Hardwood floors come in either a beveled edge, or a square edge. Today, most hardwood floor manufacturers are calling their beveled edge “eased edge” because the tapered edge is dramatically reduced from the old deeply grooved edges. The beveled edges do serve a purpose. The manufacturer can produce beveled edge planks faster than square edge, which in turn lowers their production costs. Also, a beveled edge floor is more forgiving when installed over irregular subfloors and you don’t have the problem of overwood.

The edges of all boards meet squarely creating a uniform, smooth surface that blends the floor together from board to board. The overall look of this floor gives a contemporary flair and formal feeling to the room.

Each board is just slightly beveled. Some manufacturers add an eased edge to both the length of the planks as well as the end joints. Eased edges are used to help hide minor irregularities, such as uneven plank heights. Eased edge is also called micro beveled edge.

These products have a very distinctive groove in them. Beveled edge planks lend themselves to an informal and country decor. The urethane finishes applied at the factory today the beveled edges are sealed completely making dirt and grit easy to be swept or vacuumed out of the grooves. Beveled edge floors help hide subfloor irregularities that could result in variations in board height, which is often called “overwood”.

Nail Down – Typically used with the 3/4″ solid products, however there are adapters available for thinner flooring sizes as well. 2″ nailing cleats are used with a wood flooring nailer and mallet to attach the flooring to the subfloor. Solid Strip floors or Plank floors can only be installed on wooden subfloors on grade or above grade. The National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association has complete installation instructions available on their web site.

Staple Down – 1-1/2 to 2 inch Staples are used versus nailing cleats to attach the wood flooring to the subfloor. A pneumatic gun is used to drive the staple into the wood flooring and subfloor. This procedure is easier than the nail down for do-it-yourself installations. Not all wood flooring manufacturers recommend the same staple gun. Read the manufacturers installation manual to assure you have the right staple gun and right size staples.

Glue Down – The recommended mastic or adhesive is spread on with the proper sized trowel to adhere the wood flooring to the subfloor.

Engineered wood floors and parquets can be glued down. Solid strip floors and plank floors can only be nailed or stapled. There are many types of adhesives on the market, please use the manufacturers recommended adhesive when installing their flooring. Not using the manufacturers recommended adhesive and trowel size could void any warranties you may have.

Floating – With the floating installation method the floor is not mechanically fastened to any part of the subfloor. There is a thin pad that is placed between the wood flooring and the subfloor. A recommended wood glue is applied in the tongue and groove of each plank to hold the planks together. The padding protects against moisture, reduces noise transmission, softer under foot, and provides for some additional “R” value. Some engineered floors and all Long strip floors can be floated. This is a very fast, easy and clean method of installation. Please consult the manufacturer installation instructions to see if your flooring can be floated.

Hand-Scraped Hardwood flooring is one of the most popular home design choices. Not only does it look beautiful in any room and is also easy to clean and maintain. You don’t have to worry about a spilled drink causing an indelible stain, and you won’t spend hours on fruitless vacuuming.

However, hardwood flooring comes with a premium finish; with prices going up as you choose higher-quality wood. Floorbank will provide you quality hand-scraped hardwood flooring at affordable prices.

Floorbank sells hand-scraped hardwood flooring in red, white oak, maple, birch, beech, ash, hickory and walnut to homeowners, business owners, interior designers and installers in Ontario. Our extensive catalog and affordable prices mean that you can get the look you want for your home or office.

Explore our online extensive catalog now and find the solutions you need to give your home a makeover. Your new feel and value to your home will by sky high and keep in mind you will never have to vacuum again!

Wire-Brushed Hardwood flooring is one of the most popular home design choices. It looks beautiful and brings a natural look to your home and it is also easy to clean and maintain. You don’t have to worry about on spilled drink causing a stain, and you won’t spend hours on fruitless vacuuming.

Generally hardwood flooring comes at a premium finish; with prices going up as you choose higher-quality wood. Floorbank brings you quality wire-brushed hardwood flooring at prices you can afford.

Floorbank sells wire-brushed hardwood flooring in red and white oak, maple, birch, beech, ash, hickory and walnut to homeowners, business owners, interior designer and installers in Ontario. Our extensive catalog and affordable prices means that you can get the look you want for your home or office.

Explore our online extensive catalog now and find the solutions you need to give your home a makeover. Your new feel and value to your home will by sky high and keep in mind you will never have to vacuum again!

Most factory finished hardwood floors have several coats of finishing applied to the wood’s surface. For example, many wood floor companies are applying 6-10 coats of a ultra-violet (UV) cured urethane. This would be extremely difficult for someone to achieve that quality on the job site. This is one of the reasons why many flooring mechanics, flooring retailers, and builders are pushing prefinished hardwood floors. Instead of taking several days to install and finish a new hardwood floor a prefinished hardwood floor is generally done in one day.

The days of having to wax and scrub your hardwood floors are pretty much gone forever. Manufacturers of prefinished wood floors have developed sophisticated techniques to quickly apply hard, durable, urethane-based finishes right at the factory. Ultra violet lights are used to prefinished wood planks where several coats of urethane applied within a matter of a few minutes. This is helping make hardwood floors both more affordable, and much easier to maintain. Recently, the hardwood flooring manufacturers have begun to add small chips of Aluminum Oxide directly to the floor’s finish which dramatically increases the life of the urethane finish.

This does not mean you should wash your floor with water, but it does mean these floors won’t watermark like the old waxed hardwood floors. The UV cured urethane wood finishes do make these floors easier to maintain than the old waxed hardwood floors.

Factory Prefinished Hardwood Flooring

Wood floors that have been factory finished before they are installed.

UV-cured – Factory finishes that are cured with Ultra Violet lights versus heat.

Aluminum Oxide – Added to the urethane finish for increased abrasion resistance of the wear layer, which is becoming extremely popular on the better grade wood floors.

Polyurethane – A clear, tough and durable finish that is applied as a wear layer.

Ceramic – Advanced technology that allows the use of space-age ceramics to increase the abrasion resistance of the wear layer. See Award hardwood floors Wear Max finish.

Acrylic Impregnated – Acrylic monomers are injected into the cell structure of the wood to give increased hardness and then finished with a wear layer over the wood.

Job-site Finished Hardwood Flooring

If you want a custom stained hardwood floor, or a wood floor to match existing trim than a job-site finish is your answer. Job-site finish means you start with a bare (unfinished) hardwood floor and than the floor is sanded, stained, and finished in the home. The other advantage on a job-site finish is if you are concerned with uneven heights between planks, the sanding process will smooth out the floor. Be warned, this can be quite a mess and the process does take several days.

Water Based Urethane – Water is used as part of the chemical make up of the polyurethane finish.

Moisture Cured Urethane – A similar chemical make up as solvent based urethanes but, this finish needs the humidity (moisture) in the air to cure.

Solvent Based Urethane – Oil is used as part of the chemical make up of the polyurethane finish.