Solid Hardwood Flooring Materials

In a home, wood is a simple, classical flooring material; hardwoods can give your home a natural warmth, beauty, durability, flexibility, and longevity.  As American consumers focus more on using natural, earth friendly materials in their homes, U.S. solid hardwoods are the natural choice for time and monetary value, for maintaining good health, and for product sustainability.  Here are more reasons to consider using American solid hardwoods for your home flooring material.

• Hardwoods are deciduous trees that have broad leaves, produce a fruit or nut, and go dormant in the winter.  These species include oak, ash, cherry, maple, hickory, walnut and poplar.  Select only hardwood varieties that are tough enough to handle heavy traffic areas in your home.  Hardwood can last 100 years or more; it holds nails, screws, and withstanding the stresses, heavy loads, shocks, and abrasions of daily life.  Solid hardwood flooring can be easily repaired and refinished to accommodate the changing tastes and styles.   

• Solid wood flooring comes in three basic types:

1.  Strip flooring are the most common and accounts for the majority of installations for residential use.  Strips usually are 2 ¼ inches wide, but also come in width ranging from 1 to 1 ½ inches to 3 ¼ inches.  Wood strip flooring is attached to a nail-able sub floor with fasteners.

2.  Plank flooring boards are at least 3 inches wide.  The boards may be screwed or nailed to the sub floors.  Screw holes may be covered with wooden plugs. 

3.  Parquet flooring comes in standard pattern of 6”X 6” blocks.  Specialty patterns may range up to 36” square units.  Parquet often achieves dramatic geometric effects of special design patterns.  Parquet flooring is often glued to the substrate using thick adhesive called mastic.

• Unfinished flooring gives you almost unlimited color stain options.  The drawback:  unfinished flooring must be sanded and finished after installation which requires the expertise of a professional and put the room out of service for a week or more.  Clear water-base finishes are often best because they retain the wood’s color and can be easily touched up or recoated.  Oil-base finishes often fade to an amber color overtime making it harder to match when repair. 

• Pre-finished flooring has factory-applied finish with at least 4 coats and up to 6 coats of ultraviolet-cured urethane resin, depending on manufacturer, that eliminates sawdust and finish vapors during the installation and the room can be used within 24 hours after the floor is laid.  The color options for pre-finished flooring are not as varied as for unfinished flooring.  The strongest water base finish is a factory-applied acrylic-impregnated finish that penetrates the wood instead of just coating the surface.  Acrylic-impregnated floors are more expensive, but are stronger and require less upkeep.   

• Maintenance of your solid hardwood flooring is simple.  In general, wipe up spills immediately to prevent stains.  Follow the flooring manufacturer’s cleaning guidelines.  To protect your hardwood floors from wear and tear and grit and grime damage, place dust catching rugs on the outside of your entrances and in front of the appliances and sinks where excess moisture might cause uneven wear.  Use protective tips and pads under furniture.

U.S. solid hardwoods are an all-natural, carbon negative material; they have no emissions for methane, nitrogen oxides, and other particulate matters, and they are home grown, which further minimize their carbon footprint.  If you are conscientious about earth friendly materials for your home, American solid hardwood floorings are as green as they come.