Archive for January, 2008...
Filed under General Info about Hardwood
You’ll find all the things you need to know about hardwood flooring right here, based on our day-to-day experience with professional installers and property owners who have some of the same questions you have about the products as you have.
To start you off, here is a link to a number of articles about hardwood flooring which might help with some initial questions about installation, care and maintenance, and a number of other important areas that help to make every hardwood floor a valued addition to any property. Enjoy!
Comments (1) Posted by Stevan on Thursday, January 24th, 2008
Filed under General Wood Flooring
Most Engineered flooring is covered under warranty to be installed in one of three ways: (1) nail or staple down, (2) glue down, or (3) floating installation. Here’s a brief run down of what each entails.
Nail down: Naturally, a nail down installation would only be appropriate over a wood or plywood subfloor. It involves using a pneumatic nail gun to nail or staple the new flooring in place. Bostich is a reputable brand for rent or purchase. Between the subfloor and the new Engineered floor, it is advisable to lay a 15lbs builders felt to work as a moisture barrier but also to prevent future squeaking.
Glue down: A glue down installation requires that the flooring be glued down to the subfloor in its entirety using a hand trowel to disperse the adhesive evenly over the subfloor. The type of adhesive is particular to the brand of Engineered flooring you choose. That said, Bostik Best and Dri Tac are reputable brands and a good place to start.
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Floating: In a floating floor installation your new Engineered floor is not fastened to the subfloor. Rather, a foam moisture barrier is first laid (but not fastened) over the subfloor. Quite Walk is highly reputable brand.
The new flooring is then laid (but again, not fastened) over the moisture barrier. Now, there are two types of floating floor installation; the click ‘n’ lock system or the traditional tongue and groove (henceforth, T and G). The click ‘n’ lock method is a glueless method where the boards are designed in such a way that the boards can be brought together at a slight “V” angle be snapped together, locking them in place. The traditional T and G method requires that beads of glue be inserted in the tongue and groove thereby binding the boards together.
For further details of each of these methods, please see these standard installation instructions.
WARNING: Always be sure to consult the manufacturer’s installation instructions and warranty prior to installation. It is not safe to assume that all styles and brands can be installed in the methods described here. Moreover, details such as the type of adhesive required or the setting of the nail gun may seem minor but can void your warranty, or worse, turn your dream floor into a nightmare. In fact, I would go so far as to recommend consulting the installation instructions prior to purchase to ensure you are comfortable with the designated methods of installation.
Filed under General Wood Flooring
Hi all,
It’s occured to me that many of you may first happen upon this site in search of some quick and dirty answers. To that end, here’s a link to my Engineered Hardwood Flooring FAQ page with BuildDirect. As always, please don’t hesitate to ask me directly- as we learnt in class, there’s no such thing as a silly question!
Regards,
Tom
Filed under Engineered Hardwood Flooring, General Wood Flooring
This is a question that is being asked with increasing frequency of all building materials. It is a key issue of our day and one that will be explored on an ongoing basis in this blog. I get an ever growing volume of inquiries ranging from do-it-yourselfers to distributors, all trying to make sense of the huge amount of often conflicting information surrounding green building supplies and practices. Unfortunately, there is no consensus on what exactly makes a product “green”- no one manual to consult. Everyone from environmental watchdog groups to the manufacturer and distributors of the materials themselves have offered their definition. The waters are definitely muddy- one of my objectives in this blog will be to clear them up as best I can. My latest initiative in this area is a course with the CaGBC (Canada Green Building Council), a sister organization of the USGBC (United States Green Building Council). I’ll keep you posted.
Reclaimed Heart Pine- Golden Blond
Reclaimed Heart Pine- Vintage Brown
Bamboo- Carbonized Horizontal. (For those of you particularly interested in bamboo flooring, here is a link to my colleague Matthew Dickinson’s Bamboo Blog.)
Above are some examples of what many would consider eco-friendly flooring. In the near future, we will be discussing the “green” pros and cons of flooring options such as these. As we will see, there are a thousand shades of “green”.
Filed under Engineered Hardwood Flooring, General Wood Flooring
Engineered floors are required in regions where humidity is an issue. For example, Utah is particularly dry whereas Florida is overly humid. Engineered floors are highly recommended in both of these areas. The physical conditions of the install area must also be taken into consideration. By and large, Solid hardwoods cannot be installed below grade (moisture issues) and cannot be installed over concrete (often found below grade). In the past, home owners were resigned to installing laminate or tile in their basements due to concerns over moisture and the inability to install over concrete. The look and feel of real hardwood was not an option.
Engineered hardwood overcomes these obstacle and can be installed below grade and over concrete subfloors using a glue down or floating installation. That said, it is never a bad choice to choose an engineered floor over solid regardless of the area; generally less expensive than traditional solids, it is a cost effective way of erring on the side of caution.
Filed under Engineered Hardwood Flooring, General Wood Flooring
So, how does it do it? An engineered floor has a top wear layer of real hardwood so it’s appearance once installed is indistinguishable from a traditional solid hardwood floor. This top layer determines the ultimate appearance of your floor. The variety of species, cuts, and stain are as unlimited as the selection found in traditional solids. The difference is in performance.
An Engineered hardwood floor is supported by a core comprised of different material than that of the genuine top wood layer. This core material can range from multiple cross plies of other wood species such as Birch, to synthetic materials such as High Density Fiber board. In this coupling, one material serves to counter act the movement of the other creating a balance, thereby preventing the extreme movement that plagues traditional solid hardwood floors. The result is an innovative product with a ton of practical as well as aesthetic attributes. The photos below exhibit the structural difference between Engineered hardwood (left) and Solid hardwood (right).
For further comparison of Solid vs Engineered flooring, please see Handymandy.ca. An informative site and well worth a visite.
Filed under Engineered Hardwood Flooring, General Wood Flooring
Engineered Harwood was developed in response to the shortcomings of Solid Hardwood. So, in order to appreciate what an engineered floor brings to the table, it’s important that we first have a basic understanding of the inherent flaw in the nature of its older brother, Solid Hardwood.
As a natural product, hardwood will necessarily contract and expand in conjunction with the changing of season and the correlating temperature and humidity. However, if this climate change is too extreme, the resulting fluctuation can warp and split solid wood. Conversely, Engineered hardwood is built to accommodate this contraction and expansion; essentially it’s built to ‘go with the flow’.
