Solid Hardwood Flooring

When we think of solid wood floors we generally are talking about a 3/4" thick plank that is 2 1/4" wide. This is the classic strip wood floor, although it is possible to find a narrower width or a slightly thinner guage. The strips are generally in random lengths from 12" – 84". The most common wood species used for solid strip floors are red oak, white oak, and maple.

Solid wood floors are one solid piece of wood that have tongue and groove sides and come in either prefinished or unfinished styles. Solid wood floors are sensitive to moisture and it is not recommended to install these floors below ground level, or directly over a concrete slab. These floors are for nail-down installations only. You can refinish, or recoat solid wood floors several times, which adds to their appeal and to their long life. There are solid wood floors that are several centuries old and are still in good condition today.

All solid wood floors will react to the presence of moisture. In the winter heating months, moisture leaves the wood causing the floor to contract which leaves unsightly gaps between each plank. In the summer months when the humidity is higher the wood will expand and the gaps will disappear. If there is too much moisture it may cause the wood planks to cup, or buckle. This is why it is important when installing a solid strip floor to leave the proper expansion area around the perimeter and to acclimate the wood prior to installation.

When we talk about unfinished wood we generally think of solid wood floors. Although there are many prefinished 3/4" solid wood floors too. Unfinished solid oak floors come in several different qualities. These qualities are clear, select and better, #1 common, and #2 common. The clear has no visual blemishes or knots and is extremely expensive. The select and better quality has some small knots and very little dark graining, while the #1 common and #2 common have more knots and more dark graining. When buying an unfinished solid oak floor make sure you know which quality you are buying.

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.

Longstrip Plank Floors

Longstrip – floors are very similar to engineered floors. These floors are constructed from several wood plies that are glued together. The center core is generally a softer wood material and is used to make the tongue and groove. A hardwood finish layer is glued on top of the center core and another softer wood ply is attached underneath the core. This top ply is also called the finish layer and can be constructed of almost any wood specie. The finish layer is really made up of many smaller, individual solid wood pieces that are laid in three rows of solid planks. Longstrip planks are approximately 86" in length and 7 1/2" in width. The finish layer of a longstrip plank will generally have between 17 to 18 pieces in the three row series. This gives the effect of installing a board that is 3 narrow planks wide and several planks long. Each longstrip plank looks like an entire section that has already been pre-assembled for you.

Longstrip planks are designed for the floating installation, but most can also be glued-down, or stapled down. Because these floors can be installed with the floating installation method they can be installed above or below ground level and over a wide variety of subfloors. Like engineered floors, longstrip floors come in a variety of domestic and exotic wood species.
 

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 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 urethane finishes have been improved dramatically 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.

Note: Although contractors doing job-site installations go to extremes to prevent dust, some dust will work it's way into other areas of the home.