FLOORING SUPPLIES » engineered flooring

How should I maintain my engineered floor?

webdesignvisayas — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:30:31 +0000

An engineered floor, or any other fine wood flooring for that matter, can only maintain its beauty if it is properly maintained. While maintaining hardwood flooring is fairly simple, it is important to perform maintenance often and in the correct manner. Here are some helpful tips:

1. Sweep or vacuum the floor to make sure that all dirt and debris are clear from the floor. One of the biggest threats to a finished wood floor is debris becoming caught under a furniture leg and then dragging that piece of furniture across the floor. Which leads us to the next tip:

2. Lift furniture to move it. The legs themselves may wear and become sharp or jagged, presenting the threat of a major gouge. A piece of debris may also become caught underneath them, with the subsequent pressure causing an otherwise benign pebble to become as damaging as a knife point.

3. Do not apply excess amounts of water when mopping. The first rule of maintaining any hardwood floor is to keep it away from water and other forms of moisture as much as possible. Water causes swelling and a myriad of other nasty problems for a engineered and solid hardwood flooring alike. Therefore, when mopping the floor (with a cleaner approved by the manufacturer for hardwood flooring) make sure that the mop is not sopping-wet and that it is clean. A mop that is dirty and not well-wrung will probably cause more harm than good. Make sure to wipe up excess water with a soft cloth.

Engineered Veneers

webdesignvisayas — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:06:39 +0000

There are three primary types of veneers, also known as wear layers, that are used in the construction of engineered flooring. These are:

1. Sawn veneers.
2. Peeled veneers.
3. Sliced veneers.

Each veneer type has its benefits and drawbacks that are important to consider when choosing material for your engineered floor.

Peeled Veneers

Peeled veneers are made by first boiling and steaming a log. The log is then rotated against a blade that peels a layer off the log, which becomes the peeled veneer. Peeled veneers are typically the poorest quality of veneers.

Sliced Veneers

Sliced veneers are considered to be superior to peeled veneers, though both process begin by boiling and steaming the log. Whereas the peeling method rotates the whole log against a blade, sliced veneers are made by slicing a quartersawn log either perpendicularly to the grain or radially by rotating the quartersawn log.

Sawn Veneers

Sawn veneers are the oldest style of veneer, and are produced by cutting the log with a band saw. They are typically less dimensionally stable than sawn and sliced veneers, as they are more structurally similar to the actual log itself than the other two veneers. As a result, you can expect more swelling and contraction in an engineered floor with sawn veneers than one with sliced and sawn veneers.

Typically the thicker veneer types, usually sliced and sawn, will last longer as they can be refinished more often than thinner types. Thickness and method of construction are all important considerations for an engineered floor.

Considerations When Purchasing an Engineered Hardwood Floor

webdesignvisayas — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:57:37 +0000

Engineered flooring comes in many different specie-flavors, sizes, veneer types, etc. Add to that the different gloss levels of the finish on the product and it becomes abundantly clear: One size does not fit all when it comes to engineered flooring. When shopping for engineered hardwood, it is important to take into consideration this myriad of different structural and finish characteristics rather than finding a specie you like and pulling the trigger. Shopping for hardwood flooring means that you, fair consumer, must become somewhat of a junior architect. As with any product, the more you know about it before you buy, the better the product you will ultimately select. Additionally, you will be more satisfied with that product, as you will know exactly how it stacks up next to the other products you could have chosen, not just how the color and appearance of the veneer specie compares to others.

Here are some factors to take into consideration that come down to your taste as a potential engineered flooring buyer:

1. What is the finish comprised of? What brand is it?

Prefinished wood products in addition to engineered flooring all come prefinished by the factory, but what brand of finish did they use for the prefinishing? Is that finish manufacturer reputable, or is it comprised of a guy in the back of a VW bus with a chemistry set and no trace of eyebrows? This is one of the easiest factors to take for granted when making your flooring decision. Put your retailer on the spot; he may not know off the top of his head, but should be easily able to find out for you.

2. What is the gloss level?

This is a matter of preference for some. Some prefer a very glossy finish to catch light, while others feel that a high gloss finish obscures the woods natural beauty with glare. Personally, I tend to lean towards the latter: Ive got enough reflective surfaces installed in my house to admire myself in, I dont need my floor serving as a surrogate mirror. Gloss is calculated in degrees. For instance, a 40 gloss is called a medium or semi-gloss, whereas 25 gloss is a more subdued gloss level. 85 gloss is sometimes called a glass or a very shiny gloss, like that of gym floors. 100 gloss is like walking on the translucent ceiling of heaven, pure light. Actually, Ive never seen 100 gloss, I just made that up.

Dont forget to take these factors into consideration, as they are the easily overlooked but very important factors that can make the difference between an engineered hardwood floor that you love and one thats just not quite right.

Engineered Flooring

webdesignvisayas — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:50:11 +0000

Engineered flooring, due to the way it is manufactured, offers superior dimensional stability. It is more stable than its traditional counterpart, solid wood flooring. If you are unfamiliar with the construction of engineered wood flooring, it is essentially manufactured in a manner similar to plywood. The plywood base, or substrate, is made of thin layers of wood which are oriented with their grain in an alternating arrangement (90 degrees for each subsequent layer, or ply), and glued under heat and pressure. This creates a very stable wood flooring product, less susceptible to movement that could present itself as gaps between flooring boards, cupping, or crowning.

This highly stable base, when bonded to the top layer, or wear layer (what you walk on and see after installation), is what makes engineered wood flooring more resistant to the normal movement that occurs in wood flooring during changes in the relative humidity within the structure.

Many homes and commercial buildings undergo significant seasonal variations in relative humidity. In some parts of the United States the relative humidity within a building could range from 10% in the winter to 90% in the summer, depending on whether humidification is used during the heating months, and whether air conditioning (which dehumidifies the air) is used in the summer months.

All wood moves to a certain degree with these changes in relative humidity, and engineered wood flooring simply moves less than solid wood flooring because of the superior dimensional stability of the multi-ply substrate. Today there are a myriad of choices in engineered flooring in both exotic and domestic species, in both prefinished as well as unfinished engineered wood flooring. For many installation scenarios the superior dimensional stability of engineered wood flooring is worth considering.

Possible Installation Locations for Engineered Flooring

webdesignvisayas — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:10:06 +0000

When considering the type of wood flooring you want to use, the specific application may dictate your options to some degree. However, if engineered flooring is among your options, the installation location possibilities are greater.

For example, solid wood flooring is not recommended for use in below grade applications, but engineered wood flooring can often be successfully used below grade. Below grade means the floor surface is below the level of the ground outside, such as in a basement. Solid wood flooring is not generally recommended for use below grade because the typically higher moisture levels may cause problems with excessive expansion of the floor boards. Basically, the flooring may swell too much after installation and therefore not lay flat. When wood flooring expands (or wood in general boards, wood siding, etc), it expands more in width than in length, so the result of solid wood flooring installed below grade can be buckling sometimes enough that it can push some flooring boards right up off the floor!

Engineered flooring often can be successfully used below grade because it is considerably more stable than solid wood flooring thanks to its multi-ply substrate. It still should not be used in a very high moisture situation (no wood flooring product should be), but it definitely gives you additional installation location possibilities that you might not have with solid wood flooring.

Additional installation location possibilities offered by the use of engineered wood flooring are any location where there are very large swings in humidity. Think about a home in Northern climates that heats with a wood stove in the winter, creating a very dry environment in the home, then in the summer has the doors and windows open during a period of warm, humid, muggy weather. This is an ideal application for engineered wood flooring because the seasonal changes in humidity (severe in this example) would be problematic for solid wood flooring, but tolerated far better by engineered wood flooring, thanks to its superior dimensional stability.

The Advantages of Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Early Yana — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:48:26 +0000

Choosing the flooring material is one of the most important decisions when you building a new house or renovating the existing one. The other decisions, such as countertops, facets and doors, are centered on the floors and the cabinets. Together, they create a subtle or dramatic look and feel that shows the tastes and personality of the homeowners.

The style, color and materials of flooring define the styles and atmosphere of a home. The wide availability of flooring options presents both confusion and challenge for the designers and the home owners.

When you decided to explore the possibilities of using wooden floor, the choices vary from solid wood floor, engineered floor, to laminate one. Laminate flooring looks almost like real wood but cost lot less then solid wood floor. In between there is engineered wood floor.

The term engineered floor or engineered wood is actually composed of layered plywood with a thin wood veneer at the top. The top layer allows engineered hardwood flooring to have the same visual beauty as natural hardwood flooring, while its stability increase significantly due to engineering process itself. You can find engineered hardwood flooring in just about any species of hardwood.

Engineered hardwood flooring usually has three or more core layers. The core layers of engineered flooring can be made of plywood, high density fiberboard or hardwood. The best part of engineered hardwood flooring is that is does not destroy the natural warmth and beauty of a traditional solid hardwood floor. The top layer is the same genuine hardwood you would have in solid hardwood flooring.

This type of flooring is suitable in places where solid hardwood flooring is not practical, such as in your basement and concrete foundation. If you install a natural hardwood floor on your basement or over a radiant heating system, the natural hardwood floor could buckle, cup, or shrink.

Most engineered hardwood floors are pre-finished and possess quite beautiful finishes, which is one reason why some high-quality ones cost quite the same as solid hardwood flooring.

Engineered hardwood flooring can be installed as a floating floor. It also can be installed by the staple down method or the glue down method. The option of using Staple down method is ideal when installing over a wood subfloor. The glue down method is best used when the engineered floor is being laid over a concrete subfloor or foundation.

You can add the warmth and grace of more expensive solid hardwood flooring at a fraction of the cost when you decide to use engineered hardwood flooring. (by Early Yana)