Hardwood
Floors 101
By H.D.
Nelson
Hardwood floors have come a long way in the last quarter century.
We are now seeing hardwood floors in kitchens, baths, and utility
rooms. In choosing a floor, you need to know what types of wood you
have to work with.
Hardwood floors
are healthier than wall-to-wall carpeting. They keep down such allergy-producing
matter as dust, pollen, and animal dander. Installing hardwood floors
can greatly increase the market value of your home. They are easy
to keep clean and can last forever.
Solid flooring
is 3/4” thick, is nailed down, and is generally in pieces that
don’t run the full length of the room and vary from 2’ to
8’ in length. The pieces have a tongue and groove, and the base
molding is usually of the same species of wood. The most popular areas
of the home for solid flooring are the living rooms, dining rooms,
and bedrooms.
Laminated, or
engineered wood flooring, is a wood product consisting of layers of
pressed wood with the grains running in the opposite direction for
strength. Laminated wood is generally used in basements, kitchens,
and utility rooms where the humidity may be higher. Laminated wood
contracts and expands less than solid wood flooring. Floor designers
have a wide variety of species and colors for laminated wood flooring.
Usually laminated wood flooring is finished at the factory.
Less popular in
homes are acrylic impregnated flooring whereby acrylics are injected
directly into the wood itself that makes a very hard and durable floor
system, and is generally found in commercial settings such as shopping
malls.
Wood flooring
is available in several styles. Strip flooring is linear flooring
that varies from 2 1/4” to 3 1/2” wide. Plank flooring is
like strip flooring, but the widths are much wider, often up to 6”,
which is more traditional and more popular on the East Coast. Parquet
flooring is a series of wood flooring pieces that create various geometric
designs.
Solid wood floors
expand and contract with the relative humidity of your home. Installers
leave an expansion gap around the perimeter of the floor where it
meets the walls and around obstacles like kitchen islands. Matching
base molding, such as shoe, cove or quarter round covers up this expansion
gap.
Some words of
caution. If your house has pressboard or particleboard underneath
existing rugs, you will need to remove this before installing a hardwood
floor. Particleboard can more than double in height if it gets wet
and is an unsatisfactory underlayment for your new hardwood floor.
With the proper
rental tools and some basic construction skills you can install hardwood
floors yourself. The laminated floorings are the easiest to install.
Some hardwood flooring comes pre-finished from the factory. For unfinished
hardwood flooring, the best advice you can have is to call a pro for
the finish. The professionals have high-end equipment, far superior
to that which you can rent, will put down a much better finish, last
longer, and most importantly, will do it in much less time than you
can yourself.
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Distressed
Wood
Distressed
wood is new wood made to look like it is old. You can now buy
it from the factory pre-distressed with three coats of finish.
Some companies salvage and resell wood flooring and this recycled
flooring is also called distressed. Gymnasiums or historic buildings
that are demolished often provide this material. This distressed
wood is often from old growth lumber with few knots, and the
pieces are generally longer than 8’. If you are thinking
you’d like to match some wood flooring already in your
house, be sure to take a piece from an obscure corner in your
home, or at least take a good photo with you. Reclaimed wood
flooring can be found at local companies such as McGee Salvage,
503-720-7308; The ReBuilding Center, 503-331-1877; or Rejuvenation,
503-238-1900.
If you want
to make your own distressed wood, you can have your child’s
soccer team with cleated soccer shoes do a half field game on
your newly installed hardwood unfinished floor with you acting
as referee in your golf shoes. But I recommend buying it from
a company that specializes in reclaiming wood flooring.
Distressed
flooring has a lot of character, a warm look, and complements
country, cottage, and New England interior design styles. |
When getting
ready to install hardwood flooring, it is recommended to acclimatize
the wood to the temperature and humidity of your home. It is impossible
for this to happen if the flooring stock is left in its packaged bundle
from your supplier. Open the bundle and rearrange the wood strips
in a crisscross fashion and leave them for about 10 days in your home
— not your garage or basement.
Choose the right
finish for your hardwood floor. There are two choices: surface finishes
and penetrating finishes. Surface finishes are the most popular. This
is a stain then a top coat of polyurethane. They are durable and resist
moisture and are easy to keep clean. Direct or indirect sunlight can
change a wood floor’s finish. However, the modern urethane finishes
tend to slow down color changes more effectively.
Then we have the
penetrating stains. They penetrate the wood to provide color and form
a protective seal. A wax coating on top gives a sheen that can be
maintained with additional applications every so often. However, water-based
cleaning products should never be used to clean floors finished with
penetrating stains. Instead use cleansers specifically designed for
wax-covered flooring. Even the hardiest wood floors get scratches
and can easily be repaired by applying a new coat of wax and then
buffing.
Properly maintained
hardwood floors can last a lifetime. The key to preserving your beautiful
flooring is to assure that the finish is still doing its job. You
can test this yourself by going to an area that is most worn and put
a couple of tablespoons of water on the floor. If the water beads
up so that it wipes up without a trace, not to worry, your floor’s
finish is in good shape. And if the water soaks into the wood after
several minutes, darkening the floor only slightly, not to worry,
this is typical wearing and an immediate refinish is probably not
necessary. However, if the water is immediately sucked into the wood,
leaving a dark spot, your floor’s finish is probably due for
a recoat or refinish.
Installing hardwood
floors is a great investment, will add value to your home and is well
within the capabilities of the do-it-yourself renovating home owner. |
