Karen's Carpet and Advance Floors

Hardwood Guide

Wood flooring has come a long way in terms of style and color choices, ranging from traditional oak to trendy bamboo. New technology in stains and finishes call for regular cleaning that takes little more than sweeping and/or vacuuming, with occasional use of a professional wood floor cleaning product.

But the real story of hardwood flooring is its natural beauty. Available in a range of species, finishes and stain treatments, hardwood flooring is tougher, more versatile and more beautiful than ever before. New construction techniques and advances, especially in engineered product and wearlayers, make the factory-finished floors you'll find at your specialty flooring retailer superior to any site applied finish. As with most flooring products, professional installation is recommended.

What to choose
* Solid Wood: Milled from one piece of wood into boards that are three-quarters of an inch thick. Should not be installed below grade, as moisture makes it expand and contract. Typically, solid wood floors can be sanded and refinished several times. They also offer a very wide selection of colors and stains.
* Engineered Wood: Constructed of multiple layers of crossgrain woods that are bonded together. Designed for installation at any house level including below grade. The most structurally sound, engineered wood floors have all of the beauty of real wood because it is real wood.
* Pre-finished: factory applied finishes are generally superior to on-site finishes in terms of both wearlayer performance and clarity. No fumes, no imperfections, no drying time, no dust, no fuss.
* On-Site finish: Today's environmentally friendly sanding techniques take much of the mess out of having a floor sanded and refinished on site. However, these generally do not perform as well as factory-finished floors.
* Wood Species: The type of tree such as ash, birch, maple or cherry. According to the National Wood Flooring Association, the top five hardwood species are red oak, white oak, walnut, hickory and Brazilian cherry.
* Edge and End Detail: Special milling on the edges of each individual board to create visual effects:

o Square Edge: Boards fit flush against each other for a smooth traditional look.
o Beveled Edge: The sides of each board are sanded or angled to create grooves or an outline effect around each board.
o Eased Edge or Micro-Beveled Edge: Edges are slightly angled where they meet to create a less apparent outline.

* Board widths - Board width refers to the width of the individual wood boards that make up your floor. These include strips, which are narrow boards less than 3 inches wide, and planks, which are wider and more than 3 inches wide. Another option is a parquet floor, which is made up of geometrical patterns composed of individual wood squares held in place by mechanical fastening or an adhesive.
* Borders and Medallions - At one time, borders and medallions were strictly for the wealthy as they required custom designs and complex installations. Of course, those are still available, but there are other more affordable options. Pre-finished and assembled medallions are available on the market from several leading manufacturers. Borders are also available in everything from traditional to contemporary looks.

Wearlayers
Ceramic finishes
Urethane
Aluminum Oxide

Installation tips

Why you should have a professional install your new hardwood floor
* Moisture is wood flooring's public enemy number one. Use a wood moisture meter or some sort of metering device to check for moisture in concrete or the sub-floor.
* There are four basic criteria for a successful installation--a sub-floor that's clean, flat, dry and structurally sound.
* Try to bring the flooring into your space approximately a week in advance to let the wood acclimate to its environment.
* Most installers begin with the focal point of the room, such as a fireplace, when determining where to begin an installation.
* Before laying the first board, snap a chalk line to use as a reference point.
* Aligning the first row of boards with the chalk line assures that all subsequent rows will be straight.
* Boards are often delivered in random lengths. Before securing the remaining boards to the sub-floor, test fit the boards in sections. Test fitting the boards allows you to make sure that all of the points are staggered. As a rule of thumb, joints should be at least 12 inches apart.
* Because wood expands and contracts, it's a good idea to install a humidifier, mostly for the winter months when the temperature and humidity drops and the furnace is running.

Care and maintenance

You should vacuum, sweep or dust-mop your floor once a week or more, if needed. The vacuum head must be brush or felt, and a wand attachment is preferable. Do not use vacuums with beater bars or hard heads. Your flooring specialty retailer has a selection of cleaning products specifically designed for your hardwood floor.

SPECIALTY ITEMS

Medallions & Borders - As discussed earlier, medallions and borders have always been available in hardwood flooring - the problem has always been that very often these additions were very costly requiring expert installers and complicated, detailed work. Today, some manufacturers are offering pre-cut and even pre-assembled medallions that give you the same dramatic look at a fraction of the cost. Borders too have become more affordable through specialty trimpieces that fit right in with your other hardwood flooring planks.
Floor Vents - With central air and heating systems that come up through the floor, no flooring job is complete without floor vents and registers. While these specialty products can be somewhat expensive, the look of a fully finished floor can be quite dramatic.
Transitions and moldings - These are the pieces that bridge one type of flooring to another. Available in virtually every flooring style you can think of, transitions and moldings put a finishing touch on your floor.

Handscraped floors

The hottest trend in hardwood flooring is handscraped whereby individual planks and strips of flooring are "distressed" - literally beaten, shaved, and scraped to create a rustic, old world, handcrafted look. Some of these type floors are actually mechanically scraped and therefore somewhat less expensive.