by Eddy Laboy | Oct 15, 2015 | Hardwood Flooring, Mirage Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors, Triangulo Flooring
Exotic wood flooring products are among the most popular choices for architects, homeowners and property owners because of their durability, beauty and versatility. Of course, interested individuals may initially be deterred by the costs associated with the installation and maintenance of exotic hardwood flooring products. But when a simple cost-and-benefit analysis is done, the benefits outweigh the costs – and so the decision to install imported hardwood flooring is made. Among the popular choices in exotic wood flooring are Brazilian Cherry, Santos Mahogany, and dark Brazilian Walnut, among others. But before you purchase and install these flooring products, here are three things that you must know. #1 Lighter to Darker Tones Exotic wood flooring will naturally become darker and richer in their grains and colors when exposed to light, either of natural sunlight or artificial light or both. Keep in mind that the natural darkening should not be a cause for concern because the durability, stability and strength of the exotic wood flooring will remain unaffected. In many ways, these three qualities are the most important aspects of exotic wood flooring because you want to get the best value for your money – and you can enjoy it the most when your home’s floor lasts for generations to come. If you see exotic wood flooring on display with darker colors than the box of exotic wood flooring delivered to your doorstep, the former must have been exposed to air for at least 3 months. Your new exotic wood flooring will also darken in the coming months. #2 Wide Variations of Colors Due to the innate differences in trees, the...
by Eddy Laboy | Oct 13, 2015 | Engineered Hardwood Flooring, Hardwood Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors
Engineered hardwood floors are now a common flooring alternative due to its stability and the ability to be sanded down several times like solid wood floors. Manufactured with multiple layers of plywood or a sandwich of softwood and hardwood base with real hardwood on top, engineered hard wood floors is renowned to virtually withstand various levels of humidity without swelling or shrinking, making it an ideal flooring type to be installed on radiant sub-floors. These floors can come prefinished or not, which gives the homeowners or installers a choice for faster, no hustle and bustle installation. Unless your wood floor has been refinished at least twice before, waxing engineered hardwood floors is not the best method to maintain its luster. Take note that waxing old hardwood floors is a big mistake when the floor has polyurethane or urethane finish. For those who still have old hardwood floors with traditional coating, here are steps on how to wax hardwood floors. Solid Paste Wax Get rid of dust and tracked in dirt by sweeping the floor or vacuuming. Using a damped rag, apply a restoring finish on the floor to bring out the color of the hardwood floor and to help restore some of its beauty. Damping the rag prevents it from absorbing much wax. Start applying the restoring finish from a corner, working your way out. Let it sit and dry for an hour to be thoroughly dried. Dip another rag or old shirt in paste wax. Apply the wax evenly in a light layer. Doing so prevents just piling up a chunk of wax on the floor. Focus on...
by Eddy Laboy | Sep 17, 2015 | Hardwood Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors
A homeowner who has a wood floor in his home will already know how challenging it is to keep the wood floor properly maintained. He will also know that hiring the services of a professional such as Wood Flooring NJ will be an expensive yet a necessary decision. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your wood floor protected and safe so that you will not have to call flooring services as often as they would like you to. Here are some wood floor protection options to keep your hardwood safe at all times. Kraft paper. Most damages to your wood floors occur when you are doing some furniture moving or repainting your walls. In order to protect your floors from minor damages, spread Kraft paper on your floors before you begin painting your walls. Kraft paper will prevent any paint drip from affecting your wood floors. When moving heavy furniture, you can lift it a little and put Kraft paper between your furniture legs and floor before moving again. Kraft paper will lessen the friction between your furniture and wood floor and will prevent it from scratching the wood floor. Protective film. A more durable way of protecting your wood floor from damage when doing painting jobs or moving furniture in your home is the protective plastic film. This is a self-sticking film that can cover almost all hard surfaces. You can use this film even to protect your tables and cabinets. Since this film is transparent, you can cover your whole wood floor with it for added protection especially on surfaces with the most foot traffic. Neoprene matting....
by Eddy Laboy | Aug 6, 2015 | Hardwood Flooring, Kahrs Flooring, Quarter Sawn Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors
Kahrs flooring is a Swedish wood floor manufacturer that has been delivering top-notched quality wood floor products for 150 years—long enough to be one of the oldest and even most innovative wood flooring manufacturers in the industry. With a commitment to seek ways on how to make their floor products even better in terms of aesthetics, strength, ease of installation and sustainability, Kahrs flooring is an institution of wood knowledge that has been passed on from one generation to another. What makes Kahrs flooring a worthy choice above its competitors? For your information, here are Kahrs flooring benefits that garner satisfaction and appreciation among wood floor installers, homeowners, interior designers and architects. Environmentally Responsible With its continuous commitment on sustainability, Kahrs flooring’s hard work paid off as its efforts has become internationally acknowledged. Being the first wood floor manufacturer to attain ISO 9001 certification, the company has never stopped its commitment. As a result, it achieved the ISO 14001 certification in 1997, a proof that they’re serious of their mission. Moreover, Kahrs flooring is the forerunner in supporting and buying the dual-labelled material from Chile that is passes the FSC and Fairtrade certification standards. Multi-Layer Construction Kahrs flooring is manufactured using multi-layer construction, promising superior stability as the crossed layers counteract the normal movement of the lumber. Another advantage of this multi-layer construction is the ability of the planks to be sanded down like aaaaaaaaaa. Extra-Strong and Beautiful Lacquer Kahrs flooring applies six thin layers of extra-strong lacquer on the surface of each floorboard. Its lacquer is strong enough to ensure daily wear and tear for 15-20 years, yet...
by Eddy Laboy | Jul 30, 2015 | Hardwood Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors
In choosing the right wood floors, do you just sift through the species, stains, finish, prices or dig deeper than that? As a homeowner or even business owner, what else shouldn’t be overlooked? Safety. Indeed, safety should be on top of the list more than the rest of the factors. Let’s discuss about the trending issue on formaldehyde in floors. For the past few months, the wood flooring industry has been shaken by the fact that other US manufacturing firm has been selling laminate floors that have an alarming content of formaldehyde. Some Americans may end up thinking to stay away from wood floors at all. Shouldn’t you be learning what this formaldehyde about that is feared by many? Here are important facts that you should know before getting your desired wood floors installed: Significance of Formaldehyde in Floors and Other Products Before jumping to conclusion that formaldehyde shouldn’t be in wood floors, understand that it is a fundamental industrial chemical to produce other chemicals and various products like home furnishings, paints, textiles, household cleaning products, landscape and yard products, medicinal and personal care products and pesticides. It is naturally present almost anywhere, including wood, and is used in the adhesives for engineered and laminate wood floors. Allowed Limits of Formaldehyde in Floors There are factors that affect the measurement of formaldehyde levels in indoor space. These are formaldehyde source, temperature, humidity, air exchange rate and ambient indoor ozone concentration. California Air Regulatory Board (CARB), during the phase 1 of implementation of this regulation, it required adhesive formaldehyde emissions to be equal to or less than 0.08 ppm (parts...
by Eddy Laboy | Jul 3, 2015 | Engineered Hardwood Flooring, Mirage Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors
Investing in a hardwood floor is a very important decision to make. Before you go about purchasing materials, you should make sure that the type of floor that you choose would meet your needs perfectly. Choosing a hardwood floor should be done carefully since you can’t simply change it as easily as you can change your furniture. Mirage is a very popular brand of hardwood floors that has been used in improving the look of homes for a very long time now. There are a lot of Mirage flooring design ideas that you can use to improve your home. However, whatever design you choose, you should consider these following: Mirage Flooring Color Hardwood flooring is more of a decorative element of the home. Mirage flooring comes in a wide variety of colors to choose from. It is important that you choose a color that will blend well with the over-all look of your home. Mirage Flooring Species Mirage also offers a variety of hardwood species to choose from. Each species differs in texture, color and grain to suit every homeowner’s preference. The more popular and in demand species are the oak and maple however, exotic species such as mahogany and tigerwood are becoming more and more popular. Mirage Flooring Glossiness Another thing to consider is the wood’s glossiness. Mirage flooring comes in three gloss classification namely: Semi-Gloss, and Cashmere (matte). Choosing the more glossy wood will give your floor a shiny look. However, the glossier the floor is, the more it will amplify any scratches and dents that your floor may have. Mirage Flooring Grade The grade of hardwood...
by Eddy Laboy | Jul 2, 2015 | Engineered Hardwood Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors
Having wooden floors at your home not only gives it a warm and classy look, but also significantly increases the value of your home. However, installing solid hardwood floors may be a very expensive undertaking. Fortunately, you can have that wooden floor look that you always wanted for your home without having to pay expensively for it. You can choose the engineered wood flooring instead. Engineered flooring is made up of manufactured wood layers that are topped off with a hardwood veneer. The middle layers and the bottom layers are designed to prevent the floors from warping or buckling. A homeowner who wants to redo his home’s flooring must choose the engineered flooring based on both aesthetics and durability. Here are some features to consider. Finish Flooring Engineered flooring comes in either pre-finished or unfinished. You can choose different types of stain colors when you choose the pre-finished boards. On the other hand, if you choose the unfinished boards, you get to have control on what to color your flooring after you installed them. However, you will have to do extra work in staining and finishing these types of floorboards. Floor Area Engineered flooring planks come in lengths ranging from 12 inches to 49 inches. Their widths will also vary. If you are planning to buy the engineered wood flooring, make sure that you compute first the area that you want to cover so that you will have an estimate on the number of boards that you will get. It is advisable to purchase an extra five to 10 % of what you actually need to be used as...
by Eddy Laboy | Jun 29, 2015 | Bamboo Flooring, Cork Flooring, Engineered Hardwood Flooring, Solid Hardwood Floors
In today’s society, being environmentally-friendly is becoming more and more popular. Most of the largest manufacturers are joining in the bandwagon by producing food and other products that are safe to the environment. Even manufacturers of building materials are joining in and are coming up with eco-friendly products such as their eco-friendly hardwood floors. Most products that are categorized as “eco-friendly” are valued at a premium price because they serve people’s needs as well as the needs of the earth. Although more expensive than most solid hardwood floors, these eco-friendly hardwood floors are gaining popularity. Here are a few eco-friendly hardwood floors out in the market today. Hardwood floors Because of the demand for wood materials and hardwood flooring, the rainforest is disappearing at a rate of 100 acres per minute. With this rate, the rainforest will disappear in the next two generations. Although hardwood flooring still needs to cut down trees, selective cutting has been implemented by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that only allows certified wood to be cut down and to be processed into hardwood flooring materials. Cork Floors Although new to the hardwood flooring industry, cork is gaining popularity because of its being environmentally-friendly. Cork is harvested from the barks of cork oak trees without having to cut the tree down. This means that the barks of the trees will eventually grow back and cork can be harvested from them again every three years, making the trees a renewable source of hardwood flooring materials. Cork materials can also be recycled adding to their eco-friendly qualities. As a flooring material, cork is said to contain anti-microbial...
by Eddy Laboy | Jun 23, 2015 | Solid Hardwood Floors
Because of the added appeal and aesthetic value that solid hardwood floors have in a home, more homeowners are choosing hardwood flooring over carpet. Homeowners get to choose from a myriad of types and styles of solid hardwood floors which may be composed of domestic hardwood or exotic wood species imported from other countries. Throughout the years, there has also been an increase in the number of manufacturers for hardwood flooring that adds to homeowners’ consideration, as to which manufacturer to source their materials from. In order to help homeowners in decision-making, here is a side by side comparison of two well-known hardwood flooring manufacturers. This article will focus in discussing whatever advantages and disadvantages each Somerset vs. Mullican solid hardwood floors has. Somerset Solid Hardwood Floors Having more than 20 years experience in the industry, Somerset Solid Hardwood Floors is a manufacturer of hardwood flooring materials that started out offering only solid hardwood coming from the Appalachian region of the USA. Somerset in the beginning offered only a limited selection of red oak, white oak and maple flooring. They eventually expanded by having engineered hardwood floorings that they have manufactured overseas. Many installers categorize Somerset as a middle quality four-out-of-five-star rating hardwood flooring manufacturer, which can be advantageous because you will know that they cannot demand prices that are too high for their solid hardwood floors. Another advantage of choosing Somerset is that they designed their engineered hardwood flooring products to appear similar to the real wood. Also, their engineered products are sawn at longer lengths, which a lot of installers prefer. Longer lengths also appear more appealing...
