Solid Hardwood Flooring

Solid Hardwood Flooring
All You Ever Wanted to Know About Solid Hardwood Floors

What Is Solid Hardwood Flooring?

When we talk about Solid Hardwood Flooring, the most important thing we need to know is that we are talking about 100% percent real wood! Not like in Engineered Hardwood Flooring, the Solid Wood Floors are made of solid pieces of wood, which generates pieces of Solid Hardwood Floors.

In the early days of hardwood flooring, the term Solid Hardwood Flooring, used to describe the Solid Oak Hardwood Flooring, usually the Red Oak Flooring which comes with 3/4” inch. thickness and 2-1/4” inch. wide Hardwood Strips. Surprisedly, even in our days it is still one of the Best Sellers in the Solid Hardwood Flooring World.

Today, with the new advanced and improved technology, our world of Solid Wood Floors reached to whole new places, allowing us to choose from a variety of Wood Species, different Widths and huge selection of Wood Stains and Colors. Now you can get your Solid Hardwood Flooring in various sizes, from the small size of 2-1/4” inch. wood floor strips to 3” inch. , 4” inch. , 5” inch. and even 6” inch. wide Hardwood Plank Flooring, and even wider… Most of the new Solid Wood Floors come on random lengths varies from 3’ feet. to 7’ feet. long flooring planks.

What's The Difference Between Prefinished Hardwood Flooring and Unfinished Hardwood Flooring?

Solid Hardwood Floors can come both Prefinished Wood Flooring and Unfinished Wood Flooring. For most of the residential customers, the best choice is to go with the Prefinished Solid Hardwood Flooring. Our Prefinished Solid Hardwood Floors are already sanded, sealed, stained, finished and coated with 8 Layers of Aluminum Oxide all to produce a product which is much more durable, strong and effective with a sealing coat that will last longer than anything that you may find in a hardwood flooring supply store or home improvement center. That’s why The Prefinished Hardwood Flooring is a Ready-to-Install Product! You can walk on your new Hardwood Floor in the minute you install it!
The other choice in the Solid Wood Floors World is the Unfinished Wood Flooring. Those Wood Floors require a lot of work and time to obtain a high quality finished product, and are NOT Recommended for unprofessional people. When you buy Solid Unfinished Hardwood Flooring you have to use Sanding Machines to sand the wood for the desire grade. Then you will have to stain and then seal the wood floors. This process is long and somehow complicated since you need to know how to use those Sanders and Sanding Machines, how to stain the floor and how to seal it, you will have to wait (sometimes even days) until the stain or the sealer coats get dry, and of course you need to buy all the material, the Sanding Papers, the Wood Stains, the Wood Sealers and of course the very expensive sanding machines (there are some places where you can rent those machines). All of these make the Prefinished Hardwood Floor a very Cost-Effective Product, which save you the time, money and power you will waste when installing the Unfinished Wood Floors.

So What To Choose? Prefinished Wood Floors or Unfinished Wood Floors?

So why do people still choose the Solid Unfinished Hardwood Floors instead of Prefinished Hardwood Floors? When buying The Unfinished Hardwood Flooring you can finish it however you like. You can choose different wood species from a very big variety, sand it and finish it to the desirable finish grade (hand-scraped, heavy-distressed or simple flat), then choose a stain from huge selection of brands and colors – you can even mix stains to obtain a new color – and by that creating your own Special and Unique Hardwood Flooring.
The Unfinished Hardwood Floors also come in different grades:
Select & Better – Usually describe a very consist color variation with longer plank lengths and no blemishes or knots.
#1 Common – The planks are showing more of the natural character such as lighter and darker boards, pinholes and knots are present.
Again, it is very Not Recommended to install Unfinished Wood Floors by someone who is not a professional in the Hardwood Flooring Industry!

Today’s Prefinished Solid Hardwood Flooring comes in a very big variety of wood species and stains. You can find all kinds of Hardwood Flooring as Solid Oak Hardwood Flooring, Red Oak Hardwood Flooring, Walnut Hardwood Flooring, Maple Hardwood Flooring and even Exotic Species like the Pilang Hardwood Flooring (Exotic Walnut) or the Jatoba Hardwood Flooring (Brazilian Cherry). You can have White Oak Hardwood Flooring with Walnut Stain, or even Maple Hardwood Flooring with Sunset Stain… Endless Possibilities…

What About Refinishing Solid Wood Floors?

One of the biggest advantage of the Solid Hardwood Flooring is the ability to refinish, re-sand or re-coat it for a several more times. With the 3/4" inch. thickness you can refinish the product up to even 10 times! By that you are getting the best value from your product – you can have your Solid Hardwood Floors for Over 100 Years!

How to Install Solid Hardwood Flooring?

The Solid Hardwood Floors react to the presence of moisture. In the winter, while most of the places use heating systems which dry out the air, moisture leaves the hardwood floors, causing the wood floor to shrink a little in size, what can open a small gaps between the wood flooring planks. In the Summer, when humidity is higher, the wood flooring boards will expand what makes the gaps between the planks to disappear. Too much moisture can cause the Hardwood Boards to buckle or even break. This is why it is very important to check the installation area for moisture, with a Moisture Test Meter, Before the Hardwood Flooring Installation!
Due to the sensitivity of Solid Wood Floors to moisture, it is strongly not recommended to install them bellow ground level (the basement for example) or directly on concrete!
Usually the Solid Hardwood Floors will be installed using the Nail-Down Installation method, using Flooring Nails Guns or Flooring Stapler with the right size of Nails, Staples or Fasteners. Some of the Solid wood Flooring (Usually the thinner ones) can be glue down too – According to Manufacturer Instructions.