Hardwood Flooring
Hardwood floors add a beautiful and natural touch. They also add value to your home and are highly praised in the resale home market. Today's hardwood floors have made advances in style, durability, maintenance and care, making them more widely usable throughout the home. With simple sweeping or vacuuming and occasional spot cleaning, wood floors will last a lifetime. There are hundreds of choices in style and color with today's options spanning into exotic hardwoods. Most wood floors are available in several grades in a wide range of prices.
Whether you want an old school nail down sand and finish product or a prefinished engineered floor installed, R.L. Peterson Construction has the product and personnel to take care of your job. We guarantee the best quality and value available.
There are many considerations that must be given when selecting a wood floor product before you start. Here is some general information to help you with your decision making.
Always look at several product lines, make comparisons as to wear warranties, thickness, type of construction, type and number of finish coats etc...
Types of Wood Floors
Solid - Solid wood floor products range from 1/4" to 1" with the most common size being 3/4" thick x 2 1/4" wide.
Engineered - These products are constructed in various layers, with grain alternating in opposite directions giving this product more stability for installation in areas solid wood floor products cannot be installed. This product comes in various plys (layers), most being 3-5 ply.
Acrylic Impregnated - These are wood floor products where the wood grain has been injected with an acrylic material making it very hard and durable, which makes this a good choice for high traffic areas such as restaurants, malls, and other high traffic areas. With the various colors and patterns this also can be used for in home installation.
Wood Floor Styles
Strip - Wood Flooring with a lineal tongue and groove construction most common in 1.5" and 2.25" thickness
Plank - Same as strip except for widths. Most start at 3" or 3.25" and go up in width in 1" increments. Some varieties reach 12-14" in solid or engineered, unfinished or prefinished
Parquet - Pieces of wood floor construct into a pattern or design, most often geometric in nature
Unfinished Wood Floors
(No finish-bare wood floor)-This product whether solid or engineered must be job site finished. This can be a very dusty experience unless a dust containment system is used. Job site sanding and finishing can take several days to over a week according to square footage, stains, and number of coats of top finish. Finishes are oil or water based in different sheens. This process needs to be done after ALL other trades have completed their work, allowing enough time to complete the job such that finishes can cure properly. Maintaining these finish are very important in providing a long life for your hardwood floor products and typically includes a three course sanding and three coats of finish (oil or water based), with additional cost for prep (furniture and carpet removal), moldings and more expensive finishes. These unfinished wood floor products come in various thicknesses and widths.
Prefinished Wood Flooring
These products are produced in acrylic impregnated, engineered and solids. They are becoming the main stream of the "new" hardwood floor products. These new tough factory finishes are one of the main reasons for making this type of hardwood floor product so popular with home owners, builders and DIY'ers alike. The other reason is the ease of installation and the elimination of dusty sanding procedures. These products can cost from $2-$7 per square foot not including installation cost, prep, moldings and added accents, borders, and custom work. Typically these prefinished wood floor products come in various thicknesses and widths.