Pre-finished flooring warranties

My colleague Tony and I were discussing a job that he had done years ago around the restaurant where we were having lunch. During lunch he mentioned the name of the flooring manufacturer and said that they were not around any more as a company. What happens to any warranties at that point is that they cease to exist or be honored. I have never heard of an exception. My point is that when you see Bob Vila on TV selling you a 50 year warranty for Bellawood that you shouldn't pay attention to that number even though he won't tell you that. If you read the warranty you will notice that there are a number of loopholes and that the warranty is non-transferrable. The average turnover in a home is seven years and that's what the manufacturer is counting on. After you move, that warranty is only worth the value of the paper on which it is printed. My best advice is to buy ONLY from reputable retailers and have a thorough understanding of your expectations and how the product may or may not meet them. As a final point, please ask for references of customers who have bought the product and get their reviews on how the product is performing prior to a purchase if possible. This will keep you from falling out of love with your floor because it is worn prematurely.

What type of hardwood is the most durable?

The question I am most frequently asked by homeowners selecting new flooring is, "What wood is the most durable?" Again this is a trick question because there are three primary factors that will determine the durability of any hardwood floor: density of the material, finish coats, and maintenance.

The density of hardwood flooring material is tested by the Janka scale of hardness. Essentially, a standard sized ball bearing is hydraulically pressed into the material to a certain depth and that amount of force necessary to achieve that depth is measured. For red oak (a wood that is considered to be a hard material), the Janka hardness is around 1250. Now relate that to Brazilian walnut or Ipe, which has a Janka hardness of 3680, and you can see that material choice is a big factor. The density will help guard against dents in the floor when you drop phones, pots, pans, etc...

The second factor in the durability of a floor is what type of finish will be on the floor and how many finish coats will be applied. For this side of the discussion I will keep the post to on site finished floors. There are a myriad of finishes available, but the two I would most consider to be durable would be acid-curing Swedish finishes and 2 component chemically cross linked waterborne urethanes. The layers of a true Swedish finish chemically integrate to form one large finish layer and they have a lot of optical clarity when scratched so that the scratch won't turn white. What this means is that these finishes will tolerate and rebound from a scratch quite well. By comparison, catalyzed waterborne finishes form a very hard surface layer over the floor. They somewhat resemble a hardened sheet of plastic over the floor that is very hard to scuff and scratch. My experience is that both finishes will last a very long time, although catalyzed waterbased finishes emit less odor when applied and it goes away much quicker.

Sometimes I think that people want the beauty of a wood floor but they never want to clean it and this seems a little odd to me. To properly clean and 800 square foot floor takes no longer than 10 minutes and requires only a microfiber mop and a small amount of hardwood floor cleaner. I DO NOT recommend cleaners that leave a residue on the floor such as Murphy's oil soap or cleaners that are not pH balanced such as ammonia or water mixed with vinegar. Over time residue will dull the finish and non pH balanced cleaners will attack and destroy a finish. The final point is that I have seen countless people pay $5000 or more for a new floor or refinish who absolutely will not pay $200-300 a year to have a large dog's toenails groomed once a month. This is one of the greatest contributors to scratching on a wood floor that can be avoided for a minimal cost. The only other recommendation I have is to use felt protectors on your furniture that moves regularly and small rugs at high traffic doors.

In the end your wood flooring investment is a product of good planning and maintenance. For any additional information, please e-mail us or visit our website.

Understanding Flooring Choices

This will serve as a quick refresher on bamboo as a flooring alternative. The material has taken place in many people's minds as being the most green and renewable resource. I would urge everyone to take a closer look at the bigger picture for this material. The NWFA recently released a simple article about the basics of this material. For a copy of this article in PDF format, please click here. While bamboo seems to be a miracle flooring option, there are some unknowns you need to investigate when choosing a flooring company. Most bamboo used for flooring is produced in China and other countries where labor practices are questionable. Many overseas farms and factories have no guidelines for fair labor practices. There are no regulations in the United States as to where the bamboo originates. Also, in China there are no set government standards for bamboo flooring production and construction or for air quality standards. For these reasons, it's possible that production of bamboo flooring produces toxic byproducts and expends large amounts of energy. Many bamboo floors exported from China contain high levels of urea formaldehyde that do not meet safety standards in other countries.

The U.S. forestry system has been sustainable long before the word caught fire with the recent trends of the green building movement. The reason is simply that the clear cutting of our forests without replanting would devastate the forestry industry as a whole because the jobs would have been lost long ago without sustainability in mind. In addition to being sustainable, domestic wood species have a distinct advantage for two reasons. The first reason is that buying flooring produced within the United States supports the nationwide economy rather than a competing economy. The second reason is that wood flooring produced locally has a lesser impact in terms of carbon footprint because the material requires less fuel to transport.

The point of my blog is to encourage those of you to look at the bigger picture when selecting a flooring material with regards to sustainability. If you are working with a retailer, then please make sure that they are a reputable retailer that cares for your floor well beyond when you leave the store with your new flooring material. In the next blog, I will address the properties that go into the quality and durability of your floor.

Planning for a quality Hardwood Floor Refinish

Every week I do a number of hardwood refinishing estimates for homeowners and one of the most frequent questions asked is how long the process will take. The question is somewhat of a loaded question because a number of factors apply to the process. Two primary factors apply to the length of a standard hardwood refinish project: the type of finish used and the number of finish coats applied. Additional factors to consider may be if any repairs need to be done to the wood floor prior to sanding. Oftentimes pets may consistently urinate in spots of the home or during the watering process plants may overflow onto the wood floor, which causes dark spots from mold growth. The sanding process will not remove these stains usually, so a suitable repair with matching material is most often necessary.
The two predominant types of finish used in wood floor refinishing are oil based and waterbased finishes. Oil based finishes most commonly used are polyurethane and acid-curing Swedish finishes. Oil modified polyurethane has the slowest dry time and typically requires a full day of dry time between coats. Acid-curing Swedish finish systems are catalyzed chemically for the seal coats, which allows application of two coats in a day. The top coat is a much slower one day process of drying. In contrast most waterbased finishes will dry within 2-3 hours depending on the catalyst and coverage rate. I have seen waterbased floors coated with three coats in one day, although I do not recommend this typically.
Two additional key terms to understand are dry time and cure time. Dry time of a finish is the amount of time that it takes for the finish to be dry to the touch and walked on so that nothing sticks to the finish. Cure time is the amount of time that it takes for the finish to completely off-gas and achieve 100% of it's hardness. The cure time of a typical water-based finish is approximately one week, although most waterborne finished are 90% cured within 48 hours. By comparison a typical oil-based finish has a longer cure time of 30-90 days.
Now that I have confused you thoroughly let me offer my best advice based on experience. I rarely recommend anyone to move in on a water-based floor in under 24 hours, although I allow my customers to walk on the finish sooner if required. Water-based finishes are very durable within an overnight dry time so that the floor can be walked on the morning after a final coat. By contrast I rarely recommend walking on a oil-based finish floor in under 24 hours and not moving in heavy furniture in under 48 hours. For a typical 800-1200 square foot hardwood floor refinish I would suggest allowing 5 days for the entire process of refinishing if three water-based finish coats are to be applied. Allow an additional 2-3 days if the floor is to be stained or oil-modified finish applied. If you have questions, then visit our website or e-mail us.