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The rich look of a hardwood floor adds warmth and charm to any room in the home. For centuries people have used wood floors in homes, churches and even stores.

Through advancements in finish technologies  and superior construction techniques,  manufacturers of hardwood floors are able to produce tougher finishes and more stable products. This means quality engineered hardwood floors

can go in almost any room in the home and over a wide variety of sub floors, including dry, fully-cured concrete slabs.

Today's hardwood flooring comes in a wide variety of wood species. Besides the popular and well known North American hardwoods (like oak, maple and ash) we now offer a variety of exotic hardwood species from all over the World.  Exotic hardwoods offer unique and unusual visual character and give homeowners the chance to better express their personal decorating tastes with a more unique wood appearance.

You now have the option of purchasing three different types of wood flooring. Although the end results may look the same there are distinct advantages for using each type under different applications.

Solid Hardwood Floors

A solid piece of hardwood cut into wood planks that are generally 3/4" thick. (Above ground level areas only, not recommended for concrete slabs.)

Engineered Hardwood Floors

Several plies of wood that a glued and laminated together to form a wood plank. Range in thickness from 1/4" to just over a half inch. (Can be installed almost anywhere in the home, including over dry concrete slabs.)

Longstrip Hardwood Floors

An engineered construction but with a long and wider plank. This allows the top layer to splice 2-3 rows of thin hardwood strips into one plank. Longstrip planks can be glued-down, stapled or floated over a wide variety of sub-floors and used almost anywhere in the home, including dry basements.

Once installed it is extremely difficult to tell these three different wood flooring construction types apart. Both the engineered and the longstrip have several thin layers (plies) of wood that are glued together. By gluing the plies together you get better dimensional stability within the plank itself, which allows these floors to be used on job sites that have a higher percentage of moisture content than normal. This includes basements and over concrete slabs where solid strip wood floors are considered off limits.

Here are links to some of our hardwood manufacturers:

HARDWOOD EVOLUTION

Hardwood is moving more toward distressed planks, planks in wider widths, and exotic woods. Its no longer just plain maple or oak. Were seeing more mahogany, cherry, teak, and walnut. Also, mixing woods is becoming increasingly popular. Engineered is also fast becoming more popular than solid.