Category: Flooring

How to Choose the Right Hardwood Floor

Wondering how to choose the right hardwood floor for you? If so, you already know that choosing hardwood flooring is a great investment. They are durable, easy to clean, and can drastically increase your property’s value. Whether you are moving into a fixer-upper, or just looking for a change, figuring out how to choose the right hardwood floor for your lifestyle is a must. Owning pets, living near the beach, or having a smaller space can all influence your decision. This guide will help you choose between solid or engineered hardwood, and walk you through the advantages of different hardwood species (yes, we said species) so that you can pick the right kind for your home.

First, let’s go over the types of hardwood flooring that exist.

Types of Hardwood Floor

When considering how to choose a hardwood floor, first consider the two main types of hardwood — solid hardwood and engineered hardwood. Both types of flooring have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on where your home is located and how much foot traffic your hardwood floor will be subject to.

Solid hardwood is exactly what it sounds like. Each board is made of a single plank of solid wood. They are usually ¾ of an inch thick, meaning that they can be sanded down and refinished time and time again.

Engineered hardwood, on the other hand, is manufactured wood. The top and bottom layers are about 4mm thick and made of natural wood from different species. The middle of each plank is built of five to seven layers of man-made plywood, making them stable and resilient.

 

Choose the right size

Board size is another important consideration. Narrow boards are less expensive, but many people prefer the aesthetic of wider boards, which reduce the number of seams in the floor. The same idea applies to shorter versus longer boarders. The wider and longer a board is, the more expensive it is per square foot and the larger percentage of extra flooring you need to ensure it fits your room. A standard measure is to purchase 10% more square footage than you need, but this may increase depending on the shape of the room.

Compare hardwood floor costs

Costs can range from $1.75 per square foot up to $9 or more, depending on factors like species, width, and type. While engineered hardwood flooring is typically less expensive, the cost compared to solid flooring of the same species is usually just around $1 less per square foot. Additionally, prefinished wood may add another $1 per square foot compared to unfinished wood, but it also means you won’t need to finish it after installation.One of the most popular species, Red Oak, runs about $4 per square foot unfinished and $5 prefinished, with additional costs for wider boards. More exotic woods or those that are harder and more resistant to wear are more expensive, while softer woods are typically cheaper.

Read hardwood floor reviews

Be sure to investigate the suppliers of hardwood floors, reading reviews and comparing different qualities. Some suppliers specialize in inexpensive flooring, while others offer a wide range of prices. You should also look for reviews on issues like warranties, shipping costs, and available widths. In addition to customer reviews, you should read reviews from contractors who can offer the perspective of someone who handles hardwood floors frequently.

 

Why choose engineered wood flooring?

More and more people are choosing to fit engineered wooden flooring as opposed to solid timber floors — and there are many reasons for this decision.

Engineered flooring is available in an extremely wide range of timbers to suit any home, with various effects, such as ‘aged’ and ‘sun bleached’, available. They are also suitable for laying over many types of existing floor, such as concrete, unlike most solid boards.

In addition, most engineered flooring now comes pre-finished, meaning no waxing, lacquering or oiling for you, and a floor that is ready to walk on as soon as it has been laid. Plus, it is simple to lay on a DIY basis, so labour costs are saved.

How long will it last?

This very much depends on what kind of wear the floor sees and how thick the top layer of solid wood is. Guarantees vary from ten to 30 years.

The number of times a floor can be sanded and refinished also varies — the manufacturers’ recommendations should be taken on this one. Some may recommend sanding no more than three times for thicknesses of 15mm. Generally, a professional sanding will remove around 0.5mm of the surface layer. However, bear in mind that some beautiful hardwood floors won’t ever have been sanded and that dents and scratches can add to their character.

You get what you pay for… The cheapest floors tend to have a very thin top layer – as thin as 0.6mm – a minimal number of veneers in the core and fewer finishing layers.

• The general rule is, the more layers the floor is made up of, the better.
• At the lower end of the market, boards have a three-ply construction, are around 1/4 inch thick in total, have a 1-2mm topwear layer, and around five finish coats.
• Next best are of five-ply construction, with a 3mm top layer, around seven finish coats, and a total thickness of ½ inch.
• The best quality floors are made of up to nine plies, have a 7mm plus top layer, have around nine finish coats and are a total thickness of approximately ¾ inch.

 

Width of Boards

The width of your hardwood boards will have a dramatic impact on the final look of your flooring. If you would like your flooring to visually expand the spaciousness of your room, you may want to select a narrow board width. Wider boards will provide your interior spaces with a cottage or country feel. You may want to try laying out certain board widths to see what they look like in your space.

Species of Wood

The species of the wood is another critical factor that you will need to take into account when you are shopping for new hardwood floors. Each species of hardwood has unique characteristics, including particular grains, strengths, and colors. Some popular hardwood species for homes include oak wood and cherry wood. To provide your floors with a unique flair, you can also consider unusual or luxurious hardwood species, such as mahogany.

Flooring Finishes

Your flooring finish will have a large impact on the final look of your hardwood floors. Natural hardwood floors can be finished using special stains or urethane products. Ideally, your finish should match with the overall look and color scheme of your home. To cut down on your installation time, you can also choose to install prefinished or engineered wood floors. Engineered hardwood floors will arrive at your home already finished, so they will be ready for use as soon as they have been installed.

 

How to Choose a Hardwood Floor that Fits your Style

Consider color, finish, and texture

Hardwood floors might be timeless, but they still go through trends. When figuring out how to choose a hardwood floor, remember your personal style along with your lifestyle. That way you will pick a flooring that will grow with you, your lifestyle, and your taste over time.

You can choose between various stains, finishes, and textures to create the look and feel you want for your home. If you have a small space, for example, you might want to consider a lighter stain such as blonde or even whitewash. If you prefer a more classic look, dark floors can be a good option. Keep in mind, however, that they are surprisingly hard to keep clean, and notorious for highlighting scratches.

Beyond color choices, you have finish options like glossy, matte and satin. How do you choose a finish for your hardwood floor? Most people steer clear of glossy these days, opting for the more natural-looking matte and satin finishes. If you like a little gleam to your floors, without the roller rink glare, satin could be the finish for you. It has just enough shine to add dimension, without making itself the star of your living room.

If you want an even more subtle, natural finish, matte would be your go-to. This finish gives hardwood floors a fresh, natural look. It adds a clean and contemporary quality to any room and, as a bonus, matte floors show the least amount of dirt and dust of any finish.

Now that you’ve selected your color and finish, you might be wondering how to choose a hardwood floor texture. There are four primary options when it comes to hardwood texture. The tried and true smooth wood is still going strong and is now accompanied by hand-scraped, wire-brushed, and distressed wood. After smooth wood, wire-brushed is the next most subtle. It leaves fine scratches in the wood, for a more natural look, whereas hand-scraped wood leaves each board with different ridges. Distressed wood has the most character, as the planks’ knots, scrapes, and wormholes are made more prominent.

How do you maintain an epoxy floor?

Maintenance guide for epoxy floors, caring for the epoxy floor.

Epoxy floors are a tough, resilient and very durable type of floor coating used in multiple applications; garage floors, sunroom floors, high traffic hallways and walkways or warehouses. Areas, where machinery and other large tools are being used, a durable epoxy surface makes a great choice for a flooring surface. Even when these heavy objects are being shifted around on the floor continuously, the epoxy floor surface will maintain a very high luster. Epoxy floors are pretty easy to maintain as long as you follow some ground rules.

How to care for your epoxy floors.

You will want to provide at least minimal maintenance for an epoxy floor to keep it in top shape. Even though they are low maintenance, common sense should prevail in caring for them. In this blog, we have listed the best practices in caring for your epoxy floors.

Keep the surfaces dirt and grit free.

Especially if you are moving machinery or vehicles on and off the floor. Dirt and grit will embed or scratch an epoxy floor if allowed to remain there. It’s a good idea if you remove all sand or dirt on a regular basis because even though Epoxy floors are tough they can start to show the damage from multiple scratches over time. Best way to do that is to use a shop vacuum with a soft brush attachment. How often you vacuum depends on how much dirt and grit are tracked onto the floor. When it comes time to move heavy machinery across the floor, take extra precautions to ensure the surface is dust and grit free.

Avoid using soap-based cleaners.

Soap-based floor cleaners leave a haze on the epoxy flooring that builds up over time. Epoxy floors do not need soap, warm water, and a good mop or deck-scrubbing brush should be just fine. If you need extra scrubbing power use something like soft soap to aid you with the tougher spills.

Spot Cleaning.

Often you only need to vacuum or sweep a small area of the floor where something has been spilled or tracked in. The liquid that has been spilled needs to be vacuumed up along with any dirt and grime with a shop vac and then clean the area with a mop and warm water. Epoxy floors are highly water resistant and very easy to clean when liquid spills occur.

Heavily soiled epoxy floors.

The best way to clean up a dirty epoxy floor is as follows: Sweep and vacuum the entire area carefully. Remove all items in the way to get to the floor. Once you have removed all the surface dirt, grime, and grit, use a hard foam mop and warm/hot water to get rid of all the built-up dirt. After that, you can use a clear ammonia/water mix (at 2-3 ounces ammonia per gallon of hot water) for second mopping.

Stains

Some stains, such as rust, need to be lightly scrubbed with a kitchen scrubbing sponge or a soft deck brush and warm water. Avoid using steel wool or harsh chemicals like comet, they are too abrasive. Use soft-scrub and a moderately abrasive scrubbing pad or brush. Don’t ever use any cleaning compounds with citrus or acid in them. Citrus cleaners and vinegar will break down the epoxy catalyst and must be avoided.

Oil, car chemicals and other chemicals.

Wiped up antifreeze, oil and other car-related chemicals with shop towels or a paper towel and dispose of properly. The important thing about car spills is to not allow them to sit on the floor surface for too long. Even engine oil has chemicals that could be potentially hazardous to an epoxy floor. Clean up spilled gas immediately, because it will damage the surface of an epoxy floor if allowed to sit for too long. Paint, household cleaners and other abrasive liquids need to be cleaned up immediately. To clean, wipe them up with shop towels as soon as the spill occurs.

 

How to Clean Epoxy Floors

Epoxy floors are not hard to maintain. In fact, many people choose epoxy floors for their garages because they are so easy to care for. However, there are some guidelines for keeping your epoxy floors clean. By performing general maintenance, doing a deep cleaning every few months, and removing stains as needed, you can keep your epoxy floors in excellent shape.

Performing General Maintenance

Dust mop once a week. The best way to maintain your epoxy floor is to run a soft dust mop over it once a week. This removes dirt and dust gently, which prevents scratches and protects your floor.[1]

For floors with an anti-slip aggregate coating–such as aluminum oxide–a soft bristle push broom may be more effective than a standard dust mop.

Vacuum any joints once a month. If you have visible construction joints or saw cuts, you should use a vacuum to clean these out. For best results, use your vacuum attachment hose with a crevice tool. Vacuum these joints about once per month.

If you do not have a vacuum, you can try to clean any joints/cuts with a stiff bristle broom.

 

Durability & Life

Depending on the level of traffic and usage, most floors will require the occasional touch-up or recoat. However, appropriate care and upkeep will ensure your polymer flooring will last a long time. A simple, quick routine of easy maintenance can keep your no-wax, high performance floor looking showplace-new for years, saving you time and money in the long run. General Tips for Caring for Your Floor Every floor is different and requires adequate care in order to preserve its appearance, performance and life. Your professional polymer flooring installer can offer the correct method and procedures to maintain your particular flooring system. However, here are general tips on caring for your floors:

Sweep Your Floors Daily

Use a soft-bristled broom or mechanized sweeper to sweep your floors daily. This will remove any foreign objects and prevent safety hazards. Additionally, daily sweeping helps extend the life of your floor.

Wash Your Floors Weekly

Generally, weekly mopping of your floors will be sufficient to keep your floors performing and looking great. High-traffic and heavy-duty areas may require additional attention. Use a soft bristled mechanized floor scrubber if needed.

Clean Spills Immediately

Not only do spills present a potential safety hazard, they can be damaging to your floor depending on the substance and nature of the liquid spilled. Depending on the chemical resistance of your flooring, acids, caustics and harsh solvents can damage your floor coating and should be cleaned immediately.

 

How to Take Care of Indoor Epoxy Floors

Epoxy floors, also called terrazzo, contain chips of marble or stone suspended in mortar bed. Older versions used cement mortar to suspend the marble chips, but more modern varieties use a durable, easy-to-maintain and lightweight epoxy resin. Epoxy floors resist staining and scratches, making them an attractive and damage-resistant option for high-traffic areas within the home. With proper cleaning and care, an epoxy floor can last a lifetime or longer.

• Sweep the floor daily in high-traffic areas and at least once a week in lower-traffic areas of the home with a dust mop. Remove rugs and sweep beneath furniture to remove as much grit as possible. Although durable, grit on the floor can cause scratching and wear to the epoxy and stone surfaces.
• Mix a neutral nonalkaline, nonacidic floor cleaner or a cleaner specifically formulated for epoxy floors with hot water. Follow package recommendations for the amount of cleaner and water needed.
• Mop the floor with the cleaner at least once weekly. Kitchens and entryways may require more frequent mopping due to traffic and spills.
• Allow the cleaning solution to sit on the floor for approximately 5 minutes. Mop it up with clear water before the solution dries on the floor.
• Wipe the floor dry with a dry mop or large towel. Drying the floor prevents streaks and dust lines on the epoxy.

 

Tips for Preserving Your Epoxy Flooring

Epoxy flooring can be a great option for food and beverage flooring, healthcare flooring, and industrial flooring. This type of flooring has been used for decades — in fact, polymers have continuously been used on top of concrete for more than 35 years. With its slip-resistant and durable features, epoxy coating is a popular choice for those industries that need a long-lasting, reliable floor. While epoxy is durable, it’s not invincible. So after your flooring is installed by epoxy coating specialists, it’s important to perform routine maintenance in order to ensure your epoxy coating lasts as long as possible. With that being said, this article will give some tips and tricks for maintaining your epoxy flooring.

• Routine maintenance should be done with a soft bristle broom or commercial dust mop. In order to make sure your flooring remains free of debris, it’s best to sweep or mop daily.
• Heavy duty cleaning is best done after sweeping away any debris. You can use a hard foam mop, hot water, and clear ammonia. This mixture will remove any spills or stains that have made their way to the floor. Additionally, an epoxy floor can simply be hosed down and squeegeed dry.
• When choosing cleaning products, it’s important to remember not to use any products that contain acids or soap-based cleaners. These cleaning products can leave a residue on the flooring that can cause it to become slippery when wet.
• Staining may require light scrubbing with a scrubbing pad. Epoxy coating specialists do not recommend using abrasive cleaning chemicals on the flooring.
• To reduce damages caused by snow or water from shoes, welcome mats should be placed in front of any doors in the facility. Additionally, “pretreatment” winter compounds can leave a hazy film on the flooring. In order to remove this, hot water and a deck brush should be used and extra rinsing will keep the compounds from drying onto the floor.
• Heavy equipment may damage flooring over time when continuously dragged or placed in the same spot. Because of this, it’s important to ensure all areas are clean prior to lifting heavy loads with rolling jacks and remember to place pieces of plywood under jack stands when they’re holding heavy loads.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED KNOW ABOUT CARPET

How to Choose the Right Commercial Carpet Installer

​The entire process not as complicated as it may seem. Here are a few factors you need to consider while choosing your commercial carpet installer:

1. Compare Cost and Value for Money

It’s always preferable to take quotes from several businesses, as most of them have different pricing plan. According to your set budget, shortlist the businesses that come under your affordability. That doesn’t mean you should pick the cheapest service, as they mostly lack quality and skilled workers to perform up to the mark.

2. Evaluate Different Designs

Carpets are made out of polypropylene, nylon, wool, polyester, acrylic, and other cotton materials. Choose the material that can stand the foot traffic in your office and is comfortable.

You’ll find carpets in various colors, shapes, and textures. Pick the design and color which looks best with your furniture and wall paint. If your furniture and wall paint is light colored, you should go for carpets with warm colors to create a contrasting effect and make the floor look attractive.

3. Research About Market Reputation

If you have shortlisted a few commercial carpet installers by now, try to find out about each business’s reputation in the market. Check out their website or social media page, and have a look at recent customer reviews and comments. You can also chat with people who have reviewed the business for further questions. That’ll give you a better idea of how good the service providers are at what they do.

4. Ability to Meet Deadlines

Therefore, you should ascertain whether the prospective service provider is capable of completing commercial carpeting projects promptly. Before signing an agreement, always mention the timeframe clause in the contract. Usually, it takes one day per room, but it all depends on the covered area of each space in your office.

5. Have a Look at the Service Provider’s Clientele

While carpet installers with a large clientele reflect on the quality of their services, it is recommended that you avoid choosing the company that already has a lot of clients lined up for orders.

 

Sustainable Carpet

We’ve reached a time where the young homeowner demographic is comprised, primarily, of millennials. And not to pigeonhole an entire demographic, but as a group, millennials tend to care a lot about the brands they purchase from and how their purchases impact society, the environment and more.

It’s not enough to sell gorgeous floors at a low price. Manufacturers and retailers alike need to bring something likable and respectable to the table.

You’ve seen that Dawn commercial with the little bird and their soap, right? That is the stuff people care about these days. And with the ability to reduce our carbon footprint using sustainable and recycled materials, to not jump in headfirst would just be irresponsible.

 

You want to hide seams.

Ugly seams can make your carpet look… well, ugly. Finding a good carpet installer is half the battle against seams. A professional installer will make a blueprint for carpet installation that will include as few seams as possible. The seams they leave behind will be hidden under furniture and other out of sight places when possible.

The bad news is in many cases you will end up with seams no matter how great the installer is.

The good news is there are ways to reduce how visible the seams are and one way is with your color choice. So what is the best color for hiding seams?

Go with a dark-colored carpet. Darker colors do the best job hiding gaps between different pieces of carpet.

 

Go with the flow

Using the same carpet throughout the house gives a feeling of continuity and helps small homes feel more spacious but complementary carpet designs can deliver a similar effect while linking rooms more creatively.

‘You can create a visual flow through adjoining living spaces by choosing carpets with a common background or accent colour,’ says Jeremy Wilson of Ulster Carpets.

‘Provided the colour palette is the same, using tonal stripes, patterns and plains alongside one another gives individual spaces their own personality without creating a busy look.’

 

Mold grows on carpet.

Carpet does NOT promote mold. Carpet does NOT promote mold.True, and not true. If you have a flood: true. For normal household use: not true. Mold requires three things to grow: A food source, a suitable temperature, and moisture. Almost any interior space provides a suitable temperature, and many things in your home can provide a food source for mold. This includes wood, natural fiber clothing, natural fiber carpet, wall board, dirt, and many other things in your home.

What is usually missing in your home is moisture. However, a flood, leaking roof, leaking plumbing, leaking window, or excessive condensation can add moisture to your home. A high relative humidity (over 70% for extended periods), can also promote mold growth. Basements are common areas where people have moisture issues.

If you do not have walls or clothing growing mold, then carpet will not be an issue either (unless your floor is wet/damp). If you do have mold, then carpet is not the issue. Moisture is. Address the moisture immediately, and consult a mold remediation expert.

Mold is not a carpet issue. It is a moisture issue.