Solid Hardwood Flooring
Solid hardwood is cut from a wood log into a solid plank and the tongue and grooves are milled on all four sides. They range from 5/16" to 3/4" in thickness and come in various widths and generally are in random lengths. Solid wood planks are sold in both unfinished bundles or prefinished at the factory and sold in full cartons. You can buy solid wood flooring in a variety of North American wood species as well as exotic hardwoods from different countries from around the World.
Because solid wood planks are sensitive to changes in humidity they are only recommended for on or above ground level. Use caution if you are thinking about installing above a crawl-space. Solid wood floors are meant to be nailed-down over a wood type subfloor. Other types of hardwood flooring: |
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Hardwood Flooring:
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Engineered Hardwood - "Laminate" Flooring
Engineered hardwood is also called laminated wood floors because they consist of several thin, wood plies that are glued together under heat and pressure. The plies can vary from 3 to 9 plies and are offered in a variety of widths from 2-1/4" to 8" wide and in many different stained colors. Engineered wood planks are more dimensionally stable than solid wood planks and can be use on all grade levels, including in dry basements over fully cured concrete slabs. The top ply of an engineered wood plank is called the finish layer and can be any hardwood specie, either North American or exotic hardwoods. The plies underneath the top finish layer are a softer wood.
Many engineered hardwood floors can be glued-down, stapled down or floated over wood subfloors. They can also be glued-down or floated over dry concrete slabs and some types of hard surface floor coverings, such as vinyl flooring or vinyl floor tiles. (Note: the existing flooring must be well secured to the subfloor.) Longstrip Hardwood Flooring
Longstrip hardwood is engineered hardwood floors that are 3-plies and generally around 7-1/2" to 8" wide. The top finish layer is usually 2-3 rows of thin, hardwood slices all glued to the center wood core. This gives each plank the appearance of being 2-3 rows of planks already secured together. Longstrip wood planks are not very common, although they are a bit easier to install for do-it-yourself installations. Longstrip planks can be glued-down, stapled or floated over a wide variety of sub-floors and installed in almost any area of the home. This includes installing over dry concrete slabs.
Parquet Wood Flooring
Parquet wood flooring is a North American term for geometric, rectangular blocks of wood that are either glues or nailed down depending on the type of parquet construction.
Acrylic Impregnated Hardwood FlooringAcrylic impregnated hardwood is an engineered hardwood floor where to top, finished ply has been totally saturated in acrylic and stain. This allows the color to go all the way through the top ply rather than only partially staining the top ply. Saturating the entire top ply makes the finish layer harder than normal wood flooring, but this also means you cannot refinish the wood floor. You can re-coat the floor's surface though.
Floating Hardwood FloorsFloating wood floors are engineered wood floors that can be floated over various sub-floors, such as dry concrete slabs, OSB, and some types of existing flooring. Floating wood floors are never secured directly to the substrate, just the tongue-and-grooved plank edges are locked together. Many floating wood floors can be installed by either staple-down, glued-down or the floating installation method.
Exotic Hardwood FloorsExotic hardwood is used to describe hardwood species from around the World. These wood species are not found in North America and are imported from Australia, Africa, Brazil and the Far East. Exotic hardwoods offer unique wood graining and more uncommon colorations. Most exotic hardwood floors are available in the engineered wood construction and some are available in solid wood planks as well.
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