Wood Flooring Tips

Simply, wood flooring refers as any kind of product designed from timber or wood for floor use and maintenance. Wood in this is synthetically processed, treated, and designed ultimately for flooring and it takes a structural form or at times aesthetic. In most cases, today, Wood has become a popular choice for designing flooring structures and designs. Commonly, these material designs come in different sizes, colours, species, dimensions, and cuts depending on customised needs for particularly purposes. Wood flooring take dissimilar forms and they include among others solid wood, hardwood, rotary-peel, sliced-peel, dry solid-sawn, and engineered wood.

Solid wood flooring
It is designed from one kind of timber, which is air-dried prior to sawing. To acquire the best out of it, the wood may be engraved in three varying ways such as rift-sawn, quarter-sawn, and lastly flat-sawn and this convincingly provide a desired outer shell on the floor. Then after cutting the required design, dimensions, and style, the timber can then be finished right at the factory or, be prepared and set unfinished for site installation. During the process at the factory, the moisturised substances have to be well managed to avoid product distortion during logistics and storage. Solid wood has a variety of styles and features that make a home to appear very pleasing and come in various species such as oak, maple, and hickory.

Hardwood flooring
This was firstly designed for structural functions; it could be inaugurated vertically to the wooden holding beams of buildings a known as bearers, or joists. Solid hardwood flooring are synthesised from planks manufactured from one piece of timber. Due to ever changing trends in concrete usage in diverse parts of the world, subfloors normally use concrete. Therefore, engineered wood flooring is certainly becoming substantial in modern communities. 

However, provided it appearance and flexibility, hardwood flooring is still maintaining its popularity. They are well known for their thick surfaces, which can be finished and sanded more easily than any kind of engineered wood floors. Some of the commonly used types hardwood floors include cherry (cinnamon mist), hickory (Blackened brown, candy apple, country natural etc.). 

Dry solid-sawn
In manufacturing this wood flooring structure, the logs are maintained at low humidity, then, dried gently content is rid eliminated from the wood cell. After this process, then, the wood is treated in the same way as the solid hardwood planks. This is a style of engineered hardwood, which has the exact appearance as solid hardwood. It is very reliable, as they have not moisture added in the process compared to rotary-peels and sliced-peels.


Rotary-peel
Rotary-peel is manufactured by boiling the log in water and after, wood can be peeled using a blade starting from the exterior towards the centre of the log. Then, the veneer is pressed even with high pressure. Usually, there are possibilities of difficulties in manufacturing, for instance curling back the wood to its original form. The grains of engineered hardwood at times have a plywood exterior.

Sliced-peel
Sliced-peel is also formed by boiling the log in water like in rotary style, however, instead of cutting towards the centre. Here the log is engraved in similar way, which lumber is sawn. Therefore, hardwood synthesised in this manner is likely to have face checking problems and do not have plywood grain appearance. In this nature of wood flooring, planks are most likely to crack and prone to edge splintering as the veneers are submerged in water of flat pressed.

Engineered wood flooring
This style of wood flooring has two or more layers adjoined simultaneously hence forming a plank. It usually make use of slender layer notably lamella. Its steadiness is attained by running every layer at 90 degree to the top layer. Engineered wood flooring is divided into Veneer floors, which use a thin wood layer, laminate and vinyl floors, which use wood image on its surface and plastic form respectively, Acrylic-impregnated wood flooring, which use wood layer impregnated by liquid acrylic, and all-timber-wood floors, which are designed from composite layers of sawn wood.

Facts regarding solid and engineered wood flooring

Solid wood flooring in some way or another has limitations commonly gapping, crowning, and cupping, depending on the size. Therefore, it advisable utmost widths and lengths are 5’/127 and 7’2100 mm respectively. Furthermore, solid wood do not apply to radiant heating exceeding 29 degrees, using outdoor thermostat, avoiding excessive temperature variations and many more.

Engineered wood flooring besides having dimensional stability and global usage, its patented installation methods permit promptly and easy replacements and eases reparation and time usage.

How to install wood flooring

Floor connections system
This system has grooves on each of the four surfaces of the plank with a detached piece, which is put in the grooves of different planks to enjoin them.

Tongue-and-groove
Here, each face and each end of the plank contains a groove, and the other side and consists of tongue. Both the groove and the tongue perfectly adhere together, therefore aligning the planks. This installation system can be configured by use of glue-down, floating or nailing down.

Floating installation system
In this system, flooring can be positioned down without glue above the underlying layer. Planks are locked independently together without use of nails and glue down to underlying floor. Therefore, this leaves the floor floating over the underlying layer and it can be put above the existing marbles or tiles with lower risks of distortion to the subfloor.

Glue-down technique
This is system is commonly used for solid parquet flooring configurations on concrete subfloors. Here, mastic layer is applied onto the subfloor by use of a trowel, and then, wood pieces are positioned above the glue, pounded using rubber mallet, and shielded 2×4 hence forming a level floor.

In conclusion, engineered wood flooring and solid wood flooring have substantial similarities and difference in characteristics ranging from their purpose and appearance. However, solid wood is commonly used for site-finished, generally thicker, usually configured using nailing system. While engineered wood commonly pre-finished, installed by use of glue and it is bevelled edged. Therefore, the usage and application depends mainly on individual needs, time and cost effectiveness, but in standards and quality, they all gives a perfect appearances to the home.