity level of between 45-55 percent that normally should be present within your home. If that home standard, normal relative humidity changes, for any great length of time, a dimensional change may be seen in the size of each board.
For example: Flooring may in some colder parts of the country shrink in size during the heating season when the ambient air in the home becomes dry. The flooring itself then dries out, loosing moisture. This in turn can cause gaps between the boards. The size of these seams will be large or small depending on the amount of moisture loss. These gaps often close when the flooring regains it's lost moisture content during the summer months.
Flooring also can absorb more moisture than it was kiln dried down to and expand during the hot humid spring and summer months, which normally have higher humidity levels. Sometimes causing cupping in the floorboards. |
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Expansion and contraction control
It can be controlled, if during the dry heating season you notice the floor boards starting to contract in size leaving gaps between floor boards introduce moisture into the area using a humidifier. Maintain the RH at 40-55% year round. It is advisable to purchase a small digital hygrometer available at the local hardware center. It will provide RH information on a daily basis.
If during the hot humid summer months the flooring expands and starts to cup run either an air conditioner or a dehumidifier to remove excess moisture from the air. Maintaining this 40-55% RH year round is not only beneficial for the flooring, it is also good for your own health, and comfort. |
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Wood Floor Finishes
There are many different manufacturers who make numerous types of wood finishes that are available on the market today. This selection can be overwhelming and confusing, however, Rose Wood’s staff will assist in choosing the selections that will create the most elegant look for your home. Most finishes contain chemicals that may be harmful, however, using a proper respirator when applying them is beneficial.
Through the years many different finishes have been applied to flooring. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. The earlier finishes used were wax, shellac, varnish and lacquer. They are rarely used today as wood floor finishes because of the high maintenance involved and low durability. The more durable finishes such as oil-modified urethanes and water-based finishes are more widely applied to flooring today. The Newer “Alumide or Ceramic” finishes are extremely durable and often come with a 25 year finish warranty.
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Shellac: With its great sealing capabilities was the finish to use prior to the 1950s but went out of style with the advent of newer finishes. Shellac now has regained a position as a floor finish and is used as both as a sealer coat under certain finishes or as a finish by itself over antique wide plank flooring. Shellac gives antique flooring a wonderful rich patina and is fast drying usually 1-2 hours between coats. It adheres well over other types of finishes. When dry it forms an excellent barrier to help protect the wood from humidity. Although it is not as durable as a top coat on floors as some of the newer finishes, shellac still has its place in line with long-time floor and furniture refinishers that want that original depth and color that only shellac can give you. Shellac is susceptible to water spotting (white discoloration) so it is not recommended for use on a kitchen or bathroom floor.
Oil and wax finish: is another older type finishing method where a penetrating oil sealer (available in various stain colors) is applied to the bare wood surface. This is allowed to dry for aprox 1-3 hours then a second or third coat is applied rubbing in between coats. After aprox. 24 hours drying, a coat of paste wax is applied and buffed with a high-speed buffer. This method is more frequently used in commercial applications. It does require more maintenance by periodic waxing or rebuffing to bring the luster back. But it is more repairable than a urethane based finish.
Varnish: was the next progressive step for floor finishes. Made with natural resins of fossilized sap and natural oils like linseed and tung and later soybean and safflower. The development of synthetic resins led to phenolic-resin varnish a combination of phenol and formaldehyde with a natural oil. Varnish is harder than shellac so it makes touch up more difficult. Varnish is not as durable as some of the newer finishes on the market today. The common method of applying varnish is to apply three coats allowing each coat to dry overnight with light sanding and vacuuming between coats.
Oil modified urethanes (polyurethane): One advantage of an oil-base urethane finish is its durability. The application is relatively easy. The coating has a thick looking appearance and gives oak flooring a honey color tone. It has great moisture resistance and is also one of the most scratch-resistant finishes available. It can be hard to touch up or recoat. Oil-based urethanes have a tendency to darken and or yellow with age. How much will depend on the quality of the urethane that is purchased. Oil-based urethanes are applied in much the same manner as in varnishes mentioned above.
Moisture Cured Urethane: The major difference between this urethane and other urethanes is that it contains Di-Isocyanate Methyl-Benzene. While most finishes dry through evaporation of the solvents leaving the resins on the floor, moisture cured urethane dries by pulling moisture from the air. This process along with the unique way it cross-links makes moisture-cured urethane one of the hardest finishes available. The disadvantages of moisture-cured urethane are that it has a very unpleasant odor. A respirator is a must when applying because of its toxic fumes. It is also extremely difficult to apply.
UV-Cured Urethane: This finish is applied at the factory and must be cured with Ultra Violet lights. This is an extremely popular method with prefinished hardwood flooring manufacturers.
Water based finishes: are made up three different ways. 1. Acrylic (less durable), 2. A blend of acrylic and polyurethane (durable), 3. One hundred percent urethane (very durable). These finishes do have some advantages over the oil-based urethanes. Their drying time is much faster (one to two hours), there is little odor, and clean up is with soap and water. Most waterbase urethanes are a clear finish and frequently used over white and pastel colored stains. Their application can be difficult due to its quick drying. The method of applying water based finish is similar to that of any fast dry finish where it must be applied quicker in smaller sections to prevent lap marks. Personal opinion dictates whether or not it is a disadvantage that water based finishes do not produce the thick looking finish and amber color like the oil modified urethanes; and, also they are more expensive to purchase.
Alumide or Ceramic finishes: Contain particles of Aluminum oxide or Ceramic mixed with the finish and are the new factory applied finishes. These Finishes are extremely durable and long lasting.
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