Floors
Types of Floor
Solid
Can be sanded and restained over several generations of use.
Standard size is 3/4" thick
Usually nailed down to install. If installing on a concrete slab, a layer of plywood must be installed first so that the solid hardwood can be nailed to it.
Expands and contracts with your home's relative humidity.
Engineered Hardwood
Can be nailed, glued or floated
Made from multiple cross plies of hardwood with a durable top layer.
Comes in many different thicknesses and can be as thin as 5/16 of an inch.
Low Profile: can fit under existing appliances and doors without remodeling.
Usually glued down but can be nailed or floated. Floating floor has 1/8" layer of foam under flooring. The floor product boards are glued to each other-not glued to the foam or the slab.
More stable and less susceptible to moisture and humidity.
Relative Hardness of Selected Wood Flooring Species
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Composition
Solid Wood Flooring
Made of solid lumber. Available in both unfinished and pre-finished. Solid wood flooring comes in several forms including:
Strip and Plank: solid boards with thicknesses of 1/2" to 3/4" and widths of 1-1/2", 2-1/4", or 31/4” and custom widths of 3” to 8” and greater.
Parquet: patterns made from individual wood pieces
Engineered Wood Flooring
Engineered Wood Flooring is made by bonding thin layers of lumber with an attractive veneer finish. It also is available unfinished and pre-finished. Engineered wood flooring comes in the following forms and sizes:
Strip and Plank: engineered boards with thicknesses of 5/16" to 3/4” and widths of 2” to 8” wide.
Parquet: engineered wood tile patterns available in sizes of standard 9" by 9" and custom sizes.
Solid Wood Flooring or Engineered Wood Flooring:
Most solid wood strip or plank can only be installed with nails over a wood subfloor. Solid wood parquet and short length strip or plank can be installed with an adhesive on a variety of non-wood subfloors. Solid wood flooring is very susceptible to moisture and cannot be used below grade, in areas such as basements, or in high humidity environments.
Engineered flooring can be installed with adhesive on a variety of subfloors. Some engineered strip and plank can be installed with nails over wood subfloors. Some engineered flooring can be installed as a "floating" floor without fastening to the subfloor, by using a bonded tongue and groove technique (used to install over an existing vinyl floor). Engineered flooring is much less susceptible to the effects of moisture, and can be used below grade or in humid climates.
Cuts
Plain sawn Lumber
Obtained by making the first saw cut on a tangent to the circumference of the log and remaining cuts parallel to the first. Since most of the lumber produced by plain sawing is flat-grained, with some vertical-grained wood included, plain sawn lumber will tend to contain more variation within and among boards than quarter sawn lumber, in which nearly all of the wood is vertical-grained. Also, since flat-grained wood is less dimensionally stable than vertical-grained, plainsawn lumber will tend to expand and contract more across the width of the boards than quartersawn lumber.
Other physical differences to consider when choosing plainsawn lumber rather than quarter sawn:
Figure patterns resulting from the annual rings and some other types of figures are usually brought out more conspicuously by plain sawing.
Shakes and pitch pockets, when present, extend through fewer boards.
Quarter-sawn Lumber
Is produced by first quartering the log and then sawn perpendicular to the growth rings. Quarter sawing produces relatively narrow boards, nearly all vertical-grained, and creates more waste, making quarter sawn lumber more expensive than plain-sawn. However, much quarter sawn wood is obtained by culling the vertical-grained wood that naturally results from plain sawing.
For reasons other than cost, most people prefer quarter-sawn wood, although some people favor the variety in figuring produced in plain sawing.
Other physical factors to keep in mind when choosing quarter-sawn lumber over plain-sawn:
It twists and cups less.
It surface-checks and splits less during seasoning and in use.
Raised grain produced by separation in the annual growth rings does not appear as pronounced.
It wears more evenly.
Figuring due to pronounced rays, interlocked, and wavy grain are brought out more conspicuously.
Sapwood appears only at the edges, and is limited to the width of the sapwood in the log.
Rift-sawn Lumber
Similar to quarter-sawn with many of the same advantages and limitations. It accentuates the vertical grain and minimizes the flake effect common in quarter sawn oak. The angle of the cut is changed slightly so that fewer saw cuts are parallel to the medullary rays, which are responsible for the flake effect. Riftsawing creates more waste than quartersawing, making it generally more expensive.
Appearance
Appearance of wood flooring determines its grade. All grades are equally strong and serviceable. Oak and ash have four basic grades. Beech, Birch, and Hard Maple have three basic grades. They are:
Oak Grades
| Grade | Appearance | Description |
| Clear | Best | Best grade, with the best appearance and most uniform color |
| Select | Good | Limited character marks and unlimited sound sap |
| No. 1 Common | Variegated | Light and dark colors. Knots, flags, wormholes, and other character marks. Character marks. Other imperfections are filled and finished. |
| No. 2 Common | Rustic | A serviceable, economical floor after knots, wormholes, checks and other imperfections are filled and finished. Red and white species may be fixed. |
Beech, Birch and Hard Maple Grades
| Grade | Appearance | Description |
| First | Best | Best grade, with the best appearance, natural color variation, limited character marks and unlimited sap. |
| Second | Variegated | Varying sound wood characteristics of species |
| Third | Rustic | All wood characteristics of species. |
Moisture and Wood Dimensional Stability
Moisture plays a large part in how wood behaves, both during the machining process and after installation.
Moisture content is defined as the weight of water in wood expressed as a percentage of the weight of oven-dried wood. Weight, shrinkage, strength, and other properties depend on the moisture content of the wood.
Wood is dimensionally stable when the moisture content is above the fiber saturation point (usually about 30 percent moisture content). Below that, wood changes dimension when it gains or loses moisture.
The ideal content for flooring installation can vary from an extreme of 4 to 18 percent, depending on the wood species, the geographic location of the end product, and the time of year. Most oak flooring, for example, is milled at 6-9 percent. Before installation, solid wood flooring should be acclimated to the area in which it is to be used, then tested with a moisture meter to ensure the proper moisture content. Note: Engineered flooring tends to be more dimensionally stable than solid flooring.
Different woods exhibit different moisture stability factors, but they generally shrink and swell the most in the direction of the annual growth rings, about half as much as across the rings, and only slightly along the grain. This means that plain-sawn flooring will tend to shrink more in width than quarter-sawn flooring and that most flooring will not shrink or swell much in length.
Color Change
All wood changes color as it ages and gains its unique patina. This is the beauty of a natural product. In direct sunlight color change occurs rapidly and can be seen within days. The same color change still occurs in areas not exposed to sunlight throughout the process of oxidation, though at a much slower rate.
The "color aging" over time explains why the flooring "out of the box" may not match the color of the samples you chose your floor from.
Domestic
Cherry: pronounced darkening from pale pink to deep red.
Maple: slight ambering from a cream/white to a more golden cream.
Red Oak: slight ambering of the pinkish tan coloration when freshly installed.
White Oak: slight muting of the color variation to a straw/medium brown color.
Walnut: medium degree of ambering from the darker chocolate brown when freshly laid, to a lighter brown color.
Imported Species
Cherry, Brazilian: pronounced darkening from tan/salmon color when freshly laid to deep reddish brown.
Chestnut, Southern: medium degree of darkening from a golden tan to more uniform nut brown
Cypress, Australian: slight muting of the color range and slight ambering over time
Mahogany, Royal: medium degree of darkening over time to a deeper reddish brown.
Mahogany, Santos: slight muting of the color range and slight darkening
Rosewood, Caribbean: medium degree of darkening and slight muting of the color range
Walnut, Caribbean: medium degree of muting of color range as well as darkening to medium brown with reddish tints.
