jeudi 3 août 2017

The Finished Wood Flooring Installation Ideas

By Ruth Schmidt


Solid wood floors, although beautiful, can't be used everywhere. They must be nailed to a sub-floor. This makes solid wood unsuitable for use directly over concrete. Adding a sub-floor between the concrete and the timber flooring might result in a height problem where the floor meets an adjoining room. Moisture causes timber to expand, so it's not appropriate in basements. Humidity can lead to squeaking and buckling and from the onset, you need a proper maintenance plan for finished wood flooring.

This available in a few different forms, is the more 'traditional' flooring type; favoured by those seeking an "authentic" floor with a solid feel, real timber floor has been developed for hundreds of years to be the product that it is today. Typically comprised of either timber ("solid timber floor") or a cheaper timber with a thinner layer of desirable/expensive timber on top ("engineered floor"), real antique floor is the "go to" choice for quality floor surface.

Most homeowners have hardwood floor surface. There are also softwoods, like pine and fir, which are very attractive. These will get nicked up over time, but they're meant to be lived on. The more beat up they get, the better they look - especially if you have a country or antique flavor running through the house. These work especially well as wider planks rather than the 2 1/2" strips.

Often overlooked and perhaps the most beautiful of all timber floor materials is antique timber, reclaimed timber from ancient dilapidated, decaying buildings that have withstood time in all-weather conditions. From domestic to exotic hardwoods, the selection of antique woods reclaimed from generations of long ago provides endless beauty and charm that has taken over 500 years to produce. With antique plank cover rated as the finest of all materials today, the patina of antique floor, reclaimed and re-introduced, provides warmth with a rich glow that no other product can duplicate or imitate.

The majority of the hardwood floor used today is engineered wood, comprised of multiple layers of substrate plywood with a finishing veneer (thin) layer of timber pre-selected in many colors and styles complimenting the finished product. Reclaimed timber has been introduced into the laminate floor industry providing a small piece of history combined with modern technology of today.

A number of tropical timber have been acclaimed as environmentally friendly due to their quick growth rate. The quickest self-replenishers are bamboo and cork (neither are a wood). If the environment is of concern to you, look for the FSC stamp on the product you're buying. The Forest Stewardship Council is an environmental group that tracks timber production and certifies timber that are harvested in an environmentally friendly manner.

Salvage companies dive into lakes and rivers to pull up old trees that sank in the 19th century, on their way to be milled. Still other timber for floor surface is reclaimed when old structures like barns, boxcars, or industrial building, are demolished. Some dealers will provide a history of the product you're buying.

Environmentally friendly woods reclaimed and used in the production of antique flooring once destined for permanent elimination, saves the environment with reusable, salvageable materials that often was left to decay or placed in already over-flowing landfills. With no trees cut or affected in the reclaiming process, the eco-friendly patina of antique floors speaks of times past, times of uncertainty with rebellion and lawlessness, as a nation struggled to advance into the next century.




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