hard wood

Ways to Protect Your Solid Wood Flooring Investment

2008-10-30T01:41:00.000-07:00

Finishes work by providing your hardwood flooring with a coating that protects it from many environmental factors. There are several categories with which hardwood flooring finishes fall under. They could be classified as oil-based and water-based, and penetrating and surface finish. The attributes and disadvantages of each finish category will be discussed below to help you make informed decisions regarding your hardwood floor.

Choosing a Finish

Firstly, the type of hardwood flooring you have installed would likely determine which hardwood flooring finish you should apply. Certain solid wood floors do not take well to certain finishes, and there could be an instance where applying a finish would do more harm than good. It is always best to discuss projects like these with a trusted professional.

A penetrating finish gets deep into the grain of the wood to protect it from within. There are hardwood flooring species such as maple and cherry that do not absorb this type of surface as evenly as other species.

Surface finishes protect the floor by providing it with what looks like a clear plastic coating on top of the wood. This protects it from minute scratches and some water damage, as well as exposure. Most pre-finished floors have a surface finish applied and this looks to be the most popular choice.

Both surface and penetrating finishes could also fall under two major categories: oil-based or water-based.

The use of oil-based finishes seem to be favored by some homeowners because of the smoothing effect it has on the hardwood floor, filling in ridges and warming up the floor's appearance overall by somehow tinting the wood. These oil-based finishes protect the wood from outside elements by building a film over the wood. However, they take quite some time to dry. With water-based finishes, there is said to be the disadvantage of raising the grain of the wood, making it seem rough, but this is only true with the first coating. A sealer takes care of evening the surface, and usually drys fast enough so the floor can be walked on in an hour.

Water-based finishes are also absolutely clear, and will not darken with age as is the case with oil-based finishes. This is great for homeowners who want their light-colored flooring to stay that color.

Graded Wood and Your Hardwood Floor

2008-10-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever wondered how companies decide how to price wood and which quality is best, there is definitely a method to their pricing and categorization of different wood species and their classifications and specifications.

National standards exist for wood quality, and these standards ensure that each species and type of wood is given a rating, called a “grade.” The percentages of variation and characteristics of different woods completely depend on the set of standards by which every wood is judged. These standards are made by major trade associations and professional organizations.

While grading is usually concerned with hardness of a species, and thus its correlating amounts of hardwood and sapwood, some grades depend on the mix of the two. Woods like hickory, cherry, and many exotic woods have especially contrasting colors of heartwood and sapwood. These woods may be ordered and graded as mixed (sapwood and heartwood), sap-only (only sapwood) or no-sap (only heartwood).

Four general grades exist for categorizing many species of different woods. Classifications are based only on appearance, as the structural soundness of most woods in generally the same all around.

It is the level of aesthetic beauty that is graded and given a score, and it is by this standard that prices for wood are set. A higher grade means a higher price, and a lower grade means a lower price. First grade or clear wood has to have a surface almost completely free of imperfections, such as knots, dents, marls, or other flaws. Light streaking, burling, or few pinholes may be allowed. Variations in color are ok, but sapwood content has to be extremely minimal and almost non-existent.

Second-grade or Select wood standards accept small, sound tighter knot marks and other small defects as long as they aren’t large. A small amount of sapwood is allowed, as are variations in color.

Third-grade or Common wood is allowed more defects than the previous two, as well as larger knots on the surface. They can have a higher amount of streaking, more variety in color, and a larger amount of sapwood. Fourth-grade or Lower Common Grade is the lowest wood grade on the scale, and is limited to very little. There may be large knots, heavy grain and surface imperfections, and great differences in color and large amounts of sapwood. It is often described as “rustic,” and is common because of that quality.

The Best of Hardwood Floors: Real Hardwood Flooring Take Center Stage

2008-10-22T00:36:00.000-07:00

Real wood flooring counts itself among the top flooring choices today. That is no surprise, considering the benefits that one can get from having a hardwood floor in the home. With the many alternatives out in the market, real wood flooring still is in a class of its own, surpassing all others in terms of beauty, strength, durability, and ultimately longevity.

The Advantages of Having Real Wood Flooring

Wood flooring today does not bear the stigma of being bad for the environment. In fact, installing a real wood floor in your home is one of the most eco-friendly decisions you could make. Real wood flooring from controlled forests ensure that the floor you have comes from a sustainable source that does not harm the environment. The use of natural real wood flooring also means less use of harmful substances that are used to process other real wood flooring substitutes.

Versatility

Real wood flooring also provides homeowners with a flooring material that can go with any design genre. The use of wood can add warmth to a home bearing industrial characteristics all without seeming out of place. The timeless appeal of wood also contributes to the total look of your home, giving it character and depth that no other flooring can give.

Oak hardwood engineered oil finish flooring for elegant look

2008-10-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

If you have been planning to redecorate your house or add a new look to your home décor with new floorings then one of the best options of floorings to choose from comes with oak hardwood engineered oil finish floorings. These oak hardwood floorings are the best choice to make from all the wooden floorings in the market. The oak hardwood floorings being exceptionally beautiful provide the best alternative to laminate floorings or expensive carpets. These floorings made of oak hardwood would most certainly transform the feel and aura of your place.

Add to home décor with oak hardwood flooring

Owing to its unique individuality and exclusive warm hues, the beautiful oak hardwood flooring offers the much needed aura and warmth to the interiors of your house. Oak hardwood engineered floors have layers of hardwood being glued and pressed together which makes for its great strength and durability. Oak hardwood engineered floors have been used in houses for centuries as they can best bring about the desired beauty to any style of home décor. You would not find the kind of timeless beauty of the oak hardwood engineered oil finish floors in any other kind of hardwood flooring.

These wonderful oak hardwood floorings add immense appeal to your home décor and are most certain to add a royal look and feel to your house. Contrary to popular myth, oak hardwood engineered floorings do retain the warmth of the house while keeping the draughts away. Unlike carpets, the oak hardwood floorings do not allow dust and dust mites to be trapped in the layers and so it prevents any sorts of allergies and respiratory problems resulting from dust particles.

Unmatched Features

The wonderful oak hardwood floorings speak of unmatched classic beauty and elegance not to be found in any other kind of hardwood. You just need to add a firm oak hardwood flooring oiled and with a brushed finish to your home décor and you could be sure of bringing a level of sophistication to your house. This feel could well be accredited to the exclusive classic finish that comes with the natural shine and oil finish of oak hardwood. Moreover, to your advantage, these oak hardwood floorings easily match with any kind of fixture, furniture or theme of décor making your house floors versatile. Choice of colors in oak flooring

Another significant aspect of these oak hardwood floorings is that they come in an array of colors and different styles offering home owners a plethora of options to choose from. The versatility and adaptability of the oak hardwood floors widens the choice of the variety of shades and color tones which you can pick from. Apart from this, these oak hardwood engineered floorings could be natured, oiled and even brush finished, the choice is completely yours as it depends on your taste as to what way you want to nature it.

Oak flooring is durable

The best aspect of installing oak hardwood engineered oil finish floorings is that they are the most durable floorings and last for years and years to come. These floorings do not lose their luster as soon as the oak wood comes with a natural shine, uniquely its own but, if you want them not to become dull and keep their luster for long then you can just add oil to it and care for their maintenance.

Laminate Flooring - Things You Need to Know

2008-10-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Laminate flooring is a great alternative to hardwood when you want the warmth and beauty of wood flooring without the installation and maintenance hassles. This attractive flooring solution is available in a wide range of prices, colours and grains. It's also more scratch and dent resistant than hardwood flooring, which makes it the perfect choice for homes with active children or pets. Laminate flooring is the one of the most versatile, durable and well-constructed types of flooring on the market today.

HOW TO CHOOSE LAMINATE FLOORING

Laminates warranty range from 10 years to lifetime. Entry level laminates come with a 10 to 15 years warranty but they are designed for light traffic areas. Used in a high traffic area, they will begin to show wear and tear usually within 3 to 5 years. Remember that choosing the right laminate flooring is not as easy as it seems, but by doing that, you will save money in the long run. Just think of things like the amount of time you are planning on staying in that house or the amount of traffic, because there is no point in buying really expensive laminate flooring with extended warranty if you know that you are moving sometime in the near future. Also consider buying laminates with Paraffin wax impregnated joints, as this wax acts as a water repellent and prevents water from penetrating down to the core.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Laminate Flooring is made up of six layers, and comes in varying sizes of either planks or squares with a tongue and groove interlocking system. The surface layer of laminate is the melamine wearlayer, which is a tough clear melamine layer with aluminum oxide particles. When fused together with heat and direct to the core the wearlayer becomes an incredibly hard, durable finish. The resin-filled wearlayer is so dense it becomes extremely difficult to stain, scratch, or burn. The second layer is the Print Layer, which is the decorative layer giving the flooring its appearance of real hardwood or tile. The third layer is a clear thin plastic sheet that floats freely above the substrate before the laminate floor is floated. Melamine is a plastic-type resin used throughout the construction process to add durability and stability to the laminated planks. The thickest layer is the core, consists usually of high-density fiber board (HDF), particle board to add resistance and form the tongue and groove locking system. Melamine plastic resins are used to improve moisture resistance of the core by some manufacturers. A thing you should consider when buying laminate flooring for bathrooms or kitchens is it's core. A thicker core is more stable, less vulnerable and sounds more like the real hardwood floor when walked on. Quality laminate cores are treated with water repellent chemicals. The melamine plastic backing is used to add more structural stability and moisture protection to the planks.

INSTALLATION

As glueless locking mechanisms has been introduced to the market, laminate flooring has become the perfect choice for households because it has a quicker installation, it's easier to repair and it can be installed by people without experience or specialized tools. This will save you a considerable amount of money. Installing laminate floors eliminates the need to nail or glue your floor in place. It is also a very attractive, low cost and long lasting flooring option. With an easy to clean surface, impact and dent resistance, laminate flooring can be installed over many different types of subfloors and on all grade levels, making it a versatile flooring choice. Installing laminate floors can be used in any room in the house and in most commercial areas as long as they are flat and in solid condition. Installing laminate floors can be done over concrete, wood, ceramic tile and even your existing linoleum floor. Even though laminate floors can be installed in any room in the house, they should not be installed in garages or on outside porches. The biggest reason for this is moisture. Moisture and laminate floors do not mix. On a scale from one to ten, installing laminate flooring requires a skill level of about a four. The most challenging part of the installation process will be clearing your schedule for a couple of hours. The easy to follow instructions and simplified interlocking clicking system mean that most do-it-yourselfers will be able to install an entire floor in one afternoon. A laminated floor that is properly installed, protected and maintained will go a long way to help your laminated floor last as long as your home.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LAMINATE FLOORING

Laminate Flooring is available in one of 2 types, planks and tiles. Flooring planks can be interlocking or tongue and groove where flooring tiles have tongue and groove edges. There are many different manufactures of laminate flooring and as the laminate flooring producers continue to expand colors, styles and increase quality, the growth of laminate flooring industry will continue.

REASONS TO CHOOSE LAMINATE:

A laminated floor is tough and durable.

A laminated floor is chemical resistant and harsh household chemicals and cleaning agents will not harm your laminate flooring surface.

A laminated floor can resist dropped cigarettes for a time without burning the floor.

A laminated floor will keep its color or design for years. The surface will not fade even when exposed to direct sunlight.

A laminated floor is hypoallergenic, it doesn't contain any hazardous PCB's, dioxins, plasticizers or chlorines. It repels dust, dustmites and other allergy causing particles.

A laminated floor is stain resistant and can be easily cleaned. Cleaning up a spill on a laminated floor is as simple as wiping up the mess. Also, scuff marks can be easily cleaned off a laminated floor.

Installing a laminated floor is quick and easy. It can be floated over your existing K-3/lino, wood, concrete, tile or even low grade commercial carpet saving value time and expense. There is no need to wait, you can walk on your floor immediately after installation is complete.

A laminated floor comes in many different designs and colors.

A laminated floor is easy to care for.

Reasons To Consider Buying Bamboo Flooring

2008-10-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

Bamboo flooring has become more popular recently because it is good for the environment and it is very durable. It is a good alternative to hardwood flooring. Bamboo is a kind of grass that grows in Southeast Asia and China. It is not as expensive as other flooring options but it is high in quality.

Flooring professionals are always looking for new materials to offer their customers. These materials need to be durable, affordable and attractive. The professionals are well aware that consumers are looking for flooring that is attractive but that will also stand up to everyday life. Bamboo Flooring fits all of these categories. It is an excellent choice.

Bamboo stalks mature in only three to five years and can grow up to 50 ft. Since bamboo renews itself naturally it is an environmentally friendly alternative to harvesting trees that can take from 50 to 100 years to mature. Even though it is a grass, bamboo grows into a material that is very hard and durable. In addition, bamboo can grow in areas with relatively poor soil, where other crops are impractical. Even after harvesting bamboo will continue to grow vigorously, making it one of the fastest growing plants in the world.

An alternative to hardwood floors for adding value to your home are Bamboo Floors. It provides the same level of hard, durable and attractive flooring as hardwood. It is practical, attractive and brings style into a room. It is becoming easier to find it because it is eco-friendly and in higher demand.

Bamboo flooring is available in colors similar to hardwood. These colors include honey, light wood, dark wood and amber. The darker colors that can be found in bamboo floors are made by using pressure steaming and carbonization. The panels are also able to be arranged in different patterns such as flat grain or vertical.

Installation can be accomplished by gluing, floating or 'secret nailing'. The boards can be glued directly to the subfloor or glued tongue to groove (floating). A secret nail gun can be used to shoot nails at a 45 degree angle through the tongue into the subfloor. It is called secret nailing because the tongue and nail heads are covered by the next board. Pre-finished and unfinished bamboo panels are available and available online through flooring vendors.

Timeless contemporary appeal, and warm, comforting ambiance, are just some of the adjectives used to describe the new bamboo flooring option. It brings added value to your home as well as being reasonably priced, fashionable, durable and environmentally friendly. Being an cheaper alternative to the expensive traditional hardwood floor and easy to maintain, a homeowner looking or shopping for new flooring should seriously consider bamboo.

Prefinished Hardwood Vs. Hardwood Laminate

2008-10-06T00:50:00.001-07:00

Hardwood is a better investment as far as longevity goes. It has a more natural and
polished look uch longer. Even after the hardwood has led a rough life there are
options. You can refinish, or just let the personality be apart of the decore.
Hardwood has a look and a feel that even the best laminate can not replicate. But, it
comes at a price. it is about twice the price of laminate.

Twice the price, you say. Good laminate does look great for a long time. It stands up
to "life" very well. There are many options and colors. Installation is a snap (literally)
to install. If you have kids or have dinner parties where women wear the sharp
heels. laminate may be a better choice.

I am always partial to prefinished hardwood. I have installed hardwood laminate
before. I was not impressed with the "feel" and the "clack" that I heard and felt
walking on it. It looked beautiful though.

The best way to choose between prefinished hardwood and hardwood laminate is
how you will use the room slated for installation. The other is price. It is difficult to
tell the best laminate from hardwood.

Sorry, but even given all the information, my choice is still the prefinished
hardwood.

About Hardwood Floors

2008-10-06T00:44:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest things you can do for your home is to get hardwood floors, there is something about hardwood floors that makes a house, a feeling that is unique to hardwood floors and if you ever visited a house that had these kind of floors I am almost sure you know what I mean.

Hardwood floors are a great design idea, one of the most significant home improvement tricks in the business and a wonderful way of making a house feel a whole lot like a home. For those of you in the market for a new house this is one thing that you should look for, and if you can not find a house that already has hardwood floors you should think about getting them right away. On the other hand any house that has quality hardwood floors would enjoy a significant increase to its value and the level of interests from the potential buyers, it has been proven that hardwood floors are one of the major house selling features in this market.

The other great thing about hardwood floors is that there is a huge selection of hardwood in the market, this means that you can choose the exact color you want for each room or for the whole house, there is no need to compromise on the looks of the hardwood floors simply because there is such a verity of color and textures that almost anyone can find what is best for him or her house.

A good quality hardwood flooring will serve a house for many years, it creates a perfect setting for a nice and warm house, the hardwood is certainly for those who like to build their house as a warm and friendly place, wood furniture and warm colored walls will make a house with hardwood floors look right at any time and for any propose, the only question is on what shade of wood will the home owner go.

The advantages of having a hardwood floor is that it is relatively easy to clean and that in the last few years there have been a lot of cleaning products that have been developed exclusively for cleaning hardwood, it is also true that natural wood will collect less dirt and dust than other materials so the mere fact of having hardwood will keep the house a little cleaner, and making your life a little easier if you have kids and you worry about the air quality in your house and dust levels in the kids rooms.

For those in the market for a new hardwood flooring there are a few basic questions they will need to think about, the costs are an important part of hardwood floors and the whole design that comes with them is also an issue and maintenance is not such a big deal. Only one thing is sure, if you get quality hardwood floors you will enjoy a unique feature and in a very short time you will not understand how you could have lived in a space that had no wood floors.

Engineered Hardwood Flooring: A Problem Free Hardwood Alternative

2008-10-06T00:42:00.000-07:00

Simply because of their dimensions, your room’s walls and floor are its most noticeable features. And one of the quickest ways to rejuvenate a tired room is to change its floor. While carpeting or area rugs are a great way to introduce color and textural interest to your floor, engineered hardwood flooring is another.

You may have been an admirer of the appearance of hardwood flooring, but steered away from it after hearing tales of the way it expands and shrinks in warm and cold weather, and how it may warp in damp climates. Relax, because the construction of engineered hardwood flooring immunizes it against such shortcomings.

What Is Engineered Hardwood Flooring?

Engineered hardwood flooring is composed of a hardwood “wear layer”, from 1/16” to 3/16” thick, laminated or glued to plywood. The plywood backing is assembled in a crossing pattern, usually of 3 or 5 plys.

This construction gives the engineered hardwood flooring both additional stability and resistance to climactic changes. It also allows engineered hardwood flooring to be used on a below-grade or concrete sub flooring, because it is the plywood and not the hardwood which is in contact with the sub-floor. That concrete basement floor can finally get a bit of class!

Just like solid hardwood flooring, engineered hardwood flooring cam be sanded and stained or varnished. It is available in the same widths and thicknesses as regular hardwood, in wither plank or strip style floorboards. Some engineered hardwood flooring is even designed with a snap tongue and groove to simplify its installation.

Installing Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Engineered hardwood flooring can either be floated, meaning it is not actually glued to the sub-floor; it can also be stapled, nailed, or glued. Its price per square foot is similar to that of regular hardwood, but its installation costs are significantly less, averaging about $1.75 per square foot. The lower installation cost is a result of the flatness, and excellent grain and color match of engineered hardwood flooring boards.

The advantages of 12mm laminate flooring

2008-10-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

A. The thickness is especially suitable for the the purpose of hardwood like appearances. The dimensions for the relevant finishes are as follows: pressed or painted V groove(807*126*12mm, 807*90*12mm, 805*143*12mm,), mould pressed finish(807*126*12mm, 807*143*12mm, 807*163*12mm), square shape(600*600*12mm, 500*500*12mm), UV-shine(1214*143*12.3mm, 1214*163*12.3mm) and hand scraped surface(807*163*12mm, 807*143*12.3mm).

B. 12mm laminate flooring is not easy to be curving due its thickness. So customers will not require thicker laminate flooring such as 14mm to avoid higher prices.

C. The 12mm thickness can reduce much noise and it is more press resistant due to its thickness.

D. Its shape is like hardwood plank but the prices are much cheaper than that of hardwood. The price difference is often 3 times or even more. What’s more it is much more wear resistant and easy to install and care.

Bathroom Flooring

2008-10-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

Flooring is an important aspect for any room. When we select bathroom flooring, we have to take many things into consideration like if it is durable, will it look clean and nice, will it be easy to maintain, and will it be able to stand moisture. We have many options to choose from like Ceramic Tile, Sheet or tile vinyl, Stone, Engineered Wood, Laminate flooring, Solid hardwood and Carpet, among all these options, ceramic tile is the first choice for any person. It has got a rich, textured solid feeling like a stone. It is water proof, easy to cleanup, various design and color to select from. You can also go for octagonal or hexagonal shape to select from. Though it is expensive but you can also select ceramic tiles which looks alike stone. A Mosaic tile which is widely used comes in plastic mesh sheets which are pre-mounted so this reduces to individually set them up. Its disadvantage is it is cold like stone, slippery though you can texture it to avoid being slippery. Second is a sheet or vinyl tile which has thousands of style option and is very easy to install. Vinyl tiles disadvantage is that is tends to come out after a while. We can go for sheet vinyl to avoid that but its difficult to install though it comes at lower price range. The next option for flooring is stone. You can select from marble, limestone, granite, it doesn’t have moisture problem. It has its own drawbacks like it is most expensive, cold, and slippery. The fourth option is engineered wood. It holds up great against moisture and it looks really beautiful as its top layer is rely wood. You can say one of the best options as bathroom floor. The fifth option is laminate flooring which is better than solid hardwood because laminate flooring is no more than resin-impregnated paper atop a wood chip base. The laminate plank’s surface is actually a photograph the wood it is simulating: oak, cherry, slate, marble. And above that is wear layer which is very strong and is actually a melamine. For example DuPont RealTouch, and they promise the warranty of 30 years as the seams are glued together, and it will be difficult to get it affected by moisture. It is very easy to clean but by any chance if moisture gets in contact then all the flooring will have to tear out. The next option is sold hardwood; it looks great and gives warm feeling but again moisture if big drawback, while installing one has to make sure that there is no moisture in the gaps. The last option is carpet which people generally don’t prefer as the moisture and carpet doesn’t go well.

How to choose laminate flooring which is suitable for you

2008-09-24T23:51:00.000-07:00

Many people choose laminate flooring with their special purpose. But they don’t know which type of floor is suitable for them.

Below is some suggestion to choose the suitable product for you:

1. Choose hand scraped finish or feather grain surface if you like antique style.

2. Choose 12mm thickness or laminate with attached underlayment if you like better foot feel.

3. Check pressed V groove, painted V groove and UV-shine surface with 1-strip design if you like hardwood like appearance

4. Check little embossed surface, middle embossed surface, big embossed surface and feather grain finish if you prefer rough surface.

5. Check crystal finish, silk finish and UV-shine if you like smooth surface.

6. Choose AC3 rating if laminate flooring is used for heavy domestic or moderate commercial purpose. And select AC2 rating if the purpose is light commercial or moderate commercial.

7. Choose green core if you prefer stronger moisture resistance.

8. Choose 8mm, 7mm or 6mm if you like lower price.

The designs of laminate flooring

2008-09-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

The designs of laminate flooring can be dividened into 1-strip, 2-strip, 3-strip and multi-strip. 3 strip and muli-strip are suitable for big width such as 194mm and 297mm. 1-strip and 2-strip are suitable for little width such as 90mm, 128mm, 143mm and 163mm. For the purpose of hardwood like appearance, 1-strip design is the most suitable as hardwood only has 1-strip. Natural color is also necessary for the purpose. For example, blue cherry is not suitable. It is easy to find that laminate having this color is not like hardwood. The design is strong fading resistant because AL2O3, the first layer of laminate, is very good at refecting ray.

Negotiate Your Bamboo Wood Flooring and Get Discount Bamboo Flooring

2008-09-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

Bamboo wood flooring is fast becoming one of the chosen alternatives to hardwood flooring. It gives you the same natural beauty of hardwood without feeling guilty that your home, or your office for that matter, is causing a damaging effect to the environment. Bamboo, similar to a coconut tree, is considered one of the greatest gifts to mankind, as it has been generally helpful offering its many uses. And recently, it has become the practical choice for home and office improvements as well as for other practical and decorative items owing to homeowners who thinks “green.”

You may think that having flooring made of bamboo would mean having round strips of poles like those of walking canes. This means that walking on it seems quite uncomfortable. But with innovation and technological advancement, bamboo wood flooring is now similarly flat as the hardwood planks you used to have. Bamboo stalks, usually made from the “Moso” specie, are now being manufactured and turned into an ultra smooth flat flooring finish. Processed bamboo canes come in laminated strips, tiles or bamboo planks just like traditional hardwood floors and installation is done in the same manner, too. If set up and cared for properly, it will be as durable and tough as the hardwood flooring that have been in the market for years now. So you can walk outstandingly on your bamboo wood flooring.

Because bamboo wood flooring has gained popularity in the market, more and more people are in search of discount bamboo flooring. You get the same appearance, strength and sturdiness qualities of hardwood, so what more can you ask for. It is practically the best alternative to people who are into home or office improvement. And you are helping the environment, as well. A bamboo is not a tree and does not take that long growing it. And in case you would need replacement, it is easier to get one.

Just because you acquired discount bamboo flooring, does not mean that you don’t get the same quality as that of hardwood flooring. Some stores offer discount bamboo flooring, to make way for new styles and stocks that are to be delivered. You still get the same excellence of the bamboo wood flooring you purchased on a regular price. Having bamboo wood flooring is really a great deal for you. You get the same durability as that of hardwood at soft prices. It is your practical and eco-friendly choice.

If you are really looking for a steal, you have to shop around for discount bamboo flooring. Bamboo’s fame in the home furnishing industry has caused an uproar that you also need to evaluate the bamboo flooring that you’re going to purchase. You may be deceived by stores that offer low prices but for low-quality bamboo flooring too. It is better to check the company’s background and if it is reputable, then you have made a good deal out of your discount bamboo flooring.

For your home and office flooring needs, bamboo wood flooring is an excellent option. It does not only help the environment by preserving the trees, but it is equally stylish than most hardwood flooring. It is something that you should be proud of, especially to the younger generation. Bamboo wood flooring is your sound choice to having a “green” elegance to your stylish homes.

How to Evaluate and Care for Hard Wood Floors

2008-09-22T01:15:00.000-07:00

Hardwood floors can create a feeling of warmth and elegance in a home or business. However, hardwood floors can also be a nightmare for your cleaning company to keep looking good. Knowing what to do and when to do it will help you to keep hardwood floors in prime condition.

Before beginning a maintenance program on a hardwood floor it's a good idea to ask questions about the background of the floor (finish used, when it was last sanded, etc.). If that information isn't available, then you'll need to assess the floor to determine the condition of the floor. Some basic observations of the wood and the finish will help to determine what type of cleaning or refinishing is needed.

Begin by evaluating the condition of the wood. If the floor has extensive damage, warped boards and a lot of wear, the entire floor may need to be replaced. But that is the worst case scenario. Inspect the entire floor, including the edges, and look for differences in the level of the floor. Following are categories you can assign to the floor:

A. Overall very good condition. The hardwood floor looks good or may even be new. The floor may just need a good cleaning to get its luster back.

B. Slight scuffed. The floor is in fairly good condition, however, has a few scuffs and scratches, especially in high traffic areas.

C. Heavy wear. The floor has quite a few scratches, scrapes and dents and looks worn in places. It may even have a few expansion cracks.

D. Warped appearance. The boards in the floor have some minor warping, uneven boards, and many scratches and scrapes.

Next decide the condition of the finish. The condition of the finish may be related to the condition of the wood. For instance if there are deep cuts, scratches or chips in the finish they may go through the finish and into the wood itself. Look at the finish decide what categories are applicable:

A. The floor has a finish, but it looks dirty. The floor most likely just needs a good cleaning to get back that glossy luster.

B. The finish has light scratches, dings and chips and is worn (or is dull) in heavy traffic areas.

C. The finish is chipped in many places. Although the floor definitely has a finish, there are light scrapes, scratches and dings throughout the finish.

D. Finish is worn. There is little or no finish on the floor. The finish may appear to have deep gouges from dragging furniture across it.

E. No finish. The finish is gone or chipped and has a poor appearance.

If the wood and the finish are in good or reasonably good condition, a good cleaning and starting up a routine maintenance program is the next step. If the wood (category C, D or E) or finish (C, D or E) is in bad shape, you may need to do more research or consult a professional on the best way to proceed.

Properly maintaining hardwood floors is important to keep them looking good and extend their lifespan. It is extremely important to remove all the dirt, dropped food, grit and other debris that can end up on and ground into hardwood floors. Dirt that is not removed quickly can be "camouflaged" in the pattern or color of the wood making it not only difficult to see, but easy to ignore. There are several tools that you can use to remove dirt:

1. Brooms- make sure to use a broom that has "exploded" ends that can sweep up dust and fine grit.

2. Vacuums - Any type except an upright vacuum with a beater bar and brushes. These can cause damage to the floor.

3. Dust mop. Dust mopping and vacuuming are the most effective methods of removing debris from floors. If using a dust mop, buy a high quality mop with an eighteen inch head. Treat the mop with a dust mop treatment so it grabs the dirt and doesn't just push it around.

Sweeping, vacuuming or dust mopping regularly is great for getting rid of the dirt, but you will still need to clean the floor. The best method to use is to mop the floor. Use a neutral cleaner (pH of 7) that is for use on hardwood floors and follow the product's directions. Following are a few tips that will help to protect any hardwood floors that you care for:

Good matting is the best way to keep damaging soil and grit from getting onto and ground into the floor. Mats on the outside entryway will help to remove some soils. Make sure any mat(s) used inside (and on the floor) is a good quality rug that does not have a rubber coating. Plasticizers used on some rugs can "migrate" or move from the rug and into the finish of the wood floor.

High heels can cause permanent damage to hardwood floors. The spikes on heels can create dimples in hardwood floors. In a business it may not be possible to keep high heels off the hardwood floors, but if you are cleaning a residential floor, you can let the homeowner know of the problems associated with high heels.

Dragging furniture across the floor. This can cause scratches and dents in the floor. Anytime furniture needs to be moved it should be lifted and carried. Furniture legs need to be in good shape. A loose leg on a chair can dig into the floor's finish anytime someone sits down in the chair.

Spills (food, cleaners, alcohol, oils) can damage the finish and the wood. Clean up spills as soon as possible.

Bright sunlight can bleach, darken or dry out wood. It may be necessary to cover windows with drapes or blinds to keep the ultraviolet rays off the wood.

How to install hardwood floors

2008-09-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

A hardwood floor undoubtedly adds charm, character and value to a home. Beautiful and hard-wearing, they almost never need to be replaced. With a huge variety of woods, finishes and designs, hardwood floors offer an endless choice of possibilities to suit any type of home.

Sub floor preparation

• All sub floors must be clean, level, absolutely flat and dry. Scrape and smooth any debris off the surface, sand high areas or joints and fill low areas and cracks with the proper compounds. • Prepare all doorways and walls - undercut all door casings and remove all moldings. • Concrete sub-floors must be completely cured and dried (8-12 weeks old) with minimum surface temperature of 60ºF (15ºC) and maximum moisture content of 2% dry-weight basis. The ideal relative humidity in the room should be 55%. • Wood sub floors need to be well secured with counter sunk screws on ring shank nails. It should not exceed 14% moisture prior to installation.

Floating Installation

Spread and unroll the required polyethylene cushioning underlayment parallel to the longest wall (they can be trimmed after the installation has been completed). Allow sufficient overlap on all joints with the next sheets; use double adhesive tape to fix the joints. Complete until the whole surface is covered with the underlayment. Pick the first floorboard and align it with the closest wall, groove side facing the wall. The installation should begin from the right corner of the room.

Use ½” (12mm) temporary spacing-wedges to create the necessary gaps from the walls. Pick the second board, apply 1/8” (3mm) glue bead at the inner topside of the groove at the board end, and start jointing the board in the row. Never apply glue onto the tongue. Continue the same steps until the first row is competed.

Use a specially designed crowbar to push all the joints tight at the same time. Use this crowbar to tighten joints from the sides and use clamps whenever necessary to ensure tight and square joints. Never fail to wipe off any excess glue immediately. Repeat all processes and install the rest of the floor.

Allow the finished floor to be free from load and traffic for at least 8 hours before all temporary spacing wedges are removed. Install all the skirtings/moldings the next day, making sure that they are fixed onto the adjacent wall only, and not directly fixed onto the floor.

Nail Down Installation

This method of flooring installation gives some advantages over other methods such as speed, reduced labor materials and more immediate “use” of the floor. However, the process is more difficult and some professional assistance may be required.

Lay the first floorboard as for floating floorboards. Once the floorboard is aligned perfectly, face nail the board with the nail perpendicular to the surface. Use 1 – 1.5” finishing nails depending on the thickness of the floorboards installed. Continue the same step until the first row is completed.

Start the second row in the same manner. From the second row on, nailing is done on the tongue side only. Continue to install all the remaining rows.

The final row of flooring is usually narrow and it will likely be necessary to rip floorboards lengthwise to fill in the row. Measure the remaining space and cut the boards accordingly, ensuring a ½” (12mm) gap at all sides. Nail down this last row in the same manner as the nailing of the first row, and complete the installation. Once the nail down work is completed, install all the skirting and moldings. Make sure that all skirtings/moldings are fixed onto the adjacent wall only, NOT directly to the floor.

Glue Down Installation

This method of installation requires fans to create airflow and to help speed up the drying time of the adhesives. This type of installation does not need any cushioning underlayment.

Determine the working area to begin the installation in and the longest wall in the room with access. Make a test and dry lay floorboards beforehand, if necessary. A starting block is recommended to help the initial floorboard placement. Nail the starting block down firmly along the starting line, within the working area, to help hold the first row of the installed floorboards firmly in place.

The adhesive should be used sparingly over an area that can be laid with flooring within 3 hours. Pick the first floorboard and align it with the starting line (starting block) along the groove’s edge. The installation should ideally start from the right side. Lay the first floorboard and ensure that there is a 12mm (1/2”) gap from the adjacent wall. Pick the second board, apply 1/8” (3mm) glue bead on the inner topside of the groove at the board end and start jointing the board in the row. Never apply glue on the tongue. Continue the same steps with the next floorboard and complete the first row. Use a specially designed crow bar to pull the last board into place. Push joints tight and drive spacing wedges in. Clean any excess glue from the joints immediately.

Continue laying each row as described above. Note that unlike the floating installation method, longitudinal tongue and groove gluing (along the edge of each row) is not compulsory with this glue down method.

To prevent movement, tape flooring down every 3 completed rows across the face together using temporary–adhesive masking tape.

Every 2-3 hours and upon completion, roll the floorboard surface with a 100-150 lb (50-70 kg) roller to ensure all boards are flat and in perfect contact with the adhesive. Wrap the roller with cloth or foam pad to avoid scratches or dents on the floor surface.

Allow the finished floor to be free from load and heavy foot traffic for at least 24 hours after completion. The next day, remove all temporary spacing wedges and install all of the skirting/moldings, making sure that they are fixed onto the adjacent wall only, not the floor.

Installing Hardwood Floors Tutorial

2008-09-10T00:28:00.000-07:00

There are fewer things finer in a home than a hardwood flooring. For the do-it-yourselfer, however, it can be a fun, yet daunting task. Installing a hardwood floor can best be described as a combination of rough and fine carpentry. Pounding the nails home and bending warped flooring to fit is certainly rough work. However, it is detailed as well, because even small mistakes will show. There are many types of hardwood flooring, but this tutorial will only cover solid tongue and groove flooring that is either prefinished or finished in place. Other types of wood flooring that are glued or clipped in place or made from different layers of wood require different kinds of installation procedures and will not be covered here. Prefinished tongue and groove flooring is just like unfinished flooring except that it comes already finished and often has a slight bevel on the surface edges. The bevel is there because often when installing a floor the top surfaces from one piece to the next will vary in height because of inconsistencies in the sub floor and in the flooring itself. If the bevels were not there the edges might splinter or wear badly. Unfinished flooring does not have this problem because inconsistencies in height are sanded out during the finishing process. However, this same finishing process can be viewed as a disadvantage because it can take several days to complete and be very messy. Step one: Before you start you need to decide what direction the flooring will run. Generally, you want the flooring to run the length of the room for aesthetic reasons and perpendicular to the floor joists for structural reasons, as the floor will be stiffer and less prone to joints separating.

Step two: A vapor barrier between the subfloor and the finish floor is necessary to help control dust and moisture from below as well as dampen squeaks. Resin paper works well, as does foam backing, and 15 or 30 lb roofing felt. Whatever you use roll it over the floor completely and secure it with staples so it will not shift around.

Step three: When doing the layout for a floor a good strategy is to establish a baseline parallel to the direction you are going to lay the floor. First find the center between the two walls at each end of the room (a and b) and snap a chalk line between the two points. This is your baseline. You do not have to start laying the flooring from the baseline, but wherever you do start, you must be parallel to the baseline. Do not try to establish the baseline by measuring from only one wall because walls found in most homes are not absolutely parallel.

Step four: It is also necessary before you start to saw off the bottoms of doorjambs and trim so that the flooring can be slipped under them. To do this use a scrap piece of flooring as a guide and with a handsaw cut off the jamb and trim. The baseboard can either be removed and reinstalled or have a kicker installed after the flooring is in to hide the gap.

Step five: For large rooms it is a good idea to install the first boards in the center of the room, placing the first 2 courses groove to groove with a piece of molding taking the place of the tongue. In this way the floor expands and contracts from the center out instead of from one side of the room to the other, allowing for less movement on edge pieces. For smaller rooms less than 12 feet across this step is usually unnecessary.

Step six: To start, choose some long straight lengths of flooring and nail them down parallel to the baseline. You should use a flooring nailer (which can be rented from most home centers) to nail just above the tongue of each board every 10 to 12 inches. To keep the first course from moving as you nail it down, try temporarily screwing down some lengths of 1x lumber.

Step seven: Continue nailing down the flooring, while leaving a ½-inch gap around the perimeter. To nail down flooring that is too close to the wall for the floor nailer, nail directly through the top with finish nails and countersink them. If you are using refinished flooring repair these holes with matching wood filler and a drop of urethane finish.

Step eight: For flooring that does not fit well try knocking it into place with a scrap piece of flooring. Do not try to hammer on the flooring directly as you may damage the edge.

Step nine: For warped pieces of flooring try constructing a wedge to force them into position. Nail one part of the wedge into position (a) and hammer the other part (b) sideways to force the flooring into position. Tip: use screws for your wedges rather than nails, it is easier, faster and is more accurate.

Step ten: To cut around corners or irregular shapes try scribing with a square or compass. To cut the flooring, a jigsaw or coping saw works well to create detailed cuts.

Step eleven: Finally, when putting the last pieces along a wall, use a pry bar against the wall to ensure a snug fit. You do not need to worry about damaging the edge, as these are the final pieces and will be partially covered with baseboards.

Step twelve: If you installed an unfinished floor, you will need to rent a floor sander and sand all the board surfaces flush with one another. Then you can finish the floor with stain and a few coats of urethane finish. See our tutorial on hardwood floor finishing for more detailed information.

Step thirteen: If you removed the baseboards, you should reinstall them after all the flooring is laid down. Finally, you can install shoe molding or quarter round to cover any gaps between the new floor and baseboards.

Tools required: Tape measure, hand saw, nail set, pry bar, flooring nailer, drill, drill bits, carpenters square, chalk line, pencil compass, and jig saw.

Maple Hardwood Flooring: All the More Reason to Buy Hardwood Floors

2008-09-08T01:35:00.000-07:00

Delightful tones and a pretty grain makes maple hardwood flooring a good choice for homeowners who want a light, airy feel to their floors. It provides a very clean look and has the ability to brighten any space. Maple hardwood flooring is also the flooring of choice for sports gyms, which could probably give you an idea regarding its durability. What better reason to buy hardwood floors!

Characteristics of Maple Hardwood Flooring

Maple hardwood flooring is a dense, durable, and hard flooring option that is fit for households where quite a lot of traffic is expected. It lives up to its name of being a hardwood because maple is indeed very hard. In fact, you need to pre-drill holes before nailing or screwing. It is also very resistant to abrasion and wear. With all these strong words, it is also very great to know that maple is a very beautiful wood, boasting of a clear grain and unique coloring that is treasured by its owners.

Ask about renewability in maple hardwood flooring

With all this talk of about environmental issues, some may balk at having maple hardwood flooring in their homes. But the industry is growing more and more responsive to these types of concerns, making sure that forests are replenished, and making sure too that all of the processes along the way make for a sustainable way through for years to come. But, if you’ve got concerns, it’s always a good idea to ask about them. Reputable sellers of maple hardwood flooring are eager to engage the public on best practices as they apply to sustainability. The best way to learn more is to ask the experts.

Celsius Glass and Hardwood Conservatories

2008-09-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

A new kind of material is being used for glass in hardwood conservatories. It is called Celsius Performance Glass which is a new type of coated smart glass. It is excellent for use in conservatory roofs.

Celsius Performance Glass brings to people the best of both worlds. It helps keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. In addition, the Celsius glass is very easy to clean. Plus a further benefit is that the insulation of sound is improved greatly.

A touch of blue tint in the glass along with the right technological features helps reduce unwanted glare from the glass in the conservatory. This helps users enjoy the benefits of the Celsius glass and hardwood conservatory to its fullest.

Celsius is one of the few glazing products on the market that offers a combination of heat reflection and thermal insulation. This helps produce a conservative form of energy during a time when the need to be energy efficient is most crucial.

What helps improve the efficiency of this Celsius glass conservatory is the use of a special coating which helps entrap the heat inside a home if it is reflected back into the property. For this reason Celsius has a U value of only 1.4.

The special coating of the Celsius glass now more popular in hardwood conservatories reflects approximately 72% of solar energy. This is three times the amount of energy that standard glass reflects. It has the ability to reflect that large amount of solar heat can prevent conservatories from overheating during hot weather.

The other benefit associated with using Celsius glass is that it helps reduce the impact of outside noise levels. A Celsius glazed roof can insulate more than two times of the sound of a standard 25mm glazed polycarbonate roof.

Another benefit of the Celsius roof is that rainwater is able to clean the dirt more effectively than standard glass. The rainwater takes off most of the dirt and grime and helps reduce the amount of unwanted deposits and helps lower the amount of regular cleaning that is needed.

In addition, the surface of Celsius glass is up to 5 degrees warmer than those of regular glass panes. This is said to help deduct condensation in glass more than in normal types of glass.

Cleaning hardwood floors

2008-09-03T00:31:00.001-07:00

To keep you hardwood floors looking their best, regular attention is the key. With the proper care and maintenance, you can keep your hardwood floors looking new for many years and they will last a lifetime.

Best way to clean hardwood floors

The best way to clean a hardwood floor depends on the type of finish. Surface finishes are found on pre-finished floors and are mostly polyurethane. They usually have a glossy appearance. They are easy to care for and maintain; simply sweep, vacuum and mop. Penetrating seals such as oils and waxes have a satin or matte finish. Strip the wax and apply a fresh coat once or twice a year. This type of hardwood floor should not be damp mopped because the water will penetrate the wood.

Sweep high traffic areas on a daily basis, and vacuum and mop weekly. When sweeping, use a broom with fine, exploded ends to trap dust and grit effectively. To minimize the amount of dirt brought inside, place door mats at each entrance.

Vacuum your hardwood floor regularly to remove dirt as this will scratch and dull the surface. Use a lightweight vacuum cleaner with a soft brush on the head so it doesn’t scratch the floor. Follow with a microfibre dust mop to trap fine dust particles.

Next, use a damp, not wet, mop with a pH neutral floor cleaner specifically formulated for wood floors to remove dust and grime. Vinegar is also an effective and safe floor cleaner (see section on using vinegar below). Wring the mop out completely and mop in the direction of the wood grain. When the water gets dirty, replace with a fresh batch of cleaning solution. When finished, go back over with clean water to rinse. Do not use straight ammonia, liquid detergents or abrasive cleaners as they can dull or strip the finish and discolour the wood. Do not damp mop waxed floors. Just sweep and vacuum regularly.

Wipe up any food or liquid spills immediately with a damp cloth, then dry with a clean towel. Water and other liquids are one of the floors worst enemies as they can damage the finish and seep in between the floorboards causing warping. Consider placing mats on areas where water may be splashed, such as at the kitchen sink.

Caring for hardwood floors

Hardwood floors are easily gouged and scratched so take preventative steps to protect your hardwood floor. Use felt pads under furniture legs and feet and take care when moving furniture. Remove shoes before walking on the floor to prevent heel and scuff marks.

Regular vacuuming will keep your floor free of dirt and grit that can scratch the surface. Sunlight can cause excessive discoloration so protect the floor from sunlight by closing blinds or drapes. Some discoloration may be unavoidable, so rotating furniture and rugs will also help ensure that any UV exposure is even across the floor.

When placing rugs on your hardwood floor, be cautious. Rug dyes have been known to stain floors, and plastic backings may affect the wood finish.

Clean hardwood floors with vinegar Using vinegar to clean hardwood floors is a cheap, environmentally friendly solution to keep your hardwood floor looking good. Mix ½ cup of vinegar with 1 gallon of warm water. Dip a cotton cloth into the solution and wring thoroughly. Work on one small area at a time, immediately buffing dry with a clean cloth. Vinegar is excellent for cutting grease, removing odors, mildew, most stains and wax buildup. It will also neutralize alkaline stains such as those from hard water.

Finding Cheap Hardwood Floors

2008-09-03T00:17:00.000-07:00

A wide range of hardwood floorings are available in the market. While deciding the style and material for the flooring, take into account areas to be floored. You should know the size of the area in square feet, type of subfloor, your preference for pre-finished or unfinished flooring, stain color, whether you want to do it your self or hire a professional, the waste factors that depend on product type, and the room’s shape. Flooring installation methods including floating, nail-down, glue-down and staple-down. If you’re looking to do it yourself, glue-down is probably your best option. Inexperienced persons should not do nail-down installation on their own as it requires special skill and lots of time. Comparing prices and products at different supplier stores and home centers before finalizing the flooring will help in finding the best deal. If you are confused or uncertain about the product, consult shop keeper or installer. While placing an order for material, do not forget to order for installation materials such as adhesives, nails, tools and so on. There are many web sites offering information on hardwood flooring and product pricing. It is recommended to visit these sites and read the details carefully. Keep sufficient time to explore the many possible options, so you will not make a decision in haste. Several types of hardwood floors are offered. Their durability depends on maintenance and cleanliness. These environmentally friendly products give a rich and warm look to the home, and can either be installed on your own or by professionals.

The Enduring Beauty of Hardwood Flooring

2008-09-03T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hardwood kitchen flooring has many advantages like how if items are dropped on it they do not shatter, it is attractive, and it is good for sound insulation. It is also easy to change the look and color of it just by sanding it. You do not have to replace the entire kitchen flooring. This makes hardwood kitchen flooring a good investment.

Hardwood kitchen flooring can provide elegance, beauty and style for your kitchen. There is something that is really special about hardwood kitchen flooring. Improvements in construction methods have brought about an increase in the range of colors, finishes, cuts, styles and installation. Today you will find that there are more choices and options available than ever from the introduction of many exotic woods to flooring materials that can mimic the look of wood without really being wood. Because of the long life span and easy maintenance of this material it is expected to increase in popularity.

However whether you just prefer the look of hardwood kitchen flooring, the fact is that having a hardwood floor can greatly increase the value of the home.

Hardwood flooring has been around for hundreds of years, and now more and more homeowners are discovering and appreciating the beauty of these kinds of floors. After years of decline in the popularity of hardwoods due to the push for wall-to-wall carpeting after World War II, hardwood flooring is enjoying a renewed popularity.

Hardwood comes from deciduous trees which drop their leaves annually. The most common types that are used in kitchen flooring are maple, cherry, pine, and oak. One new trend in hardwood flooring is the use of maple.

Hardwood is so attractive when it has aged that there is a new trend among many homeowners today who are coming to realize that they can make their hardwood kitchen flooring look aged and well-worn, through the use of grinding, pummeling, and notching. They do this to give their hardwood kitchen floors a more vintage or distressed look.

Hardwood floor finishes include unfinished and pre-finished or engineered. Unfinished hardwood gives you a completely smooth and uniform surface. Pre-finished hardwood is available in a larger selection of wood types, and is more labor saving because it has the factory finish. Pre-finished is becoming a very popular choice because of it can be installed over concrete, as well as being available in many colors, and can be installed anywhere in the home.. Pre-finished hardwood kitchen flooring offers thicker wear layers (the top layer of the wood) and is easy to install. A veneer of hardwood can be added as the finished top layer.

Hardwoods from South America and Africa are in big demand today with darker floors becoming popular. These hardwoods range from Mexican purpleheart to hard Brazilian cherry. Many of these wood species have good moisture-resistance and are extremely durable. While these hardwoods are not very expensive, the cost of installation and finishing can be somewhat high.

Because of many homeowners opting for more environmentally friendly wood alternatives there has been a new trend for hardwood kitchen flooring that includes the use of bamboo and cork. These kinds of flooring are renewable resource.

Amish Handcrafted Furniture - A Modern Heirloom

2008-08-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

When you say the word Amish, for a lot of people what first comes to mind is the old fashioned, horse drawn buggy. There are a lot of concepts associated with the Amish people and their way of life such as living a simple, technologically unaided life, living a traditional life engaging in professions such as farming, craft making and others which involve working by hand and which do not involve modern conveniences such as the telephone, electricity, the television and automated vehicles etc. The Amish are known for living in their own self-reliant communities which have limited contact with main stream society.

Because of their old fashioned, traditional style of making crafts by hand and usually without help of modern machinery, Amish Furniture has come to mean furniture that is handcrafted, made of 100% natural materials, durable, with great attention to detail. In short Amish made furniture has almost come to mean furniture that is a work of art in itself!

The unique quality about Amish handcrafted furniture is that is has a heirloom quality, I timeless look that never goes out of fashion and designs that are not held hostage by fickle trends which are here today and gone tomorrow. This kind of furniture is built to last, so that reinforces its heirloom like quality. Most pieces of Amish furniture are handcrafted from solid oak, cherry, and maple. When crafting Amish furniture solid wood boards are used in an arrangement that enhances the look and durability of each furniture piece.

The Amish people live by a set of beliefs that prevent the use of modern conveniences such as electricity, so it follows that the tools used for Amish handcrafted furniture usually do not use electricity. They are often powered by hydraulic and pneumatic power. While the aid of some mechanization may sometimes be used, most often the detailing and finishing is done by hand. This ensures the finest quality of workmanship.

There are certain distinctive styles of Amish made furniture. For instance there is the Mission style which has uncluttered, even lines and exposed joinery. Then there is the Shaker style which is recognized for its simplicity, innovative joinery, quality, and functionality. A more ornate style for Amish furniture is the Queen Anne style which is very different from the earlier mentioned styles which are plain and functional in nature. By contrast the Queen Anne style is more traditional, often rendered with ornate carving and detailing.

With few Amish children obtaining higher education, Amish woodcraft skills are often passed on from generation to generation, with father teaching son the tricks of the trade.

Since their beliefs usually preclude modern marketing and selling practices there are other non-Amish people who commission and purchase the furniture pieces from the Amish themselves and then make them available to the public at large. Increasingly now, online sites offer people the option of buying Amish made handcrafted furniture which is known for its superior quality, traditional methods of making and a timeless beauty. Now anyone can take the advantage of buying Amish furniture, which is beautiful, will last for generations to come in styles and designs that go beyond both time and personal style preferences.

How To Select The Best Patio Furniture

2008-08-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Are you planning to furnish your outdoors? Have you been wondering about the best furniture for your patio? This article will help you create a great ambiance for your outdoors and give you the tips on easy maintenance.

Before you move towards the furniture store to buy patio furniture, have a good look at your patio. Is it very large? Does it have a well-defined garden? Is there a swimming pool? Will you need dining furniture to serve food outside? These questions will help you decide about the type of furniture to be bought. Also, you should consider the all year round weather of the place you live in. Heavy rains, perpetual sunshine or heavy snowing will require specific furniture. Try to look into different furniture stores to be able to get a good picture of the possible costs of different furniture. Buying wholesale Amish furniture can reduce costs considerably while providing excellent selections from the world-renowned furniture collection. Finally, make sure you have a budget in mind.

For the outdoor furniture, it is the material that is most important. If you are considering traditional furniture, consider buying furniture made of wood. Wooden furniture looks good but needs a lot of maintenance. The best type of wooden furniture for outdoors would be Oak furniture. Oak can be quite durable and come in various varieties like Chinese Oak and Red Oak. Amish oak furniture is highly in demand for its beauty and durability.

Cedar is another good choice for wooden furniture. This wood is softer than Oak but looks particularly warm and inviting. Moreover, it is much lighter than Oak and thus it is easier to transfer this furniture from one place to the other in times of need. A popular form of cedar is Red Cedar. Both Oak and cedar are durable and have materials that keep fungus, insects and mildew away.

Another option for beautiful wooden furniture that lasts is teak. It is a perennial favorite with buyers because of its lovely coloring and hardwood qualities. Teak is also capable of holding its own against all weather conditions and its natural oils act as natural deterrents to mosses. No re-polishing or painting is necessary for teak as it lasts long without excessive finishing.

Enjoying the beauty of nature and the wonderful weather in your patio can be very rejuvenating. However, without good and durable furniture, a lot of the fun from the outdoors is gone. Apart from selecting the right type of furniture for your courtyard, you must consider the maintenance requirements of the furniture. Most wooden furniture requires frequent retouches and cleaning. Wooden furniture that is of poor quality could also lose most of its sheen and beauty very soon.

Many people opt for plastic or steel furniture. Plastic furniture works particularly well if you have a swimming pool in the courtyard. If you carry out barbecue and other heavy cooking in your patio, try using steel or wrought iron furniture as the heat might affect the plastic furniture. You can even buy folding dining tables and chairs that are easy to shift for outdoor parties.

Therefore, choosing the best outdoor furniture requires scrutinizing of both style and the material used for the furniture. Check out the huge range of lovely furniture in the market and enjoy the warm sunshine outside

Handcrafted Hardwood Furniture

2008-08-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Handcrafted hardwood furniture represents the ultimate in quality and prestige, with many manufacturers providing individual pieces to the customers’ specification.

Many handmade furniture makers advertise on the internet, and they offer a variety of different products and items that should suit your needs.

The choice is vast, however, with different woods – Maple and Oak for example – colours, styles and finishes available.

It pays to shop around as many handcrafted hardwood furniture suppliers are small family owned businesses, and many will offer you bespoke items to your own specifications.

When looking for a handmade furniture maker pay attention to promises of quality, and look through their website for descriptions of different methods of construction. Pay attention, too, to the individuality of the product – some handmade furniture makers offer personalized inscriptions that will mark your item as totally unique among others.

A good handcrafted hardwood furniture manufacturer will not only produce for you a beautiful and individual piece, but will make sure that the product is finished to the highest order with all matching surface wood featuring the same grain.

Most manufacturers will be more than happy to answer your questions or requests, and correspondence by email is a good way to get ideas flowing in both directions.

Protective finishing of the final product should also be offered, with the promise that a piece of bespoke handcrafted hardwood furniture should last a lifetime and more.

Many suppliers offer a large number of products, and will provide an on-line catalogue that displays the variety of the items available. You will also find provided examples of different woods, construction techniques, and finishes on offer.

If you are looking for a table, for example, you may find many different styles of legs on offer, and the supplier will be able to use his expertise and experience to advise you on the most suitable style for your choice of table.

If it is a chair you require, the finishing techniques will vary according to size, shape and style, and again the handmade furniture maker you choose will be able to help you make the right decision.

Looking for handcrafted hardwood furniture on the internet makes sense, as with so many suppliers, styles, items and different materials to choose from, you will want to make the right decision when buying what will be a treasured and loved family heirloom.

When you have found the supplier you wish to use, it is always wise to make sure their website has a secure payment system. This way shopping on the internet need not be a concern, but a convenient and pleasant experience. Check the website for comments from previous customers, and ask around friends and family for their experiences, too.

Most of all, remember that handcrafted hardwood furniture is something that you will want to enjoy and admire for all time, and that you will be proud to pass on to your children, and they to theirs in the future, so choose wisely and look at as many different manufacturer websites as possible – that way you will be sure to get the best you can find.

Recoating hardwood floors

2008-08-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

Over time, it is inevitable that your hardwood floor will become scratched and dull from general wear and tear. If your hardwood floor has a polyurethane finish, it can usually be recoated without having to sand the entire floor first. Recoating is suitable if the floor is only mildly scratched and worn, the finish has not worn through and it does not have a build up of wax or other chemicals - these will create adhesion problems and cause the floor to reject the new finish, resulting in peeling and flaking.

A recoat is a simple process that involves a thorough cleaning and scuffing (light sanding) to the wood floors' last applied layer of finish. Then a new fresh coat of finish is applied. Recoating will revitalize the shine and get rid of any mild discolorations that haven't penetrated the wood. It rejuvenates your wood floor and extends the life of its protective finish layers. It is best to recoat your floor while it still looks good. This will prolong the life of your floor and reduce the number of times it has to be refinished.

Recoating a hardwood floor should not be confused with refinishing a hardwood floor. Refinishing hardwood floors involves extensively sanding the floor to expose the wood - necessary when there are deep scratches, damage, or if the floor has been waxed.

To determine whether your floor can be recoated, do a small patch test in an inconspicuous area. It is best to test along a wall where cleaners may have accumulated. Thoroughly clean the area using a wood floor cleaner, then lightly sand with fine (120 grit) sandpaper. Wipe away all traces of dust. Apply polyurethane floor finish to the area and wait 24 hours. The finish should be smooth, not rippled or an orange-shell texture. Scratch the surface with moderate pressure using a coin; it shouldn't flake or peel away. If the surface does not pass these tests, the floor will need to be completely sanded and refinished.

If you are unsure whether or not the floor has a wax coating, wipe a small area with a rag dampened in paint thinner. If the thinner removes the existing finish, the floor has a wax coating and will require complete sanding and refinishing.

To recoat your hardwood floor, it first needs to be lightly sanded using a screen disk. Screening disks are open mesh abrasive screens that are used on rotary 300 rpm rotary buffing machines. Floors in good condition can be screened with 120 grit screens. If the floor is in poorer shape, 100 or 80 grit screens can be used. If one of these more aggressive screens is used, it is advisable to re-screen the floor using a 120 grit screen to remove some of the swirl marks. This will ensure a nice smooth surface.

After sanding, the floor should be swept and vacuumed to remove wood dust and dirt. Next, dampen a tack rag with pure mineral spirits and run the rag over the floor to pick up any fine dust and oily residue. Avoid using rags treated with less refined oil-based materials such as kerosene or wax-based treatments - they could leave a residue and cause poor adhesion and peeling.

When applying the finish, it is best to use the same finish that was previously applied to ensure compatibility. If an existing coating is not compatible with the new coating, problems such as peeling can occur. If it is not known what the existing finish is, the safest method of determining compatibility is to select a small unobtrusive area and apply a small patch test. If, after a couple of days, the material does not show any signs of bubbling, peeling, or reduction in film integrity then it should be safe to seal the entire floor.

Once you have chosen your finish, apply it to the edges of the floor with a brush, then coat the rest of the floor using a foam or lamb’s wool applicator. Use smooth, even strokes, going in the direction of the grain. Ensure the area is well ventilated.

By committing to the proper care and maintenance of your hardwood floor, including recoating and refinishing when required, you can give your floor a life of up to 300 years.

Exotic hardwood flooring

2008-08-26T00:18:00.000-07:00

Exotic hardwood flooring is a great choice for those who want something unique and special. Exotic species of wood are those sourced from locations outside North America such as Brazil, Africa and Asia. They offer unique wood graining and coloration, not only enhancing the quality and value of your home, but adding a truly distinctive appeal.

Exotic hardwood flooring is available in solid planks and engineered boards. In exotics the most common hardwood flooring is Brazilian Cherry. Other popular types include Brazilian Walnut, Brazilian Teak, Tigerwood, Armagnac Angelim, Santos Mahogany and Tiete Chestnut. Brazilian Cherry is open grained like oak, but it is twice as hard. Much of its beauty derives from the dark streaks that contrast a background of dark orange and brown. The beauty deepens as the floor darkens within a few months of installation. Brazilian Walnut is even harder. It ranges from a dark yellow to dark brown color and has fine graining that gives it a soft, silky look. Because exotic hardwood flooring is generally much harder than domestic hardwood flooring, it is more durable and requires less maintenance and repair. So for example, choosing Brazilian Teak as a hardwood floor, with its very high hardness rating, would be an excellent choice for the homeowner with a growing family or large pets.

The harvesting of wood from areas such as Brazil contributes greatly to the economic vitality of these communities. Yet to ensure the continued prosperity of these communities, and the sustainability of their natural resources, responsible resource management is essential. When choosing exotic hardwood flooring, ensure you select a company that promotes sustainable forest practices by adhering to manufacturing principles that preserve and renew these natural resources.

Environmentally responsible manufacturers of exotic hardwood flooring should be certified and supported by resource management and forest certification organizations such as the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA), SmartWood, Imaflora, Certified Forest Products Buyers Group and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Forest products approved by SmartWood and Imaflora are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international organization that monitors and accredits companies that perform third-party forest audits.

Certified manufacturers are strictly monitored by these organizations and manufacture hardwood flooring only from timber that is selectively harvested under the principles of sustainable forest management. After timber is harvested, multiple trees are replanted, fostering sustainable forest practices and completing the reforestation process. For example, in Brazil the IBAMA issues Forest Management Projects to a limited number of timber companies annually for the legal extraction of timber. Qualified applicants demonstrate their commitment to the practice of sustainable forest management before being awarded a certified Forest Management Project.

Selective timber harvesting is the cornerstone of IBAMA’s sustainable forest management program. Approved commercial logging companies work only within the acreage of their designated approved Forest Management Project under established logging extraction guidelines, including minimum harvest diameters for each species of tree.

Prior to harvest, trees are carefully assessed for age and condition. Older trees, often susceptible to disease, are harvested first, assuring that valuable resources are not left to waste away on the forest floor. Selective timber harvesting has proven to produce the highest quality lumber while fostering natural reforestation by allowing immature trees in the upper-story to benefit from increased sunlight and water.

Products originating from certified forests provide assurances from an independent third party auditor that timber was harvested from “well managed” forests, adhering to the principles of sustainable forest management, including the preservation of wildlife habitat and water quality, while supporting the social and economic continuity of local communities.

Floating hardwood floors

2008-08-26T00:15:00.000-07:00

Floating hardwood floors are those that are not attached to the subfloor. This is unlike traditional hardwood floors which are nailed or glued down. Because floating hardwood floors are not attached to the subfloor, movement in the boards is spread across the entire floor, making gaps less likely to appear. They can be installed over virtually any type of subfloor, such as concrete, plywood, sheet vinyl or ceramic tiles.

Floating hardwood floors are either glued or snapped together. They are usually laid over a foam underlay which provides a moisture barrier as well as good noise insulation. The underlay also provides cushioning so the floor is comfortable to walk or stand on for extended periods of time.

Several floating floor materials are available, such as engineered and laminate flooring. Engineered flooring consists of several layers of wood veneer glued to a plywood base. This type of flooring is very stable and resistant to changes in humidity, expanding and contracting less than other types of wood flooring. Laminate flooring is a budget option for those who want the look of real wood without the price tag. This flooring is made by photographing real wood flooring and pasting the images on to the laminate. Today’s laminates are of excellent quality and give a highly authentic look. Bamboo flooring is one popular floating hardwood floor option, and is available as both engineered and laminate flooring.

Installation of floating hardwood floors is relatively easy, making it a great DIY project and saving money by avoiding the need for professional installation. The most common way of attaching planks of wood in a floating installation is to use an adhesive between the joints of the wood planks.

First the subfloor needs to be prepared. If the room is carpeted, remove it to expose the subfloor. Check that the subfloor is level by laying a wood plank on its edge. If there is a significant space between the plank and the floor (more than ¾ inch), you will need to spread some self leveling joint compound on the floor. Ensure this has dried completely before laying the flooring. If the subfloor is sound, the flooring can be installed right on top.

Generally, floating hardwood floors can be laid in any direction so you can choose the layout that best suits your tastes and the environment of the room. Many people take into account where the light enters the room and the entrances and exits. When planning the layout it is important to remember to leave a ½ inch gap between the floor and the walls to accommodate for expansion and contraction of the wood.

Start by vacuuming the subfloor to remove any dust and debris. If the subfloor is concrete, lay plastic lining to protect the flooring from moisture. Then roll out the underlay perpendicular to the direction of the planks. Plan where you want each plank of wood before gluing. Then begin with the first plank, with its tongue edge facing out. Work from left to right across the room. Run a bead of glue along the joint or edge of the wood. Insert the second plank and gently tap together using a hammer and tapping block. The tapping block protects the tongue or edge of the plank from damage. Continue laying the floor by gluing planks together and gently tapping them into place.

Once most of the floor is installed, you will run out of room for the tapping block. At this point, use a pulling iron and hammer to draw the planks together. While installing the floor, take steps to protect it by laying tools and kneeling on a towel or soft cloth. Finally, conceal the expansion space with baseboard molding. Ensure the molding is nailed to the wall and not to the floor. Once the installation is complete, let the floor set before walking on it.

4 Ways on How to Keep the Luster of Solid Hardwood Oak Flooring Brushed Matt Lacquer Finish

2008-08-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

You may ask, “Why do you need to take care of hardwood?” This is pretty understandable. After all, hardwood floors are saleable because of their durability and maintenance. The solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish, for instance, does not need a lot of cleaning. You can keep its natural look for a very long time. In fact, it’s much easier to maintain than those that are oiled.

Nevertheless, just like any other material in the world, the solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish can still be prone to wear and tear. Though they may last for a very long time, you can speed up its deterioration if you don’t know the proper ways to clean or maintain it.

To help you become a much better home owner, here are some floor care tips for you:

1. Make sure that you don’t get the floor scratched. When the solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish are scratched, they may be a little bit harder to remove. Besides, they don’t look good on your shiny floor. Thus, as much as possible, you must avoid having any object that can cause scratches near it. These include those dust and dirt. Their fine grains are more like sandpapers that are rubbing the surface floor. It’s recommended that you cover the part of solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish with huge traffic with a carpet or a floor mat.

2. Don’t use any hard cleaners or chemicals. As mentioned, the solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish is easy to maintain. Thus, there’s no need for you to use any special chemicals or floor cleaning agents. In fact, it’s not advisable, since a lot of them could be strong and may just strip the floor with its natural finish. You can simply get a dry mop, broom, or vacuum to get rid of dirty particles that are on the floor.

3. Ensure that you don’t spill anything into the floor. If you have been clumsy and you’ve spilled anything liquid into the solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish, make sure that you can wipe them off immediately. If they stay too long, they can leave stains into the floors, destroying their unblemished matted look.

4. Add curtains all over your home. Sunlight could be good, as they add more life and radiance into your home. However, if you have solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish, that would not be a very inviting idea. The sun’s rays can actually destroy the finish of the floor, causing them discoloration, which, unfortunately, you cannot counteract. Just to avoid this from happening, add some draperies into your home. When the sunlight gets too strong, close them immediately. Besides, wouldn’t a home look neater and daintier with some floral curtains around?

When you know how to take care of your solid hardwood oak flooring brushed matt lacquer finish, you’re sure that your floor will be you for ages.

Brazilian Solid Cherry Hardwood Flooring: Charming Their Way into Your Homes

2008-08-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

It’s highly common for homes to make use of hardwood floors, such as the Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring. First of all, it fits perfectly to any type of home, may it be contemporary, Victorian, or country. Moreover, it’s also known to be highly affordable compared to other flooring material, such as ceramic. Most of all, a Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring is environment friendly. The materials used are renewable. A purchase of this type of hardwood is your small contribution to Mother Earth.

Special Characteristics of Brazilian Solid Cherry Hardwood Flooring

All hardwoods are known for their durability. If they are just properly taken care of, they can last for many years, even for as long as 100. However, of all solid hardwoods, the most durable is the Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring. So strong are they that their use is not only constricted inside homes, but also in bridges, docks, and ports. The secret to their ultimate strength would be the stability of their vertical and horizontal structure. There are no portions that appear to be highly vulnerable to breakage. What’s more, they produce their own natural oil, which allows them to maintain their shine, luster, and perfect condition all throughout the years. The Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring is also highly resistant to stain, a no. 1 enemy of floors since it can damage their finish and may invite moisture.

The Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring can also stand the pressure of extremely high foot traffic. That’s why this type of hardwood is also utilized in shopping centers, where there are hundreds of people who can step on the planks every day. You also don’t need to use a carpet or a rug when you’re installing it inside your home. The Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring is very much invincible against dents and scratches caused by moving your furniture and fixture all across the floor. This is because the Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring is very hard, even harder than oak and maple, which are considered to be two of the best hardwood floors ever used.

The Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring doesn’t come easy and often, though. This is because the country from where it came from is implementing strict rules and laws with regards to logging. A lumber company cannot, for any reason, remove all cherry trees in Brazil. Moreover, they must obtain permit first for every tree they want to cut from Ibama, Brazil’s agency for environmental protection. Nevertheless, you are assured that your Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring is only made from the oldest trees, those that have seen better days.

How to Use Brazilian Solid Cherry Hardwood Flooring to Your Advantage

Though the Brazilian solid cherry hardwood flooring can definitely go with any home, it would still be wise if you can take a look at the shades, shapes, and grain tones before you buy. Perhaps you can find one that is the most appealing among all of them—the one that is totally perfect to be used at your own home.

Hardwood floors over radiant heating

2008-08-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Installing hardwood floors over radiant heating enables you to combine economical heating with the beauty of hardwood flooring. By simply adhering to a few guidelines, you can ensure that your hardwood floors over radiant heating are a success.

How does radiant heating work?

Unlike conventional forced air heating systems, radiant heating does not heat air directly. Warm air rises and much is lost, making forced air heating less energy efficient. Radiant heating works by transferring heat to objects, so when placed beneath wood flooring it heats the floor. Since less heat is lost through the air, radiant heating is more energy efficient than forced air heating systems.

Electric radiant heating systems use thin electric mats that work much like electric blankets. They are often used to heat small rooms like bathrooms and kitchens. For larger rooms, a hydronic radiant heating system is usually used. This involves tubing in a concrete slab, or tubing under plywood subfloors. Heated water is pumped through the tubing network where it releases its heat energy into the floor.

Installation guidelines

Dry subfloor
The most important factor in successfully installing hardwood floors over radiant heating is a dry subfloor. The only sure way to do this is to turn on the radiant heating system before installing the wood flooring. If this isn't done, moisture left in the subfloor will enter the wood flooring as soon as the heat is turned on. This will result in floors that expand, contract, crack and warp excessively. A high quality vapor retardant should also be installed over the subfloor to protect the hardwood floor from moisture.

Concrete floor
When installing over a concrete slab, the radiant heating system should ideally be turned on for several weeks before the hardwood flooring is installed. Also, the hardwood must be stored in the house for 7 to 10 days before installation so it can acclimate.

Excessive moisture?
To check for the presence of excessive moisture in the slab, tape a 4x4 foot section of polyethylene plastic sheeting to the slab and turn on the heat. If moisture appears under the plastic, heat the slab for another 24 hours, repeating the test until no moisture is visible.

Which wood for radiant-heat flooring?
It is best to choose a wood species that is known for its stability. American hardwoods such as cherry, oak, ash, maple, hickory and walnut are good choices for radiant-heat flooring. Parquet floors are an excellent choice in radiant heat applications. Laminated flooring is another good choice because of its dimensional stability.

What kind of board width?
It is best to use narrow boards, no wider than 3 inches. They will better accommodate the wood’s expansion and contraction across a floor because there are more seams in a floor to take up movement. Narrow boards also expand and contract less than wide boards do. The wider the board, the greater the potential for gaps between the boards when they contract with seasonal changes in temperature and humidity. If you must use planks wider than 3 inches, consider using quarter-sawn wood for enhanced dimensional stability.

Temperature control
Whilst temperature will not harm the wood, it does affect its moisture content. With the heat source is directly beneath the flooring, it can gain moisture or dry out faster than flooring in a home with a conventional heating system. It is important that the temperature variations are smooth and gentle, and that the surface temperature of the wood floor does not exceed 85 degrees. This is easily achieved with the following climate controls:
• mechanical humidity control – this keeps the relative humidity at an even level so the moisture content of the floor will remain stable.
• heat transfer point control – monitors the wood floor temperature to prevent overheating.
• exterior thermostat – protects the perimeter of the system from condensation absorption during rapid temperature changes.

Radiant heating is not only more economical in the long run, it is also a good choice for allergy sufferers who wish to avoid the dust blown about by forced air heating systems. Installing hardwood floors over radiant heating will enhance the value and aesthetics of your home and provide a warm, cosy and comfortable environment during the cold winter months.

Hardwood Flooring Basics

2008-08-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

If you are a Home Owner on redesigning your Homes or a person who is about to deiced about the Flooring for your new Home, the Hardwood Flooring is worth considering. There is some Hardwood Flooring basics which we need to know. The Hardwood as a Flooring material is the best choice due to its sheer beauty, super strength and long life than any other flooring material available on Market today.

You can be confident that genuine Hardwood Flooring will add significant beauty, quality and value of your home. A Hardwood floored house has the rich look and smooth feel that can never be possible with any other flooring material. Unlike the other flooring materials, the value of your Hardwood flooring increases with time, and you will see that your house gets valued many times over what you have invested now for installing the Hardwood flooring.

In the Hardwood Flooring there are two types namely Solid Hardwood Flooring and Engineered Hardwood Flooring. Solid Hardwood flooring is a single piece of a 100 percent solid wood species easily sanded and refinished. It is a 100 percent Wood product. An Engineered Hardwood Flooring is a higher-performance product made by bonding several wood layers with the feature species showing distinct designs. Many, but not all, engineered wood floors can be refinished.

To start with you must think like a designer as you have options to choose the Colors and textures with the Hardwood. Hardwood has color, ranging from cooling yellows to , warm reds to and neutral umbers or naturals. Some wood change its color overtime, so you can select your own color according to your taste and match it with your home. The show off of your floor depends on the lighting. You can choose low gloss, satin gloss or high gloss.

It is part of the look, as are the rustic, hand-scraped or smooth, tailored contemporary styles. You can use Hardwood floor throughout the house to get magnificent looks. The texture and the natural designs on the Hardwood will definitely add to the décor of your House. It is advisable to use solid wood at or above ground level so that you can avoid damages occurring due to moisture. Engineered wood can be used virtually anywhere, even over concrete.

Hardwood Flooring Species

2008-08-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

There are quite a number of things to consider when choosing which hardwood flooring species to install in your home. There are the factors of hardness, color, price, and which room to put a particular hardwood flooring species in. And that's just a sprinkling of things to consider.

Choosing Hardwood Flooring Species

Ultimately the choice is yours, but in order to have the best hardwood floor possible, you need to see if a particular hardwood flooring species is suitable for your intended application. A lot of thought goes into choosing a hardwood flooring species according to its hardness and durability, and for this you have the Janka Hardness Rating to thank for this. Knowing the Janka rating of a particular species of hardwood lets take a peek into its hardness and durability.

You may also want to know other facts about the different hardwood flooring species you are considering. If you plan to have stained floors, you may want to look into how well that particular hardwood flooring species takes stains. If you have pets or very young children, check how that species is able to withstand scratching.

Where to Install Hardwood Flooring

The location of hardwood floors will also affect the choice of species that you can put in. Certain hardwood species are better suited for heavier traffic, while some would be more applicable and more desirable in low-traffic areas such as bedrooms. Do note, however, that while hardwood floors are a versatile flooring option, solid hardwood flooring cannot be installed in below-grade locations such as basements. For these types of areas, you may need to look into engineered hardwood flooring.

Top Choices

These hardwood flooring species are the choice of homeowners everywhere and have proven their mettle especially when it comes to beauty, hardness, and durability.

Oak – a very popular choice among homeowners because of its durability and hardness, and its ability to fit into any room. Oak comes in two kinds: White, which is the harder option with a Janka rating of 1360; and red, which has a Janka rating of 1290. Oak's natural hardness may be a bit too difficult for beginners to work on, so it is best to be left to the pros or at least those with a bit more experience.

Cherry – you have a choice between American Cherry and Brazilian Cherry. The American variety ages to a beautiful rich color and is relatively easy to work with, possessing a hardness rating of 950. If a much harder species is your preference, look no further than Brazilian Cherry, with a whopping Janka hardness rating of 2345. It is definitely one of the hardest hardwood flooring species in the market today.

Black Walnut – this hardwood possesses a beautiful color and grain, coupled with a smooth finish and lasting durability (Janka rating of 1010), which makes it a very beautiful flooring option for your home.

Maple- This is a stalwart choice in solid hardwood, offering a traditional look as well as a notable resistance to wear.

The Proper Care Of Wood Floors

2008-08-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

Wood floors are easy to maintain, but often neglected. You need to know what to do to keep your floors looking clean and new for the lifetime of your home.

A new floor doesn't require a great deal of maintenance but you should check your floors periodically, especially in well-worn traffic areas such as the kitchen, dining and living areas.

--Dirt and sand can scratch. Prevent those scratches by placing a mat or area rugs at all entrance ways.

--Use a broom with fine bristles to pick up dust and dirt. Ammonia should be avoided as a cleaner.

--Vacuum regularly. Use the special bare floor attachment that comes with the vacuum. --Dust or damp mop your floors. Use a neutral PH wood cleaner.

--While wood flooring are varnished and stained, you should mop up any water or chemical liquids that are spilled on the floor immediately. They can damage the finish and warp a hardwood floor.

--Never use harsh, abrasive cleaners or oil based soaps.

All furniture can scratch so add felt pads to the legs of all furniture.

--The UV rays of the sun can discolor your hardwood floor particularly the area closes to your picture window. To prevent this, close your curtains and blinds. Add some sheer drapes.

--High heeled shoes can gouge and scratch. Keep your shoes in good repair, or better still change them into slippers on entering your home.

--Your pets can scratch your floor. Keep their nails trimmed. Clean their paws as they come in from outdoors. Groom and wash to rid them of pests.

Of course if your floors have become worn and old-looking, you'll need to take more drastic measures to restore the luster of a new floor. Unless you are experienced in flooring, do-it-yourself is generally not a good idea. It takes a professional eye to determine if your finish is worn down but the wood is intact. A professional can see the gouges, stains, holes and cracks that you miss. Wood that is warped may need serious replacement before any finishing can be applied. Before you do any finishing, you should consider the kind of finish you have on your floor.

Almost all floors today have good surface finishes that range from polyurethane to wax. They look like a layer of clear plastic over the wood. All surface finishes are meant to protect your floor from the scratches of daily traffic.

You can find out if your finish is worn down by adding one to two tablespoons of water to a low to medium traffic area. If the water soaks in and leaves a dark spot, your floor needs a new coat. Waxing is one of the easiest ways to use to finish your floors, but you may have to remove an old coat before applying a new coat.

If you do have a waxed floor, you can remove stains and burns that are not too deep by rubbing the spot with a No. 2 steel wood moistened with soap and water. Rewax the spot after you're finished.

How To Pratice For Basketball Improvement

2008-08-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

With so many drills and different ways to practice to improve your game, you could very easily get confused and frustrated trying to compile a perfect practice plan. Some of the main components I have always stressed with all my private basketball clients, whether they are beginners or a NBA Veteran, is to try and train smarter and just harder.

A major component you have to consider when trying to design a Basketball Improvement system is to leverage your time wisely and work on the areas that are most important to you and your game. To use an example, if you are a point guard, your main job is to be able to handle the rock under control and pressure, control the pace of the game, make sure all your teammates are doing their job correctly and be your coaches on the court general.

Why it would be great if you were a great rebounder, it is not something that you should spend alot of time practicing. You should focus the majority of your time practicing and improving the areas that are most required. Try not to get caught up in trying to work on every aspect of basketball, there just is not enough time to work on every thing in one practice.

I have outlined a Practice plan that I use to structure all of my Pro Clients workouts,they are very effective and time efficient. The practice will last approximately 1 hour and will begin with a Sports Warm-Up. Sports Warm Up ( 15 minutes) It is very essential you participate in an active warm up that will prepare you for a vigorous work out ahead. The days of static stretching as a team are long over,due to the fact that you want to prepare your self for moving, running, and explosive burst, you want to prepare your body to handle certain movements and game situations. I normally have all my players run 4 to 5 times around the court at about 50%, and then follow that up with 4 half court layups from both the right and left side.Then, we perform 3 full court layups on each side, right and left. Then we move onto two ball dribbling, full court and back 3 times, two ball alternating dribbling full court and back, 3 times, and then finish with a couple of dynamic warm up stretches that improve the mobility, stability, and flexibility of certain muscle groups.

Basketball conditioning ( 10 minutes)

I have always like jumping right into some conditioning drills as my players perform better when we get conditioning done at the beginning of practice.Many practices, the exercise or drills will change and vary, but the principles remain the same. I usually compile 6 conditioning drills that we will perform only once, but at 100% intensity. I will then give them a 30-45 second break and then move onto the next conditioning drill.We do not perform the drills for certain amount of reps, but rather for a duration of time. Usually lasting 30-45 seconds. Hers is a sample Conditioning workout:

Exercise # 1 suicide ( 30 seconds)

Rest(45seconds)

Exercise # 2 ( machine guns while dribbling a basketball) 30 seconds

Rest (45 seconds)

Exercise # 3 Basketball Pushups with a basketball( 20 seconds on each side)

Rest(45 seconds)

Exercise #4 Full court Defensive slides( 35 seconds)

Rest ( 45 seconds)

Exercise # 5 Net or rim touches ( 30 seconds)

Rest ( 45 Seconds)

Exercise # 6 Push Up Holds ( 45 seconds)

Rest Until 10 minutes is up

As you can see, if you structure your workouts and practices correctly, you can get a very effective practice in a short period of time. The next 10 minutes will solely focus on shooting. I have a simple rule when trying to improve your shooting. Think of the 5 most common shots and area that you are most likely to shoot in a game and work on those 5 shots the most. It is almost a waste of time if you are a center trying to improve your 3 point shooting. Once you have figured out your 5 most common shots, spend 2 minutes each working on them and getting up as many shots as you can in those 2 minutes from those specific spots. You will be surprised when you start working on only a couple of shoots how much more you will improve compared to trying to shoot from every where. After you finish working on your shooting, you will then dedicate the next 10 minutes on ball handling. There are millions of drills that will improve your ball handling skills and you can pick which ever ones you like, but follow these rules when you do so.

1. Try not to ever look down at the ball.

2. Try your hardest not to mess up.

3. Involve as much running and movement as you can.

4.When you have mastered a drill, do not continue to do the same drill,

move on to a more challenging drill.

5. Try to incorporate multitasking drills as much as possible, like 2 ball dribbling,

the more you can do at the same time the better.

Follow those rules and you will see a dramatic improvement in your over all game.

Now that you have gotten past those stations, it is time now to move on to the most important aspect of the practice. The last 15 minutes will solely be committed to working on your niche, the most important component of your game.

What Is Your Niche?

This is by far the most over looked aspect in basketball. A niche is what you do best, it is the one thing that you do great, the thing that separates you form the baller next to you. The One thing you can provide the team, and what the coach can count on you for.Without a Niche, you have no identity on the court. If you look at all the Kings in the NBA, you will easily discover their Niche.

Steve Nash- passing

Ben Wallace- Rebounding

Dwayne Wade- attacking the basket

Mike Miller- Shooting

Kobe - Scoring

And the list goes on....

Spend the last 15 minutes working and mastering your niche. Whatever it is, whether it be shooting, rebounding, ball handling, defense, scoring, driving to the basket, 3 point shooting, ect... Work on mastering and improving it. I guarantee you that if you take this outline and use it to structure your workouts and practices, you will have more improvement in a couple of weeks then you probably have had your whole career. Improving your game is easy when you do it the right way.

How To Go About Refinishing Hardwood Floors

2008-08-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

Some people will tell you that sanding is the best thing to do while refinishing hardwood floors. However, that is not so. The fact is that your hardwood floor has a particular character that it has developed through decades, and sanding destroys most of it. Some of the wood is also removed, and the floor becomes thinner as a result. And all the dust that sanding creates will prevent you from applying a new finish smoothly. So is there another way of refinishing hardwood floors? Yes, there is. And a better one at that. This alternative is inexpensive too, apart from being much easier to handle. The floor’s protection is renewed, its character is preserved, and you retain all the wood. Now what could be better?

Start refinishing hardwood floors by making necessary repairs. Add new wood if required. Try to match the grade, species, and the age of the new flooring to the existing one. If you feel it’s needed, sand the repair area lightly. Vacuum the room before you go on to the next step.

The Process Of Chemically Refinishing A Hardwood Floor

Use a mild Trisodium Phosphate solution or plain water to wash the old floor, taking good care not to wet any part of the new wood. Leave the floor to dry for a day. Next, use a wax remover on the old portions, and leave it for another couple of days.

Here’s a list of all the things you need in refinishing hardwood floors. Visit a paint shop to get all of these – lacquer thinner; denatured alcohol; and a corrosion- resistant, screw-top container that will hold both of these. You also need a quality oil finish that matches the current color or is very similar to it; some chemical resistant refinishing pads; a floor polishing stick; a chemical resistant pan; and a floor polishing machine with steel wool pads to fit it.

Make a half-and-half mixture of the lacquer thinner and denatured alcohol in the large can, pour some of it into a glass dish, and start working the floor in parts, staining the new wood to blend them in with the old floor. Leave the floor like that for two or three days. The last step in refinishing hardwood floors is sealing the floor. Polyurethane is the most popular choice of sealant. Applying three coats is the best way to go. So by the end of it, you have a hardwood floor as good as new.

The Next Generation Of Hardwood Flooring

2008-08-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hardwood floors have made a come-back and are the new rage in home design. Hardwood floors are very easy to clean and maintain, and their shine provides a nice touch to a room. Hardwood floors can also now be bought cheaply and still manage to look like rich and add greatly to any room.

Hardwood floors are also now very easy to install, much easier, in fact, than carpet. Most hardware and home improvement stores offer crash courses in installing your new hardwood floors, and individual do-it-yourself packages for hardwood floors include easy to follow directions even for those who are not normally inclined to handiness with their hands.

When choosing the material for your hardwood store, look first at the quality of wood. There are four grades in hardwood floors when it comes to oak, which is the most popular material for hardwood flooring. The highest quality is clear, which is wood that has very few or no flaws. Select has a few flaws and is bright grained, and most pieces will match well. Common one includes both light and dark pieces, and a few marks, while common two allows for all sorts of quality discrepancies and is best used for a child’s playhouse or a doghouse. You should really pick one of the first two grades for a quality looking floor finish.

There are some drawbacks to hardwood flooring. Carpet provides nice cushioning, you can lie on a carpeted floor and watch TV quite comfortably. Hardwood flooring is unyielding and is not comfortable to lie down on or to fall upon. Hardwood flooring also does not provide the warmth that carpeting does. Lastly, hardwood flooring is easier to clean than carpet simply because material does not adhere to it the way dust and motes cling to the fabric of carpets. This is great for a broom, but unfortunate if your guests come into your house with no shoes. Any dust on the floor will cling to their socks, which can be pretty embarrassing. Hardwood flooring requires cleaning more often than carpet would.

A Hardwood Floor For Your Home

2008-08-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it's time for a remodel and updating of your home. How about a remodel that will transform your home, add lasting value, beauty and elegance, and be something you will be proud of? Think about hardwood flooring.

Generally hardwood floors come pre finished, this is when the manufacturer applies a finish at the factory. This finish is generally at least four coats of ultraviolet cured urethane resin. Hardwood floors are generally easy to clean with a simple sweep of a dust mop or vacuuming. You will need to protect your hardwood floors from scratches as much as possible. Putting protective rugs under your furniture is an excellent way to prevent scratches on the floor. Hardwood floors are meant to last a lifetime.

You will want to choose a color of hardwood floor that will accent your home and home furnishings. As a rule lighter colors go with country, contemporary and casual settings. Darker colored wood floors are for formal or traditional interiors. But, of course, anything goes! Your decision should be based on your visual preference.

Lighter wood would be a white ash, sugar maple or southern yellow pine. Darker colors are beech, birch, red oak, heart pine and mesquite.

You want to make sure that your hardwood floor will be able to withstand denting and wear. Of the woods mentioned above mesquite is the hardest wood, and a southern yellow pine would be the softest. In the middle of these fall the yellow birch, heart pine and beech.

If you are going to be hiring and contractor to install your hardwood floor make sure you ask for references. Go take a look at a floor that he has installed. Make sure that he is comfortable working with the type of word floor that you want installed.

Make sure that you thoroughly inspect the hardwood floor after the installation. Look at the floor from a standing position and with normal lighting. The finish on your floor will not be that you would find on fine furniture. Deep swirls or sander marks or splotchy areas may mean that the floor wasn't finished properly. There will however be some irregularities on any wood floor. However, these irregularities won't seem obvious and will only add to the character of the floor.

Wood Floors Are Great

2008-08-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Wood floors add to the beauty and sophistication of any house to a great extent. These floors have a different aura about them and can make even a really dull interior decoration look good. The floors are long lasting and can be maintained with very little strain on one’s pocket. The variety of wood floors allows people to pick and choose. The floors are of different types like the following:

1. Solid Parquet Floor 3/4” & less
2. Engineered Floor – Strip, Plank, Parquet
3. Solid Plank Floor 3/4”*3” and up
4. Solid Strip Floor – T & G up to ¾” up to 3/4”

These type of floors can be unfinished, prefinished, impregnated or multiply.
Wood floors need to be installed in the rooms. According to personal choice, installations can be floated, glued, or nailed/stapled. Floated or glued installations can be laminated or engineered. But the nailed/stapled installation cannot be laminated. It can be engineered.

Wood Floors are a lifetime and more importantly, one time investment. They enhance the value of the house, but definitely do not make the consumer go through recurring costs. These floors are easy to maintain. Just sweeping and cleaning with the specific products for this purpose is enough. Mopping with a damp broom or cloth should be avoided as water can harm the floor. Most wood floor manufacturers have specific cleaning products for the consumer. The entire house can have wood floors but it is always a good idea to leave the bathroom aside.

Floors and walls create a basic feel about a room. For example, grey walls create a melancholy feel in a room, again pink or lemon or sea green walls gives a much more cheerful and positive feel. This is something intangible, difficult to explain with words. The the same goes for floors.

Wood floors offer the consumers a great deal of variety in colour. Interior decoration will demand any pattern or colour, but generally red oak, natural, maple natural are very popular. It is better to remember that darker floors go well with traditional or formal interior decoration.

Lighter colours are suitable for more casual rooms. Exotic wood floors like Brazilian Cherry, Brazilian Walnut, Santos Mahogany have gained acceptance. However the type of floor in the room will always be dictated by individual taste and needs.

Hand painted Wood floors add something special to the room and have become very popular. It is possible to have the floors painted, stained, tinted to have the desired effect. Painted floors give an impression of being a designer one by using different techniques.

Those who want wood floors in their house should keep some points in mind:
What areas of the home will have the floors, which colours to choose and what kind of finish? But it is a good idea to have the advice from a wood floor professional. It will help the consumers from becoming too confused about the nitty-gritty of the thing.

Characteristics Of Hard Wood

2008-08-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

Hardwood is defined as wood originating from board leaf trees or trees that produce nuts. The hickory, oak, walnut, maple and cherry trees are the most popular hard wood trees in North America. The climate is perfect for large production of these species of trees. The lumber made from these trees is what is referred to as “hardwood.” But, not all hardwood is the same. Groups in the hard wood lumber industry have made great progress in standardizing wood by its strength and grade. This helps consumers know which woods are the hardest and the most appropriate for their project. For example, the hickory and pecan are the hardest of the hardwoods. The hardness of a wood is measured by the number of pounds of pressure required to mar the wood. For the hickory and pecan woods, it takes approximately 1,820 pounds of pressure before the wood becomes marred. On the contrary, the Aspen is considered a hardwood but requires only 350 pounds of pressure before the wood is marred. Woods between these two extremes include the hard maple requiring 1,450 pounds of pressure and the white oak requiring 1,360 pounds. This comparison provides a good way to evaluate which wood is best for flooring and which is better for building furniture. The harder woods are best for flooring. For instance, cherry is a common wood for furniture and is in the middle of the hardness scale requiring 950 pounds of pressure for the wood to mar.

Hardwood can change depending on certain conditions. Specifically, it contracts and expands depending on the temperature and moisture and does this because it tries to adapt to the environment. The wood was once a living thing and maintains a life to some degree. To minimize the degree of change to the wood, it is kiln dried to remove much of the moisture and stabilize it. This helps keep the finished product closer to its true size and shape as it was the time it was manufactured.

Careful consideration of the right hard wood lumber for your project is very important, and equally as important as the finished look of the floor. Many hardwoods vary only slightly in their durability and strength. As a consumer, you will also need to decide on if you want the grainy appearance of the white oak or the smooth finish of the maple. Keep in mind, though, that any hard wood lumber can be stained and finished to the color that you want so consider the grain more than the color at this point.

Before You Install Hardwood Floors

2008-07-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

When installing solid hardwood floors you should be careful to avoid installing them directly onto concrete slabs or below ground level because of moisture problems that may result. The problem with moisture is that it leaves unsightly gaps in the hardwood once it dries, typically during the winter months when heating tends to draw the moisture out of homes. During summer months when humidity and moisture are high you should notice that the wood once again expands, sometimes so much so that the wood planks may buckle or cup. Because of these issues you should also take great care to leave plenty of room for seasonal expansion.

If this is unavoidable, you should install hardwood floors that are fixed in place with nails. Consistently following steps to ensure you get the longest life out of the floors and sanding them back and re-polishing them will also be essential, whether the floors are maple, bamboo, ash, white or red oak.

Hardwood floors are usually divided into one of three categories being plank flooring, strip flooring and parquet flooring. Parquet style hardwood floors are also known as parquetry, and this is when the smaller pieces of timber are arranged in a geometrical fashion. The timber used can be all the same or different to create a more colorful effect. Hardwood floors that are laid in the strip flooring style are between 5/16 and ¾ of an inch thick and 1 ½ to 2 ¼ inches wide. Strip flooring is common in the bamboo hardwood floors that are popular today. The third style of flooring is the plank, and each board is anywhere from three to eight inches in width. This is a more traditional, heritage style flooring, but is also still a popular choice today.

Another popular yet pricey option when shopping around for hardwood floors is the hand scraped style. They can create a very trendy touch to your home or have a more classic feel if you have a shabby chic, rustic style décor. They are an art form unto themselves, and for this reason, do not come cheap. However, if you can afford the extra cost, you will be rewarded with originality and class.

Each brand of hardwood flooring should come with its own care and washing suggestions. It is important to follow these for your specific hardwood flooring, regardless of what other people do. It is a great idea to vacuum the floor regularly to prevent a buildup of grime in the spaces between the boards, and try to use mats and rugs wherever possible.

It's also a good idea to have welcome mats at doors and throw rugs in high traffic areas in order to maximize the life of your hardwood floors. Another great way to protect your hardwood floors is by using furniture coasters on all legs of your furniture. Spills should also be taken care of immediately in order to protect your hardwood floors and keep them looking beautiful for years to come.

5 Basic Tips When Choosing Hardwood Flooring

2008-07-31T00:19:00.000-07:00

Timeless beauty, clean lines, strength and durability as well as the ease of cleaning and the classic look make hardwood flooring the perfect choice for your home.

No matter what your personal style is, there is a flooring choice for you because of the unlimited selection available. But before you rush out shopping for your hardwood flooring, keep these tips in mind.

Set a budget for yourself. Having a wide variety of flooring to choose from is great, but the downside is that it is easy to get overwhelmed quickly, and this makes you very susceptible to overspending. Remember to balance style with quality with your budget when you make your final choice.

Tip #1
You will be wise to match the room with your choice of flooring, whether hardwood or otherwise. For example, do not try to put hardwood flooring in a bathroom, due to the high levels of moisture a bathroom receives.

Tip #2
Different areas of the house demand different types of wood. For example, wood floors that have very light or very dark finishes typically do not fare well in the kitchen.

Tip #3
Choose a hardwood flooring that has an appropriate finish to match your lifestyle. A sitting room that is seldom used will let you get away with a lighter finish. However a hallway or living room will get continual traffic and requires a choice that offers a tougher finish that can stand up to a lot of wear and tear.

Tip #4
Consider installation - doing it yourself or having a professional installer do it for you? Many people successfully install their own flooring, but only after they have done their homework. It is often easer to hire a professional, but do you due diligence when selecting a hardwood flooring installer. You will want to be absolutely sure that it will be installed correctly.

Tip #5
Choosing the color and style of the floor can be the fun part. Choose a hardwood that fits your personal taste and your lifestyle. The comparatively high cost of the flooring and installation demands choosing a wood that will not go out of style quickly.

Bruce Hardwood Flooring Is An Industry Leader

2008-07-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

Nothing can make a room look more attractive, elegant and stately than a beautiful hardwood floor.

With an ability to be dressed up or down to fit the theme of a room, hardwood is at home in any design. Plus, its durability, function and natural beauty make it a winner for those who want more than ordinary carpeting can offer.

When it comes to the best in oak hardwood floors, Bruce Hardwood is a leader in the industry.

Founded in 1884, Bruce is considered an industry leader in American solid-oak flooring because of its attention to detail and quality.

The company was one of the first to offer pre-finished flooring to its customers and now offers an array of styles and colors to choose from. The wood's natural beauty is the key to Bruce's success, especially when it's married with oak's ability to retain its look and appeal for years.

When it comes to hardwood floors, they come with a number of advantages over carpeting. They include:

* Durability. Hardwood floors when treated correctly can last a lifetime. Whereas carpeting can be destroyed over time no matter how hard a homeowner works to keep it clean and in good condition. With hardwood, there's no need to replace the flooring every few years.

* Variety. Hardwood floors can come in a number of different styles, colors and patterns. If the fear of only finding one-look-fits-all in hardwood is keeping a homeowner away from looking, this is simply not so.

* Environmentally sound. Hardwood floors at the natural alternative to synthetic carpets.

* Property value. Hardwood tends to add real value to a home.

* Easy maintenance. It doesn't take a lot to keep hardwood looking great.

On the maintenance end, hardwood is actually one of the easiest flooring types to maintain. Unlike tile that can chip and break, hardwood can be touched up to fix minor scratches and cleaning is a breeze.

The advantages over carpet are many, but the top includes the stain resistance, ease of cleaning, durability and more.

To keep a hardwood floor looking great, all a homeowner needs to do is this:

* Vacuum, dust mop or sweep the floor as needed. This is typically recommended about once a week and is fast and easy to perform.

* Spot clean spills and tracked in dirt as they happens. All this takes generally is a dust mop, but sometimes special cleaners are needed.

* Every so often a deep cleaning will help maintain the floor's surface appearance. This does require specialized cleaner, but a basic mop is the only tool necessary.

* Keep the floor protected in areas with moisture and dirt, such as entries, in kitchens and so on.

A hardwood floor can make an ordinary home look simply spectacular. With an ability to be dressed up or down as much as a homeowner would like, few types of flooring are more versatile either. When it comes to the best in hardwood floors, Bruce is the leader.

Hardwood Floors - Hot Tips To Save You Money

2008-07-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

There are many types of hardwood floorings available in the marketplace today. So how do you know which kind of hardwood flooring will be the right one for you? And hardwood floors offer an incredible array of aesthetic options, too.

Although plush carpeting is an easy alternative to floor decorations, many home decorators are now setting a new trend with beautiful hardwood flooring. There are many reasons to go with hardwood floors, such as the permanent value they add to your home, the easy care and easy cleaning, great style and durability and they're natural and safe for the environment too.

The cost can vary depending on whether or not you can find discounts or can buy it wholesale. If you know a building contractor or hardwood floor contractor, they may be able to help you get a nice discount where they buy their materials even if you do it yourself. Installing hardwood flooring in your home should be considered a long-term investment that will hold its value, or even increase the resale value of your home, well surpassing the installation cost of the hardwood floors.

After all wood is wood, and what can be more ecologically clean than natural wood planks after very little chemical processing? For the healthy minded, there are much lower levels of chemical emissions from natural wood products. The cost of hardwood flooring depends on what type you choose.

Many of the hardwood flooring retailers and manufacturers offer good discounts if you have a lot of square footage. If you're thinking about a do-it-yourself project and you're handy with tools, you can learn how to install hardwood flooring with a few of the proper tools like sanders, nailers, or nail guns, etc. which you can easily rent or borrow. Some of the most popular hardwood floor manufacturers include Bruce, Shaw, Mohawk, Mannington and Armstrong.

When shopping for new wood flooring you want to check for special discounts or coupons from the many retailers and manufacturers both online and offline. Many people are now installing hardwood floors in their kitchen too and they can also be installed over concrete. Your new flooring may need a few refinishing, sanding and finish coats over the years. When you consider that carpets and vinyl floors will need to be replaced at least three or four times in that same time period, the long run costs of hardwood flooring seem very economical.

Besides the floor coverings that have been traditionally used in the past, there are now many new styles and materials of flooring to choose from that can definitely add to the style of any room. Hardwoods can give a room an expensive and high quality finish that's usually only connected to higher-end apartments and designer homes. But first of all you need to find a reputable hardwood floor company to help design and create the type of flooring that you want, unless you're experienced enough to forge ahead..

Most hardwood floors almost never need replacement and can add thousands of dollars to the value of any home. And hardwood flooring is the healthiest choice for interior living, especially if you have children in the home.

And with today's advanced wood flooring stains and finishes, cleaning your wood floors has never been easier. If you're looking for a great way to improve the look, the durability and the value of your home, hardwood floors are definitely the way to go. And wood is a wonderful natural resource that is both renewable and recyclable.

Staining Hardwood Floors

2008-07-29T23:34:00.000-07:00

Between hardwood floors and furniture pieces, the latter tend to be changed much more often. If you've had hardwood floors for a while, you know firsthand the design or aesthetic problems that come up whenever you change your furniture pieces. At one time, your furniture and hardwood floor matched visually. However, when you put in new furniture without really thinking about the color of your hardwood floor, that's when compatibility issues arise.

There is really no need to take out the entire hardwood floor just so it would match new furniture. Doing so is time-consuming and can get rather expensive, particularly if you tend to change or add new furniture pieces often. Staining is the better option. It's less costly to staining hardwood floors than to install completely new hardwood flooring.

Staining is actually one aspect of the hardwood refinishing process. To effectively stain hardwood floors, it should be done between buffing the floor and applying the finish. Staining is usually done not with the intention of changing the color of floors, but with the intention of enforcing their color. In this regard, staining hardwood floors is useful for bringing back a floor's color, which tends to gradually faded over time.

How stains penetrate depends on the type of woods. For instance, staining is much more effective on floors made from open-grained woods like ash, oak, pecan or walnut because stain colors for hardwood flooring of these types tend to penetrate deeper. Hardwood floors made from closed-grain woods like birch or maple tend to not stain as well. Thus, before you start a hardwood floor staining project, make sure you know the wood type of your floor so you can choose the right stain to use.

The right stain is based on the type of wood your floor is made of as well as what you want the floor to look like after the hardwood floor staining process. Do you just want to improve your floor's current color? If so, choose from among the many pigmented penetration sealer stains. These stains won't obscure your floor's natural wood grain. Are you looking to change the color of your hardwood floor? Then go with any of the oil-based pigmented stains available. These stains are known to accentuate the floor's grain patter. However, be aware that oil-based pigmented stains, if applied in excess, tend to shorten the life of wood.

Make sure that the floor is clean and clear before applying stain. It's a good idea to spend more time thoroughly cleaning the floor if you have just sanded and buffed it. Otherwise, you'll end up with different stain colors for hardwood flooring boards in one floor area. Instead of the boards absorbing the stain, the debris in and on the floor will absorb the stain.

When you're ready to stain your hardwood floors, you'll need the following materials: wood stain, clean rags and knee pads. Once you have all the materials you need, follow this 5-step process of staining hardwood floors:

1. Thoroughly clean the hardwood floor.

2. Ensure that the room you'll be working in is well-ventilated. Open up windows or turn on your vents. Stains emit harmful fumes.

3. Wear your knee pads when you stain your hardwood floor. It would be better to wear work clothes during staining. Wear long sleeve, pants and gloves to prevent the stain from coming in contact with your skin.

4. Apply stain on your hardwood floor section by section. After staining each section, wipe off excess stain with a clean rag. This speeds up the drying process.

5. When you have stained the entire floor area, let the stain dry overnight. The drying process may take longer if you applied too much stain, if the room has poor ventilation or if the temperature is too low.

Instructions On How To Install Floating Hardwood Floor Panels

2008-07-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how to install hardwood floor panels to make your home beautiful inside? There are many methods of installing hardwood flooring currently in use. One of the best do it yourself hardwood floors is the floating hardwood floor. The term floating doesn't refer to a floor that is sitting in liquid. Floating means that, while the floor is fastened to itself, it is not fastened down to the subsurface.

A floating hardwood floor has some disadvantages you should be aware of before proceeding with your installation. These floors will sometimes feel like you're walking on a bubble. And, each bubble you step on will have a creaky sound.

On the other hand, those bubbles give the floor a much softer feel than a well-fastened hardwood floor. And, the floating floor is much easier to maintain. Best of all, it is one of the cheapest types of hardwood floors to install.

Before continuing with the installation of a floating hardwood floor, we highly recommend that you consider using oak as your hardwood floor material. Oak looks beautiful and provides lasting durability.

-Tools Needed to Install a Floating Hardwood Floor

Broom and Dust Pan - It is important to keep everything clean as you go. It is particularly important to keep the saw dust out from under and between your panels where it can really throw things off kilter. If it gets in there, there is no way to get it out without the very difficult process of hardware floor disassembly.

Carpenter's Crayon - You'll have to cut up your panels to make them fit in the corners and make them go around objects that cannot be removed from the room having the hardwood floor installed. You may also want to use your carpenter's crayon to mark a layout pattern of where to place your flooring panels.

Circular Saw - Your saw is what you will use as you cut along the lines you drew with your carpenters crayon.

Claw hammer - In most places, you will use a rubber mallet to help push the boards together, but in those places near the wall where you don't have enough room to swing the mallet, you can use the claw hammer to fit them together.

Cushioning Surface - You can make your floating hardwood floor feel even softer to the feet with the use of a cushioning surface under the floor. You would be shocked by the difference between a floor with the surface and a floor without the surface if you could try the two side by side.

Cutter Knife - The cutter knife comes in handy in more places than you would expect as you work on your floor. But the main reason we recommend this tool is so that you can make minor cuts on the panel ends when you just can't quite make them fit together.

Glue - Floating hardwood floors aren't supposed to be glued together. However, you might find you get better results if you just put a bit of glue at the end of each panel as you connect them. Of course, this will mean you'll need to be very careful not to get any glue on your floor surface.

Nails - You will need to nail the floating floor to the wall strips. It may help to use a drill to do pilot holes to prevent the wood from splitting, but if you're a gambler, you can just hammer these nails in without pilot holes. Most people do that anyways.

Rubber Mallet - The rubber mallet is what you use to fit the panels together at the joints. However, you need to be very careful not to hit the panels too hard and damage the panel surfaces.

-Preparing to Install Floating Hardwood Floor Panels

Before you install your floating hardwood floor panels, you need to get your cushioning sheet installed. You can use your cutter knife to make it fit. Some people find that making it into many small pieces is much more manageable than trying to fit a large piece in the room. These pieces should be laid in the same direction as your panel rows.

One of the nice parts of using a cushioning sheet is that debris on the sheet or lumps in the surface below it have a less dramatic effect on the floor. However, you should still try to get all of these straightened out to the extent you can see them.

For debris, just use your broom and dust pan to remove them. It's not such a big of a one-time task when you consider the implications are pretty close to permanent if you fail to remove them.

-Installing a Floating Hardwood Floor

1.Place your first panel in the corner with the ends with a cavity in them towards the walls.

2.Put a little bit of glue in the cavity of the next panel.

3.Attach the next panel to the first panel quickly after step two.

4.You may need to work with the rubber mallet gently to ensure that the two panels come together snuggly. If the wall gets in the way of the rubber mallet, you can use your claw hammer to nudge it in place.

5.Continue this until you get to the end of the row where you will need to mark off the excess length of your last panel with the carpenter's crayon. Then cut the panel to fit using the circular saw.

6.Use the remaining piece of the panel to start the next row of hardwood.

7.If you are using the glue, as in step two, you'll need to be careful to get the entire adhesive off of each row as you complete it or it may do permanent damage to the hardwood surface.

8.Make sure you fit your entire pieces well, especially the last corner piece. If you have fit everything together just right, your floor will be much more stable. And, it will look better after the next step.

9.Now you go around all of the room walls and place the wall strips. You should nail these strips to the wall and to the floor. This will stabilize your floor. This will also make the edges of your new floor look better.

-How to Install Floating Hardwood Floor - Clean Up

As with any big woodworking project, you can expect to have a mess as you go. There are such debris as saw dust, cut splinters, glue spots, and more. While you were trying to clean as you went, you should really do a final inspection and cleaning at the completion of the project. You don't want any saw dust or wood chips scraping across your new floor before you even get to admire its smooth shine.

After your floor has had a day to settle you can clean it with a mildly wet mop to get everything else up that you might have missed. You need to dry the floor up right away after mopping, of course. Otherwise, your wood will swell and lumps will form.

-Hindsight Tips for Installing Your Floating Hardwood Floor

You do not need to be terribly careful with the cushioning sheets. Don't spend all day trying to get exact measurements. As long as there are no major overlaps or separations between them, your floor should be just fine.

When you are working with your hardwood panels, it is important not to rush. You should not be moving on and placing another panel until the current panel is completely and firmly connected to the other panels. But be very careful when using the rubber mallet and other tools on the panels not to cause surface damage.

The surfaces are quite fragile when they are not yet anchored in place. It is very hard to go back and fix later if you missed a panel early in the installation process.

Be careful when measuring your panels for cutting at the end of the row that you are marking off the right part of your panel for cutting. One of the most common mistakes is to have the panel backwards while measuring it and then end up with the wrong pieces being the lengths you need. Save yourself some time and be careful.

-Feeling Good after You Install Your Floating Hardwood Floor

You have saved a lot of money by installing a floating hardwood floor yourself. And, if you don't like it, you've chosen one of the easiest hardwood floors to replace. But, of course you like it.

Hardwood floors look great. And, your new floating hardwood floor feels great too with its cushioning surface. Your neighbor's glued down floor may not creak much, but your neighbor's feet don't feel like they're floating when he walks on his floor.

How To Install Hardwood Floor Panels With The Nail Down Method

2008-07-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

There are a variety of methods for installing hardwood flooring. The nail down technique of laying hardwood floors has become very popular. For those learning how to install hardwood floor, there's no simpler or straightforward technique than the nail down technique.

Unlike other methods which basically require you to be an amateur carpenter or even a professional carpenter, the nail down method on how to install hardwood flooring can be accomplished by anyone who can swing a hammer. Well, that's not all it takes.

You also have to be persistent, patient, and willing to try new things if you want to learn how to install hardwood floor. Also, you need to be willing to read the safety instructions that come with the tools you'll be using.

-Tools You'll Need as Your Learn How to Install Hardwood Floor Panels

Broom and Dust Pan - You need to clean up constantly as you learn how to install hardwood floor to make sure no dirt, sawdust, or other debris get caught in between the grooves or under the boards.

Carpenter's Crayon - Use this to create guidelines on your sub floor. You'll also need it to draw lines where you'll cut your hardwood panels.

Claw Hammer - Any areas near obstacles or walls where you can't get enough space to swing a rubber mallet will have to be reached with your claw hammer.

Cutter Knife - Use this often for unforeseen activities involved as you learn how to install hardwood floor. But the main purpose of this device will be to cut out any excess wood when adjustments of only a millimeter or two need to be made.

Electric Drill and 3/32" Drill Bit - Use this to drill your pilot holes, which should be slightly smaller in length and circumference than your nails. This will prevent your flooring panels from cracking when you put the nails in them.

Hardwood Flooring Nails (2") - These nails are important because they will be what hold your floor in place.

Nailer - This can either be a hammer or pneumatic nail gun. The pneumatic nail gun is obviously faster and easier, but you have to get it calibrated just right so that the nails don't go too far down into the wood and destroy your hardwood panels.

Rubber Mallet - This is your chance to pound your frustrations out as you learn how to install hardwood floor. Actually, you should pound them out gently to bring the surfaces of the two panels together perfectly. You don't want to get them too far apart or your floor will have crevices. But if you pound them too hard together, you can damage them or push them so far together as to bow them.

Circular Saw - At the end of each row of boards as you go into the corner, you will need to cut your floor panels to fit. Any fixtures in the room will also have to be cut around.

-Preparing to Install Hardwood Floor Panels

Although the nail down method of installing hardwood floor panels is pretty simple, it should still be done carefully as the hardwood floor has to endure for many years in whatever form you complete it.

All of the furniture and obstacles that can be removed from the room should be removed while you install your hardwood floor panels. This is true even if it requires manual dismantling and reassembly. For those fixtures build into the floor of the room, you'll just have to panel around them.

It's not the easiest way to go, but you have to do what you have to do to get your hardwood floor installed. If you have door sills, an old hardwood floor, baseboards, or carpet, remove them before you begin as well.

If the surface beneath where you will be flooring is cement or any other lumpy material, use a felt floor liner to cover this surface. Then install a plywood sub-floor over it. Once laid, you should be ready to begin installing the hardwood floor.

-Steps on How to Install Hardwood Floor Panels

1. Put your first floor panel in the corner of the room in which you have decided to start your flooring. The grooves should be toward the wall and the tongues should be toward the room.

2. Start adding panels to make a row. The last panel shouldn't quite fit right, so you'll have to use that carpenter's crayon to mark where to cut it. Use your circular saw to cut it. Be very careful not to cut it too small. The fitting needs to be just about perfect.

3. Use your drill to make your little pilot holes. Put the nails in to fasten your floor down. Though it will take longer, you'll be thankful when you're done if you used pilot holes when you're learning how to install hardwood floor.

4. Grab the other half of the panel you cut off the row you just completed and use it as the starting point for the next row. This will seem strange at first, but when the floor is completed, the offset of the boards will look really nice. Additionally, if all of your boards matched up, the floor won't have interlocked strength.

5. Continue on doing this as you go through the remaining rows. Use the rubber mallet as necessary to make the boards and rows nice and snug. When the rubber mallet won't fit, use the claw hammer to pull the boards tight. The last things you need are some giant crevices between your boards when you've finished your new hardwood floor.

6. The last panel is the hardest one to get put in place, but your floor will look really awful if you hurry at this step. You need to patiently measure, cut, and make your last panel fit.

7. Clean the floor you just laid.

-Cleaning Up After You Install Hardwood Floor Panels

In the process of how to install hardwood floors, cleaning up is important and overlooked enough to warrant its own follow-up section. But unlike other nail down method guides on how to install hardwood floor panels, we want to make sure you understand this step.

Cleaning up is important because there are little wood chips and saw dust everywhere after the typical hardwood floor installation. Use your broom and dust pan to pick up any debris on the floor. These particles, if walked on and rubbed on by furniture, can make your brand new floor look like a scratched up old floor pretty quickly.

Unless you went beyond the instructions on how to install hardwood floors and used glue on your hardwood panels, there's no need to get your floor wet before it has had a chance to settle. This is because you don't want it to swell before you've moved the furniture back in and given it a couple days to get itself in its final arrangement.

-Special Tips Add-On on How to Install Hardwood Floor Panels

Don't get too aggressive when putting your hardwood flooring in place. It's very easy to ruin the surface of floor panels when they're floating freely and you're placing them and pounding on them. Be especially careful when fixing a row that looks a little bit off.

If your rubber mallet is sturdy enough, it'll be the best thing to put nails in because it won't do as much damage to the surface of your floor panels.

Your nailed down floor probably isn't going to be quite as nice as the one installed by a professional. On the other hand, it's going to look pretty nice on its own. It will probably be about the nicest looking job an inexperienced hardwood floor installer can do. And if you change your mind about the floor, it's one of the easiest hardwood floor installation methods to undo.

But besides being easy to install and uninstall, nailed down hardwood floor has some usage advantages over other types. The main advantage to keep in mind is that a glued down floor is rigid; once a floor panel is dried in place, it's there for good whether it's snug to the next panel over or not. The loose floor isn't attached to anything and can be creaky, bubbly, and move around. So enjoy your new well-fixed hardwood floor.

Bamboo Wood Flooring is an Economical Option to Hardwood

2008-07-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

It's the season to begin renovating your home with a fresh open look with a new wood floor! You have the paint colors selected for your living space and you are just beginning to think about affordable options for your living room flooring. You want to make the right selections in adding the finishing touches to your home that give it a new look of contemporary design.

The options are endless when selecting the quality of products for home renovations and it can be difficult to stay on track with a fixed budget. The right paint to the perfect flooring can sometimes be a difficult decision especially if you are on a strict budget. Take your time to discover all of the options available to you when selecting the perfect home design.

Perhaps, you crave the finished look of a hardwood floor but can't afford the high cost of the elegant look, and really have no desire for interior carpeting. Your next best choice is a bamboo wood floor. It is an affordable option similar to hardwood but at a lower cost. It is a great way to stretch your dollar and maintain the quality of your home without compromising your budget.

The fact of the matter is bamboo wood flooring is an economical option to hardwood and provides the same quality with its beautifully pre-finished designs. It is also environmentally friendly and provides you with many options in the texture of the wood that you can select. The possibilities are endless with bamboo wood flooring whether you aim for an eclectic feel or contemporary design for your home.

The money you save on bamboo flooring you can put back into other areas of your home such as a new lighting for your living room or perhaps a new leather couch. The great fact of the matter is the choice is up to you with the money you will save by selecting the sleek appearance of bamboo wood floors. You then will be able to stretch your dollar a little further to enhance the value of your home.

A bamboo wood floor will increase the value of your home and give it a fresh open look with timeless appeal. If you can increase the value of your home with a sophisticated style without going over half of the cost then isn't it worth it to you? Your home deserves the best in order to increase its value by making a simple change to your flooring with the durable quality of bamboo wood.

You can select from a wide array of pre-finished looks that save you time and money in remodeling your home. You can select a little spicy paprika coloring or keep it bright with the air of the tropics with a beige undertone - it's your choice in deterring your home style. It's about you - creating a style of your home that offers elegance and style on a budget.

Before you make your decision on deciding which type of flooring is suited best for your home, take the time to do your research and invest in a durable wood product that will leave your home looking great. You deserve the best for your home and you can keep it simple with elegant designs that will offer a contemporary look to your home. You should be able to afford the best quality without having to go over your budget and worry about additional costs.

Bamboo wood flooring provides a soft finishing touch to any home style and offers sleek look with durable quality. It's about enhancing your home and giving it a rich appeal in home designs that match your style. The elements of bamboo wood floors will give your home its own sense of character with the elegant feature of wood.

Restoring Water Damaged Hardwood Floors in Orlando Florida

2008-07-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

The result of a home being flooded by a plumbing problem may not be as serious as the devastation caused by a flood from a hurricane that landfalls in Miami or Orlando, but it can still cause a lot of water damage. Flooding can still ruin hardwood floors and other articles in the home. Getting the water cleaned up as quickly as possible is the most important thing you need to do. The less time your items spend completely saturated with water, the better.

If you find you have a flooding problem happening, the first thing you need to address is the water and electricity. It is important to call your homeowner's insurance company right away to tell them you are flooded because of plumbing disasters are usually covered by your homeowner's insurance. They will tell you what to do next to get someone to help with the cleaning of the house or and whatever repairs that might be necessary.

While your wait for help to arrive, you should do whatever you can to remove things that are being damaged by the water. First, remove furniture and anything else that can be ruined by water contact. If possible, put these items either outside or upstairs. If the water is not too high, begin sweeping as much of it as you can out of the house. If it is not too deep, a wet/dry vacuum might also be helpful. Remember it is imperative that the water is removed as quickly as possible.

Be sure you check the credentials of the cleanup crew that you hire to take care of the water damage. This is hard to remember when you are in the midst of an emergency, but it is crucial that the crew is qualified with a license and insurance in Orlando. After you have seen that they are qualified to do the work let them take over the cleanup. Things should move along quickly after this.

Hardwood floors can be expensive to replace so it is good to know that if the water was not on the floors for a long enough time to cause any warping or other damage, they may be saved. If the floors can be salvaged this is the best to go with. The less money it costs your insurance company, the less your future premiums might be. This could also ensure that the insurance company will not cancel you altogether. Another reason to restore your hardwood floors rather than replacing them, besides the cost, is that you will not suffer by having your floors ripped out. It could take weeks of demolition and repair time before the floors can be useable again and not having usable floors is an extreme inconvenience whether you live in Orlando, Florida or elsewhere.

Improve The Look And Feel Of Your Office With Hardwood Chair Mats

2008-07-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Creating a professional office setting that can improve office productivity and public perception is a goal that is shared by companies both large and small. Some companies obviously make this look easy with a "look and feel" that seems natural. Others seem to be hopelessly lost and are obviously unsure as to how they should proceed. A great way to get started is with the addition of hardwood chair mats to the office space.

One of the biggest questions commonly asked concerning hardwood chair mats is exactly how they can improve the appearance of any setting, especially an office. For starters, hardwood floor chair mats look elegant and professional in nature. Purchasing high-quality office furniture accessories is the first step in starting a successful office transformation. In terms of appearance and professionalism created, hardwood chair mats do something that plastic mats are unable to accomplish.

As with all other office furniture accessories, hardwood chair mats are sold in a number of different formats. Most popular seem to be the "T" shaped mats which can partially extend under a table or desk to accommodate chairs and obstructions, but rectangular shapes and even round and oblong shapes are available from various sources to best match the office space in question. In terms of improving office appearance and professionalism, most see success when creating an office theme or keeping up with a current theme. This is easy to accomplish as almost all wood chair mats are available in a number of different finishes, including natural woods such as oak, cherry, and walnut, and some in other solid color finishes as well. Simply match available chair mats to the finish of an office desk or other surrounding furnishings and the transformation can begin.

Most reputable retailers who sell hardwood chair mats sell a style that prevents floor damage. These damage-free floor mats are ideal for improving the appearance of any office setting. Cheaper alternatives, such as plastic chair mats, usually have spikes that hold the mats into place; however, these spikes can damage carpet, as well as hardwood floors. If an office is rearranged and the desk and office chair are moved, unflattering marks may be left on the floor.

As highlighted above, there are a number of ways that hardwood floor mats can improve the appearance of any setting. Purchase of quality chair mats that present and maintain this desired appearance should be easier by keeping these in mind. As a recap of the most important factors, consider those chair mats that match current office furniture, including office desks and nearby shelves, files and other furnishings, choose those that are sold without damaging spikes, and do business with a supplier who stands behind their products with warranties.

SuccessImage is an office desk accessory supplier that specializes in supplying strong and durable laminate based hardwood finished chair mats which are made in the United States. In fact, all chair mats sold are backed by a full ten year warranty. With a number of office chair mat buying options, in terms of size and shape, you can take comfort in knowing that your purchase will improve the appearance of your office, as well as improve productivity for years to come.

The Glue Down Method Of Installing Hardwood Flooring

2008-07-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

The glue down method of laying hardwood floors is one of the original methods of installing hardwood flooring. If you want to learn the basics of how to install hardwood flooring using the glue down method, you've come to the right place.

Among do it yourself hardwood floors, those done with the glue down method can be the most stable and enduring. When you are installing hardwood flooring using the glue down method, you can rest assured that you are using a technique that has been time-tested.

- Tools Needed When Installing Hardwood Flooring

Square Notched Trowel - This trowel should have one quarter inch sides for the application of the glue.

Broom and Dust Pan - You'll want to constantly be cleaning up any saw dust that could get stuck under your floor panels or get stuck in your connecting joints. The last thing you need is a lumpy hardwood floor when you're done installing hardwood flooring.

Carpenter's Crayon - This is what you use to mark where you'll make your cuts on your panels. You'll also use this to mark up the surface where you'll be laying your panels. You'll want to keep this handy at all times because it is particularly important with the glue down method that everything be done very precisely.

Circular Saw - You'll use your circular saw to cut up panels as necessary. Additionally, you'll use your circular saw to score your substrate sheets every eight inches. This is important for the prevention of curling panels.

Glue - Many hardwood panel kits come with their own glue. If you need to buy glue for your hardwood panels, I highly recommend Bostik's Best Adhesive.

Lace Nails - You'll use these nails when connecting the panels to walls and wall strips.

Plywood Substrate Sheets - These are placed on top of the concrete and go underneath your hardwood floor.

Soft Cloths - You'll need these to clean up excess glue throughout the process of installing hardwood flooring. If the glue is allowed to set, it'll take extra measure to remove it. In some cases, it requires special chemicals and glue to remove glue once it has set. You'll also need your soft cloths to clean up after you've installed your hardwood floors.

Rubber Gloves - It's much better to glue the fingers of your gloves together than your own fingers together! Besides, many people don't like having dried glue on their hands for weeks after they finish installing hardwood flooring.

- Final Preparation for Installing Hardwood Flooring

When using the glue down method for installing hardwood flooring, it is absolutely essential that the surface where you will be placing your flooring panels is properly prepared.

You'll be attaching your flooring panels to this surface, so the floor must be smooth, dry, and as clean as possible to give your hardwood floor a solid support base. Be particularly careful to clean up anything that looks like it may be grease or oil, as your glue may not properly bond.

It's also very important that your sub floor be completely level and flat. If you notice any unevenness, get some patching cement from the hardware store to even the sub floor.

You also need to choose between one of the two methods of laying hardwood panels down with the glue down method. Your choices for installing hardwood flooring are the Walk On method or the Wet Lay method.

If you choose the Wet Lay method for installing hardwood flooring, you'll be putting glue across the substrate followed by placing the hardwood panel on top of the glue. After the glue starts to become tacky, you proceed to the next panel.

However, sometimes it is recommended for first time installers using the glue down method to place the next panels before the glue becomes tacky so that you can adjust your panels a few minutes later if they are not lined up properly.

The Walk On method of installing hardwood flooring requires precise panel laying. This process of installing hardwood flooring waits until the glue is very tacky and then lays the panel in the glue. This keeps you from getting glue smudges all over your panels as you go.

Experienced hardwood installers typically use the Walk On method because of the better finished results it can provide. Since you are reading instructions about how to install hardwood floors, we'll assume you're using the Wet Lay method.

- Instructions for Installing Hardwood Flooring

1. Place your substrate sheets, stretched across the foundation. Make sure that the surface is level, clean, and free of debris.

2. Get your glue warm. It should be slightly above room temperature or it will be very difficult to work with. If it's below room temperature, you'll find it impossible to work with your glue.

3. Use your square notched trowel to put glue in the starting corner of the room. Put enough to securely fasten the board, but ration your glue so that it'll be able to complete the entire hardwood flooring process.

If you had any doubt about whether you have enough glue, it would have been a good idea to buy more before you started gluing. You'll typically find that it takes an extra day to do the flooring when you run out of glue before you've finished.

4. Try to place your first wood panel straight down on the glue, secured into the corner. Since you are working with wet glue, place the panel as best you can at first so that you'll not be smearing the glue around as you adjust the panel's placement. If you had used the Walk On method, you wouldn't be able to move the panel at all only a few seconds after placement.

5. You can continue on as in the above steps with adding more panels until you reach the last panel, which shouldn't completely fit. Use your crayon to mark where to cut the board and your saw to make the cut.

6. Get your first row wedged in really tight so that it will provide a solid basis for your entire floor.

7. Before any of the glue dries, use a soft cloth to clean up any glue that may be sitting on the surface of your first row. The longer you wait to clean up the glue, the more difficult it will get to clean up the glue.

8. Hopefully you didn't mutilate the excess piece of panel you cut off to end the first row. That's going to be the panel you use to start the next row. This helps make sure your hardwood floor looks nice by having all of the panels offset.

9. If you're seeing any bubbles, hills, or slopes on the panels you've been laying, put a heavy, flat object on top of these sections to hold them down until the glue attaches them to the substrate.

10. Clean up again. Get all of that sawdust and glue out of there. A soft cloth with mineral spirits on it can be used to get glue you've missed that may be hardening. Clean the mineral spirits off quickly to avoid having them damage the floor. You should have a nice, new hardwood floor.

Hindsight Tips for Installing Hardwood Flooring:

- For best results, use plywood sheets to form your substrate.

- The thicker your substrate sheets are, the easier it is to compensate for leveling differences at the surface. But you should still try to get the surface as level as possible before laying your substrate sheets.

- If you have enough flat, heavy objects, place them on each new panel as you place the panel on the floor to help it get the best possible attachment to the substrate. Don't use anything that can damage the surface of your panels. If you have nothing else, you can always lay on the panels. Be careful not to get glue on top of them though.

Rest Assured That You Made a Good Choice Installing Hardwood Flooring

When you have your hardwood floor glued down, you are ready to experience a great sense of accomplishment. If you did a really good job of installing your hardwood flooring using the glue down method, you will not experience nearly as much creaky floor syndrome as you would with other methods of installation.

And for your sake, I really hope you followed the instructions carefully and picking out high quality flooring. This is because replacing a glued down hardwood floor is no task for amateurs. That is unless you've got destructive pleasure tendencies. You'll need some serious sledgehammer, crow bar, and circular saw work if you ever want to replace that glued down hardwood floor.

Choosing Wood Flooring - Enduring Elegance

2008-07-20T20:28:00.001-07:00

Wood has been a popular flooring choice for hundreds of years for good reason. Wood is durable and is available in such a wide range of materials and finishes that it blends well with any style of room. However, you will want to consider more than the way the wood flooring looks before you make your final decision.

First, you may want to consider how much wear and tear your floor will be subjected to. While hard woods, such as oak or hickory, are able to take quite a bit of traffic before they are damaged, soft woods, such as pine, will suffer from constant nicks and gouges. If you are using a country decorating style, you may actually prefer the look of distressed pine. If you decide you prefer pine wood flooring but do not care for the distressed look, you will need to look for flooring with a protective finish. You can also use heavy throw rugs or floor cloths to protect your floor.

Then, you will want to choose between Parquet and tongue and groove flooring. Parquet wood flooring is beautiful and elegant, but looks best in formal areas. It is harder to install than tongue and groove flooring, because you will have to be sure to lay out the Parquet tiles to be sure they form the proper pattern before fastening them down. Tongue and groove flooring does not have a pattern and looks wonderful in formal or informal areas.

Some people feel that using wood flooring is wrong because woodland areas are deforested faster than new trees are being planted. If you have strong feelings about not using wooden flooring because of this, you may want to consider wooden floors made with bamboo. These floors are just as beautiful and durable as other wood flooring products, but you can use them guilt free, since bamboo regenerates rapidly and the bamboo for these floors is grown specifically to be harvested.

Once you choose your wood flooring, you will need to install it. If you are installing a tongue and grove floor and rent or buy the proper tools, you can complete this project yourself. In fact, you should be able to completely install a wood floor in a single room in one weekend. Just be sure to ask your floor manufacturer for specific installation instructions before you begin. You will need a pneumatic floor nail gun, an air compressor, a rubber mallet, flooring nails, a saw, and flooring paper.

Wood Floor Wonder Tips

2008-07-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

Wood flooring has become more popular than ever especially with new easy to install options. However, wood flooring isn’t maintenance free. Learn how to keep your investment looking great with these quick wood floor wonder tips created especially with Houston wood flooring in mind.
Common Wood Floor Problems
The Problem: Peeling Finish or Excessive Early Wear and Tear. If your hard wood floors seem to show signs of wear and tear, traffic patterns or blisters it may be due to improper maintenance, use of strong detergents and cleaning agents or excessive grit.
Tip: Have your Houston wood floor cleaning done by a professional to make sure it is thoroughly cleaned and then re-coat. Afterwards continue to use a soft mop, minimal water and non abrasive detergents designed with wood floors in mind.
The Problem: Pet Stains or Odor. Hard wood floors tend to be absorbent so pet accidents can result in discoloration, stains and unpleasant odors if not properly treated.
Tip: Clean pet stains as soon as possible to avoid or prevent stains from setting. If stains or odor have already taken place then a deep cleaning is required to neutralize odors. Color correction may be required to fix the discolored areas.
The Problem: Cloudy or white spotting caused by water damage.
Tip: Depending upon duration and how deeply the water damage permeated the wood, it may be possible to clean and buff away the problem. However, most water damage requires the services of a qualified wood flooring professional capable of restoring the luster and shine of the floors.

Wood Flooring Looks Great

2008-07-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

If you want a classic floor then how about a wooden floor? Hard wood flooring is an always popular choice for many different styles of home. Whether you want the height of elegance or a rustic country look, hard wood flooring can give you want you want. Since there are so many different options in terms of colors and styles, there are so many options for each and every home.

There are many different selections in style that will give your home a unique look.

-Try plank style flooring because it will give you great energy savings and the planks will save you money. This look is several wide pieces that are next to each other in a single plank.

-Try smaller strips that are only 3 inches wide at the max. This will help your home appear bigger with this smaller floor pattern.

-If you want solid flooring than you can get this from a single piece of large wood. Many times these can be refinished and last over the years. You can choose the thickness if you go for a custom made wood floor.

-If you want small squares to give your home more of a pattern throughout then try a parquet floor. These squares are similar in look to a ceramic tiles and can come in a wide variety of shapes. You can choose the look that best suites your style and taste with parquet floors.

Now you simply must choose between a finished and unfinished look on your floors. If you can them pre finished they come from the factory with finish on them already. These are very easy to install especially if you want to do it yourself. They can also be pricey. You will make for the extra convenience, but at the same time can be cheaper than hiring someone to do the staining and sanding for you.

If you choose to go with an unfinished floor than you will have to finish it after it is laid down in your home. You will need to stain the wood, coat the wood, and this process can take days. This is because you must let it dry sufficiently between coats. If you don't have time to leave your home or hire people to do this for you, then consider a pre finished floor. This can save you a lot of time. You must also sand the floor down after each step of finishing. Renting a sander an help to make this job easier. You can find a sander at many local home improvement stores.

No matter what type or style of hardwood floor you choose to go with, know that you will be making a choice that can last and last in your home. It will add both beauty and value.

Characteristics Of Hard Wood

2008-07-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

If you want to build furniture or place wood flooring in your home, the main question for both will be which hardwood lumber is the best choice for your project. Once you learn a little about the different characteristics of hardwoods, this is not a difficult question to answer. Each hard wood lumber has certain characteristics that give them their unique qualities.

Hardwood is defined as wood originating from board leaf trees or trees that produce nuts. The hickory, oak, walnut, maple and cherry trees are the most popular hard wood trees in North America. The climate is perfect for large production of these species of trees. The lumber made from these trees is what is referred to as "hardwood." But, not all hardwood is the same. Groups in the hard wood lumber industry have made great progress in standardizing wood by its strength and grade. This helps consumers know which woods are the hardest and the most appropriate for their project. For example, the hickory and pecan are the hardest of the hardwoods. The hardness of a wood is measured by the number of pounds of pressure required to mar the wood. For the hickory and pecan woods, it takes approximately 1,820 pounds of pressure before the wood becomes marred. On the contrary, the Aspen is considered a hardwood but requires only 350 pounds of pressure before the wood is marred. Woods between these two extremes include the hard maple requiring 1,450 pounds of pressure and the white oak requiring 1,360 pounds. This comparison provides a good way to evaluate which wood is best for flooring and which is better for building furniture. The harder woods are best for flooring. For instance, cherry is a common wood for furniture and is in the middle of the hardness scale requiring 950 pounds of pressure for the wood to mar.

Hardwood can change depending on certain conditions. Specifically, it contracts and expands depending on the temperature and moisture and does this because it tries to adapt to the environment. The wood was once a living thing and maintains a life to some degree. To minimize the degree of change to the wood, it is kiln dried to remove much of the moisture and stabilize it. This helps keep the finished product closer to its true size and shape as it was the time it was manufactured.

Careful consideration of the right hard wood lumber for your project is very important, and equally as important as the finished look of the floor. Many hardwoods vary only slightly in their durability and strength. As a consumer, you will also need to decide on if you want the grainy appearance of the white oak or the smooth finish of the maple. Keep in mind, though, that any hard wood lumber can be stained and finished to the color that you want so consider the grain more than the color at this point.

Taking Care Of Hardwood Floors

2008-07-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

Hardwood floors need care to ensure that they are kept in great condition. To help ensure this, sweep up regularly and use the correct cleaning products for the floor.

Using hardwood for your floors is a great way to make the use out of your floor space. It can look great but some people worry about how to keep it clean. You should be rest assured though as it is quite simple to keep them clean once you know how. The thing to keep in mind is that the more you take care of your hardwood floors, the longer it will last and look great too.

The biggest threat to hardwood floors is obviously dirt and grime which can cause dents and scratches. So as you can see it is vital to keep the floor as clean as possible to avoid anything from damaging it. By keeping a daily routine going, this could make the world of difference to your floors and it could help to keep them looking as good as when you first got the flooring.

How to Prevent Damage on Hardwood Flooring

As well as having a regular clean of the floors, there are other things that you can do to help prevent anything from causing damage. Something that can help in a big way is the use of mats for areas such as doorways etc. This can trap a lot of grime, dirt and mud and stop it from being spread all across the hardwood floor.

Other things to help preserve the floor could include using the correct cleaning products on the floor; otherwise they could be too intrusive and maybe cause damage. As well as this try sweeping around as much as possible because a couple of crumbs here and there can mount up and rub against the floor. Something that you should never do is to drag heavy furniture and appliances across hardwood floors as it may scratch it. Water can also be a big threat to hardwood floors and it can cause serious damage if left.

It is always worth doing research to find out how to properly care for hardwood floors if you are not sure about it at first. It can be strenuous work having to keep tidying the floor, but it can stop the floor from getting damaged. Before you clean the floor with cleaning products, make sure that you get rid of any debris. The reason behind this is that you will only drag bits around the floor and you could risk scratching it too. After you mop the floor, dry it thoroughly with a clean cloth to get rid of any moisture. This should result in an extremely clean floor and by taking the extra care, it will make it last longer.

Extreme Home Improvement Tips: Hardwood Floor Installation

2008-07-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

can add that special something to your home environment, help you make use of your space and of course often add value. If your budget will allow, you may wish to pay for experts to come in and do the job for you. On the other hand you may be somebody for whom home improvement is an enjoyable and rewarding project to undertake yourself.

Of course some tasks are more difficult than others. For instance hardwood floor installation is not as straightforward as you think. Installing quality, durable flooring requires some preparation and if you choose to install it yourself it is wise to get as much support as possible. Many internet sites offer advice in detail.

Below are some brief, useful tips for hardwood floor installation:

Hardwood is a natural product and may have defects. When ordering wood check for defects, either natural or from the manufacturing process before buying. To be on the safe side order an extra 5 – 10% to allow for any overlooked problems.
Remember some urethane –cured hardwood glues come with bond only warranties but there are glues that do not have moisture protection warranties. Check whether you need glue with moisture protection.
Ensure the site is structurally sound and completed before beginning work.
As hardwood is a porous material and will contract and expand, all attempts must be made to control the humidity of the room. Painted walls should be dry. Exterior drainage should be pointed away from the house. Wood should be delivered as early as possible before installation to allow it to acclimatize to the air. Although the product is engineered to withstand moisture, it is advisable to check moisture levels prior to working and consult manufacturer’s recommendations re: acceptable levels of moisture.
Ensure that you prepare for your own safety and the protection of the wood during installation. Protecting your eyes with goggles is a must! Use a back brace for lifting. Soft rubber pads or cushion knee pads prevent abrasions to the floor surface.
Wetting the painted area first before scraping it off will help to keep dust to a minimum. Wet paint causes less dust than flaky paint.
Open all boxes of wood before starting to lay the wood to check for defects but also insures you get a picture of the color and texture variation before you start.
Establishing your baseline and the direction of the floor is a crucial step. Be meticulous in using measuring and marking lines. Remember the longest outside wall gives the best visual effect.
Floor boards are initially laid using a “staggered staircase’ method i.e. 3 boards fitted closely together with boards 2 and 3 being 6 inches shorter than the first board and placed above the first board. To ensure the boards do not lose their tight grip use 3-M blue tape 2 inches thick to secure them and ensure that excess glue is cleaned off the boards and your shoes before you go on to add more boards. Being meticulous with details can make the process quicker and easier.
Professional installers recommend rolling the floor with a 75lb roller. The advantage of this often overlooked process is that you can quickly remedy any air pockets or hollow spots before the glue has dried and apply additional needed pressure to deal with them.
If you have taken the time and money to invest in hardwood flooring it is wise to make sure you take care and maintain this material. Common-sense tells you to keep the floors clean particularly from water, food and grease. Use only leading brand cleaner made for pre-finished hardwood floors and do not use polish or oil-based wax. Reduce damage to the flooring by using floor protectors underneath all furniture and avoid walking on floors with footwear that will damage it like stiletto heels.

The above points are by no means comprehensive but are aimed at highlighting the small details to bear in mind when installing your hardwood flooring. When looking for extra support particularly on the internet, look for a reputable company who not only offer guidelines for installation but who offer a hardwood floor installation video online to help you do as professional a job as is possible.

Designing With Hardwood Floors

2008-07-13T20:37:00.001-07:00

Hardwood floors are suited to both casual and formal environments; they feel at home with modern or traditional and will compliment the decor of both minimalist and eclectic designs. Hardwood can be classic, rock, jazz, country, or hip hop. Today's State-of-the-art technology coupled with an almost limitless choice of stains, finishes, styles and designs makes hardwood flooring one of the most practical and versatile floor coverings available. Their beauty is enduring and like a fine wine, they mature with age.

Nature provides the inspiration when designing with hardwood floors. The abundance of natural hardwood species provides a plethora of wood grain structures, each unique and each matching a particular décor. Oak woods contain a lot of growth ring patterns and knots, and are best suited to traditional and rustic decors. However, adding a high gloss finish can make them elegant enough for any formal dining room. Woods such as Maple, Walnut and Birch contain very little graining and lend themselves well to contemporary and modern designs.

The aesthetic appeal of hardwood is also influenced to a large extent by mineral streaking, the presence of knots and shade and color variation. These features are also used in the classification of hardwoods.

Clear - This grade of hardwood is free of defects though it may have minor imperfections. Flooring in this category tends to be very consistent with little mineral streaking and knots, also making it the most expensive grade. Select - This grade is almost clear, but contains more natural characteristics such as knots and color variations.

Common grades (No. 1 and No. 2) have more markings than either clear or select and are often chosen because of these natural features and the character they bring to a room.

No.1 Common has a variegated appearance, light and dark colors, knots, flags and worm holes. No.2 Common is rustic in appearance and will show all wood characteristics of the species. These grades have always been the least expensive, but the recent revival of the antique rustic look has resulted in prices skyrocketing.

Performance is a very important aspect when selecting a hardwood floor. Some hardwood species are less porous than others, making them harder and less susceptible to staining. The Janka Hardness Test provides the relative hardness of numerous wood species used in flooring. This rating should only be used as a general guide, as the hardness is also affected by growth region.

Plank construction and finish are also important factors when determining the durability of any wood floor. Plank construction comes in two forms, solid and engineered. Factors such as type of existing subfloor and relative air humidity will determine which floor is best suited to your needs.

Great advancements in finish technology have resulted in floors that are less susceptible to scratching, denting, fading, and are easier to maintain. The addition of Aluminum Oxide to the surface finish has added a measure of performance resulting in a hardwood floor that, maintained properly, should never have to be replaced.

Proper Care for Hardwood Floor

2008-07-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

For you to be able to achieve the maximum benefits that your hardwood floor can bring, it is necessary that you apply appropriate maintenance strategy for it. Hardwood floor materials, no matter how sturdy that could be, are organics and that means it can decay in the long run. Time, together with other constraints, can make it ruined or worn. It is vulnerable to decomposition. However, if proper hardwood floor care is employed, you can make it as firm as new ones.

Forget it not, hardwood floor materials are expensive. And because it is considered as investment, it is really essential that you get its maximum benefits that is worth to your expenses for it.

Below are some of essential tips that you must consider in order to properly care your hardwood floor.

One is, you have to avoid it to be exposed so much in sunlight. If your floor has its large window, you have to protect them from sun exposure by putting blinds or sheer curtains. It is proven that ultraviolet rays have ill effects on materials like hardwood floor.

Another is, do not drag your large furniture around the area. If you intent to more your table, sofa or other home furnishing, have it done by lifting. If you can not do it all by yourself, ask assistance from other person. Obviously, dragging can scar and damage your floor. It could be a hassle task in your part if you do reapplying coating again.

Another essential thing to remember and apply is, you have wipe up stains and spills immediately. Letting stains and spills to stay in your hardwood floor can make it more difficult to handle. If your hardwood floor has a quality of intact and good coating, there is nothing to be worried about. However, to make it safe, and to make sure care, it is recommended that you do wiping immediately after the hardwood floor is stained with foreign matters.

Lastly, you have to make it sure that you sweep your hardwood floor regularly and remember also to use the appropriate equipment to have this done. Utilize broom with an exploded bristles as in this way you can make an effective cleaning. If not, instead of cleaning, you may just add dirt on it and you have to be careful with this. Inappropriate equipment can damage your floor and may cause bigger problem along the way.

Therefore, the life of your hardwood floor greatly depends on how responsible and how enthusiastic you are in taking care of it. Remember, one effective way to have this done is proper cleaning and proper usage. By doing so, you'll be able to achieve its maximum benefits.

Floor School : All About Hardwood

2008-07-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

There are two basic types of hardwood flooring - solid and engineered. Engineered floors are made from layers (plies) of both hardwood and softwood, with the top layer typically a solid ply of the species. Solid hardwood flooring is not made up of any plies - it's pure solid hardwood, and typically costs less.

The main installation methods for hardwood floors are nail/staple down, glue down, and floating. The floating method is the most flexible because it allows for installations over virtually any subfloor.

Hardwood's grain patterns (the dark gray or black marks and knots of various sizes) are the result of the growth process of a particular species of wood and are influenced by sunlight, soil and climate.

You can expect to see shade changes in your floor over time. It usually comes from exposure to sunlight - the change will be more noticeable in lighter colors, which will eventually darken. Some species, like Brazilian cherry, will darken over the years just due to the natural characteristics of the wood.

Some of the different wood species used in flooring, starting with the hardest and most durable, are Brazilian Cherry, Merbau, Pecan, Maple, White Oak, Ash, Beech, Red Oak, Birch, Walnut and Teak.

Hardwood Care

To keep your hardwood floor looking beautiful, there are some simple procedures you should follow.

Vacuum regularly and use non-staining mats at exterior entrances to keep sand, dirt, grease, and oil outside.

To protect your floor's finish, use pads underneath furniture legs to help prevent scratching, and, while we're on the subject, keep all your pets nails trimmed, too. Along that same line, when moving any heavy objects (like furniture or appliances, for instance), use a dolly and protective sheets of plywood on the floor.

When cleaning the floor, always use the manufacturer's recommended cleaning procedures. Avoid getting water on the floor, too, as it may cause the wood grain to rise, or the boards to cup.

And be careful about exposure to the sun, because UV rays do the same thing to wood that they do to skin: accelerate the aging, which causes the wood stain to change color.

The How-To's of Hardwood Floor Refinishing

2008-07-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

Many of the old houses employ hardwood flooring. The use of hardwood for floors was popularized in the circa 1960s. Today, there is a resurgence of hardwood floors because people find these floors to be very relaxing to the eye. Hardwood floors are very attractive because of their natural look.

For people who purchased an old house with withered hardwood flooring, they would probably want to look into refinishing the flooring. Carpets cannot hide the hideous truth forever, and at some point, these homeowners need to refinish the flooring. A bad hardwood floor can literally ruin the whole theme of the house therefore lowering its value.

Refinishing a hardwood flooring is a great idea. Yes, it is a great idea indeed and that is why professional refinishers of hardwood floors charge exorbitant fees to their clients. These clients can't do anything but to succumb to the demands of the contractors because they don't have the know-how of proper hardwood refinishing.

Given the proper know-how and techniques for hardwood refinishing, homeowners can be liberated from the financial burden of paying professional contractors to refinish their hardwood flooring. If one is able-bodied and can follow simple instructions, then there would be no reason at all why he can't refinish the flooring himself.

Let's take a look at the pertinent steps that one needs to do to be able to successfully refinish his hardwood flooring.

1) Do the preparatory stuff

Before engaging into sanding the floor or being too excited and buying all the necessary equipment and tools for the refinishing process, one needs to lay down the foundations and do the preparatory steps in the process.

First, one needs to decide what look he would want to give his hardwood floor. There should be a design and color scheme plan that should be laid out before one starts to sand. Knowing what one really wants is as important as doing the process properly. This is to ensure that he knows what he would want to do so that he knows how he can achieve his desired look.

After the plans have been laid out, make sure that all the furniture and other things in the room are taken out and stored properly.

2) Take out the nails

Sanding is perhaps one of the most important steps in the whole process of refinishing a hardwood floor, but don't get too excited yet. Before sanding, make sure that all the nails in the hardwood. The nails need to be taken out because they will eventually damage the sand paper or the sanding discs and perhaps one's hands if they are not taken out. The holes that are left by the nails should be filled with wood fillers that are of the same color as that of the wood.

3) Sand, sand, sand!

If the area of the flooring is not too big, then one can actually sand the floor manually (by hand). But if one deems that there is a need to use an electric sander, then he has two options: one is to buy a new one, the other is to rent. One can buy a pretty decent hardwood floor sander for under 100 US dollars. This can be seen as a good investment, but it really depends on how frequently it will be used. One can also choose to rent a sander from the local home depot or borrow from his neighbor.

One should sand the floor at least 3 times. The first should be made with a heavier grit and the grit level goes down each time. This will ensure that the wax and the coating will be removed thoroughly.

4) Stain the floor

Try to get the correct color that you would want to apply to your hardwood floor and test it in a small wood plank that is similar to the wood that is used in the flooring. Make sure that the stain is applied equally to the floor.

5) Refinish

Refinish with a polyurethane finish. Make sure that the container is stirred and not shaken to prevent bubbles from forming. Apply the solution equally throughout the flooring and wait for it to dry. It usually takes about 3 hours for the solution to dry.

Refinishing your own hardwood flooring is not an impossible task. One only needs the right materials and the right implementation of his plans to be able to successfully refinish such floors.

Basic Hardwood Floor Repair

2008-07-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

In spite of the guarantees you see in the store about how many decades a hardwood floor should last, they seldom last anywhere near that long. There are so many ways in which it can become damaged that it is common for owners to begin repairing hardwood floor boards at some point during the first two decades.

It isn't that hardwood floor repair becomes necessary after so few years because of a flaw in the wood itself. It is just that a floor is something you use regularly. You have people with all sorts of debris passing through the rooms. You have days when you decide to move the furniture. If you kept it cordoned off with ropes in an environmentally controlled room, you would never have to learn how to repair it.

Basic hardwood floor repair skills are necessary because it is not cost effective to replace a floor each time it gets dinged up in various places. When you are trying to fix scratches from a dog chasing your cat through the room or a divot from dropping the desk as you passed through the room, it just makes a lot more sense to do some basic repair. The repair begins when you go after each blemish on a case by case basis, finding the best repair method for each blemish. Here are a few ideas to throw into your mental hardwood repair kit:

-Floor Scratches - check your local hardware store for some color putty and instructions on how to apply it. Roughly, this process is just cleaning the hardwood floor and then applying a color putty stick to the damaged area.

-Deep Floor Scratches - these gouges in your floor will require wood filler matched to your hard floor color tones.

-Gaps Between Boards - your floor will naturally shift over time, particularly if you do not have a firm foundation under your house. Most minor gaps should be ignored, but when they become major you'll need a special gap removal tool.

-Buckling Boards - this is the opposite of gaps. Your floor boards will buckle when they are pushed together, exist at high humidity, or receive severe water damage. As the floor boards have nowhere to go but up, dangerous tripping areas will be created. You need a heavy, complete flat weight to place on these buckling boards for a few days to make them even again.

Selecting A Hardwood Floor For Your Home

2008-07-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

The shade of hardwood flooring you choose can dramatically change the look of your room. You can compliment the other design aspects in the room, bringing continuity and balance to the overall design. Lighter colors of hardwood help small rooms appear larger, while rich, dark tones add drama to larger rooms to create a warmer, more intimate feel.

One of the most popular attributes of hardwood flooring, is its' natural coloration. Natural flooring adapts to any style, now or in the future. For rooms with plenty of natural light, you may want to consider some of the darker tones available. If the room doesn't have natural light, you can lighten it up considerably by choosing a floor with a lighter color. Just remember, you can avoid being tied to a particular scheme by choosing natural colors.

Hardwood comes in a variety of strip and plank options. Strip flooring is 21/4 wide and plank comes in varying widths starting at 3". You can visually expand the size of your room by selecting a strip floor, while a plank floor enhances a larger room. Choose a width that corresponds to the overall scale of the room. A popular option is to use different width planks ranging between 3-5-7". This can create a more traditional and less formal look.

Beveled edge planks can help delineate detail in the natural wood and adds a more casual feel while square edge planks fit flush against each other creating a smooth, traditional look. An eased or micro-beveled edge creates an angled effect where boards meet to create more depth and dimension while creating a more casual, relaxed look. These profiles can give the overall floor pattern distinctively different looks.

Waxing Hardwood Floors

2008-07-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Why you should wax your floors frequently.
How to wax floors and prepare for waxing. Different kinds of floor wax.

Many homeowners today prefer hardwood or other type of solid surface flooring to wall to wall carpeting. The initial appeal is the beauty of wood floor but the easy upkeep of wood floors is also a big factor. Lightly sweeping and dusting. along with an occasional waxing is about all wood floors require.

In comparison to heavy vacuuming and the necessity of steam cleaning at least once a year. caring for wood floors seems to be a breeze. If you apply a protective coating of wax to a wood floor. the wood will be preserved and stay cleaner and in good repair longer. Floor wax gives wood floors a beautiful glow and it also protects and maintains other types of floors such as linoleum. This gives the flooring a beautiful appearance that makes the home more attractive. Applying wax consistently will also protect the flooring from water and moisture damage. It can minimize the appearance of scratches. grooves and ridges in the flooring and prevent further such damage. The appeal of a clean. shiny. freshly waxed floor cannot be denied. Wax works to protect hardwood and other floors by reducing the abrasion they are exposed to. Grit and grime slide over the surface of a waxed floor instead of being ground in.

Floor wax can be purchased in three varieties: water based. solvent based and polymer. Some people are concerned about health problems in dealing with floor wax because it contains chemicals; some floor waxes even contain formaldehyde. The companies that make floor wax are aware of these concerns and have now started to make products that do not contain harsh chemicals and are environmentally safe to use. These types of waxes are becoming more commonly available. No-wax floors have become popular. not only because of the concerns about chemicals and the environment. but also because many families with two working partners do not have the time for too many household chores. But even no wax floors need to be cleaned frequently and. if damage occurs to the surface. they may have to be waxed anyway to add the protection that has been removed.

Waxing a floor is good for protecting the surface and also looks beautiful. but since wax builds up over time. it does need to be removed once in a while by stripping the floor. Wax removers also contain chemicals so they need to be used with caution. and anyone who is using them should understand what chemicals they are dealing with and protect themselves accordingly. Masks against fumes and gloves to handle the liquids may be necessary if you are going to take on this chore.

Alternatives To Hardwood Floors

2008-07-01T19:57:00.001-07:00

Marble tile floors are a practical, elegant alternative to hardwood flooring. Easy to maintain, they can enhance your interior and come in many styles and colors.

While researching types of flooring for your home you most certainly considered replacing your old carpets, but maybe you're not convinced that trading the constant vacuuming for the waxing and sweeping of hardwood flooring is for you. This is why you may want to consider marble floor tiles.

When you start looking at the tiling options available, you will soon realize that there many variations to choose from, offering different colors, textures, shapes and sizes. Whether you select marble tiles with a rough or smooth finish and a simple or intricate pattern depends on your current home décor.

A number of companies will be happy to give you samples for you to take home so you can select a style, color and pattern that you can confidently match with your taste and interior. Once you have decided on a type of marble floor tile it is very important to measure the room that you want to cover precisely as marble floor tiles are generally sold by the square foot. You should always consider purchasing an additional square foot or two in case some tiles get damaged during the laying process. You can buy marble floor tiles from a large number of manufacturers as well as the larger home improvement stores.

Once your new flooring has been installed by a specialist, you need to make sure that you only use cleaners, sealers and polishers that were designed specifically for use on marble floor tile. Before you start cleaning, there are several things to think of.

Improve The Look And Feel Of Your Office With Hardwood Chair Mats

2008-07-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Importance Of Sanding Hardwood Floors

2008-06-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Many of those who are into restoring hardwood floors would say that sanding is the hardest (even the most unpleasant) part of the process but also the most satisfying one. They have come to realize the importance of sanding hardwood floors.

Even though sanding is a laborious process, this part of the restoring process is the one that can give your flooring that elegant look. And if you are looking to sand hardwood floors, the job doesn't really have to be unpleasant; all that's needed is adequate knowledge on how to do it right.

You're not alone in wondering why would you want to sand your hardwood floors if doing so is such a hard and laborious process. Not only that it can be costly because you'll have to either rent or buy special tools for sanding.

There is a good reason why sanding hardwood floors is vital despite it being a difficult, time consuming and costly process. Sanding is the part of the hardwood restoration or repair process that would truly bring out the visual quality of hardwood floors.

Knowledge of how to sand your hardwood floors and proper application of that knowledge can bring out the beauty of it. This beauty is a combination of wood grain, color tone and shine. Sanding is what helps bring out the hardwood's grain quality. In addition, sanding makes for smoother hardwood flooring, thereby increasing the comfort value of the flooring.

Be aware that the tools you will need for sanding are not your usual power tools. You'll have to either buy these tools from a hardware shop or rent them from a tool rental company for a few days. Between buying and renting these sanding tools, go with renting. It isn't really cost effective to buy them if you are only going to refinish your hardwoord flooring every few years or so.

The sanding tools you'll need are:

- sandpaper with at least three ratings (heavy, light and in between)
- vacuum cleaner
- buffer
- sander
- edger
- masks, goggles, gloves, etc. for dust protection

There is good sanding and bad sanding. It is vital that before you start sanding, you clean the floor thoroughly. There should not be any nails sticking out and the floor must generally be even.

First, you need to apply the heaviest sandpaper. Make sure you run the sander on the floor in even strokes. Take note that this process takes a while and involves expending a lot of energy so be prepared; otherwise, you'd get a bad back ache. When the heaviest sandpaper layer is used up, use the lighter sandpaper on the hardwood flooring next. Finally, use the lightest sandpaper.

The edges and corners of your hardwood flooring are hard to reach areas so you'll have to sand them using a handheld edger.

Be warned that sanding involves dust particles flying all around so be sure to wear protective gear while sanding hardwood floors. In addition, close all vents that connect the room you're working in to the other rooms in the house. The last thing you want is dust throughout the house. Make sure that the only vent on is the one that's connected to the outside of your house. Close the doors in the room where you're sanding and place wet sheets or towels along the doors to keep dust from seeping out.

Wholesale Hardwood Flooring - Isn't That Just For Retailers

2008-06-29T19:56:00.002-07:00

You can buy wholesale hardwood flooring directly from the major manufacturers such as Dupont, Armstrong, Mohawk, Hartco and others. Usually hardwood flooring at a wholesale price is reserved just for wholesalers or for flooring retailers. However, many companies do offer their customers the chance to purchase wholesale hardwood flooring at prices far below the retail price, even though they may not actually be as low as wholesale.

One of the ways you can save money by buying wholesale hardwood flooring is to look at the selection of laminate hardwood flooring. The difference in the price of laminate flooring as compared to solid wood will make it seem as you are buying wholesale wood flooring. With the recent advancements in the manufacture of laminate flooring, it is much harder to tell the difference between laminate and hardwood. You can kill two birds with one stone - you get the flooring you want at a wholesale price and you get the look of hardwood that you always wanted.

Hardwood flooring wholesalers often offer customers the chance to buy hardwood flooring at a wholesale price. These events are usually an annual event when the wholesalers want to clear out their warehouses to make room for more stock. You buy the wholesale hardwood flooring as is, which could include some damaged boards or there may only be a small supply of certain woods or finishes. You do need to make sure that you buy enough hardwood because if you do spoil a few boards or run out before you get the room completed, you may not be able to get the hardwood to finish it.

Even when you are buying wholesale hardwood flooring, the sales staff will help you choose the right color to suit your furniture. If you are not sure how to calculate the amount of hardwood flooring you need, hardwood flooring wholesalers will do this for you and many of them also have delivery service available as well. Wholesale wood flooring sales usually draw large crowds of homeowners who are either building a new home or considering a remodelling project.

Wholesale hardwood flooring is available in all grades of hardwood. This is an excellent way to get the best quality hardwood for your flooring needs at prices you would expect to pay for the lesser quality boards. Even if you plan a flooring project in the future, you can buy the wholesale wood flooring and store it until you are ready to use it. However, hardwood flooring wholesalers will not accept a deposit with this type of sale or agree to keep it in the warehouse until you are ready. You do need to have a place in which to keep your wholesale hardwood flooring.