Homeowners are confronted by a dizzying number of choices to be made when shopping for a wood floor. Here is a quick overview of those choices and the associated terminology.
Type
of wood is one of the first decisions you will make. Most people select from among hardwood species, although pine is a softwood also used for flooring. The most common hardwood floor species are oak, maple, and more recently bamboo. You want a floor that is hard and durable, and will look good over time. Oak is the most common flooring species, with white oak slightly harder than red oak. Bamboo is classified as slightly harder than white oak, but hardness depends on the species used. Maple is the hardest of these woods but does not take stain well.
Solid wood flooring was the norm for many years. Floorboards 3/4 inch thick were nailed to a subfloor and locked to each other with a tongue and groove system. The sandable or renewable wear layer on a 3/4 inch solid wood floor is approximately 5/16 inch before you start exposing the nails that were used to install it. You can sand and refinish 3/4 inch thick flooring approximately 6-7 times. The average lifespan of 3/4 thick solid wood flooring is approximately 100 years.
Another common type of solid wood flooring is 3/8 inch top-nailed or parquet, which does not have a tongue and groove. If you've got one of these floors you will see where the nail heads are filled. Before sanding and refinishing this type of floor you or your contractor need to go through and set all the nails low enough so that they won't be exposed by the sander. This is a less common floor choice for new floors unless you're blending with an adjacent floor.
Engin
eered flooring is a relatively new player in the market and is made up of several layers of different materials. The best engineered floors are built having multiple ply layers that are cross layered, glued and pressed together. The inner cores are generally a plywood type material that incorporates the tongue and groove system. The top thicker hardwood veneer wear layer is glued on top of the core and is available in almost any hardwood species. Exotic hardwoods become more affordable when used only as a wear layer. A 5/16 inch thick hardwood wear layer is equivalent to that of 3/4 inch solid wood floor. A 4 mil or 5/32" wear layer can usually be sanded and refinished 4-5 times.
Engineered wood floors are more resistant to higher moisture levels than solid wood flooring, which adds to their appeal for use in damp basements or directly over concrete floor slabs. Engineered flooring can be direct glued-down over concrete slabs or nailed to a wood subfloor.
Floating floors are installed without nailing or gluing to a sub-floor. Usually floating floors are also engineered floors with a Click Lock method of attaching the boards to each other. A floating floor can be installed directly over a concrete slab without first installing a wood subfloor or nailing cleats. Floating floors are ideal for installation over hydronic heating systems where you want to make sure that the water pipes are not pierced by nails from the floor above.
Pr
e-finished vs. site-finished The advantages to a prefinished floor are no dust from sanding, no fumes from chemicals, and no waiting for the finish to dry. Prefinished floors are warranted to last longer than site-finished floors – typically 5 to 35 years for residential vs. 3 to 5 years for a site-finished floor. This is because factory applied urethane finishes are much tougher and longer lasting than site-applied finishes. The disadvantage is that pre-finished floors don't have that smooth monolithic look that you get with a site-applied finish. If you like the look of site-finished flooring, but want the durability of prefinished flooring, choose a product with a square end and edge.
What is Pergo? Pergo is a popular brand of engineered wood-look flooring that is actually a high-pressure plastic laminate with a printed wood grain surface. Think Formica. There are now many brands of laminate flooring on the market. The disadvantage of a plastic laminate floor is that it is not wood, so it can't be sanded and refinished. On the other hand, it is a fraction of the price of a wood floor and easy for do-it-yourselfers to install.
Now you're ready to browse flooring showrooms and make your selections without encountering a confusing barrage of unfamiliar terms!
