What Are Hardwood Floors Made From
Hardwood Floors Categories
The latest designer trends, changes in consumer needs, and state of the art technology in the flooring industry have ushered in an astounding influx of educated buyers looking for the best deals, and using high end quality installations. Education about hardwood flooring is at an all time high. It is true that today, most hardwood floors fall into a few categories we have listed below on the main article for this section. They fall into the following descriptions:
Exotic Hardwood Floors
- Maple
- Brazilian
- Cherry
- Walnut
- Bamboo
- Pine
Sizes:
- 3/4 inch unfinished wood
- 3/4 inch pre-finished wood
- 1/2 inch engineered flooring
- Distressed pre-finished wood
- Custom Staining
- Dust controlled sanding
- Refinishing
As qualified installation professionals, Keith Clay Floors invites you to consider installing hardwood floors in your home or commercial business. These spectacular woods are warm, inviting, and beckon new home buyers to purchase just for the look and feel of wood. Most hardwood floors mentioned above in the lists above, accurately describes many of the installed products that can be a part of your home or business just for the asking. By today's standards, all of these types of flooring are now considered 'Green Flooring' that is totally sustainable as well.
If you already have some type of hardwood flooring in your current home or business we encourage you to think about upgrades. Refinishing, staining and sanding could be a consideration as you renovate. Keith Clay would like an opportunity to come out and discuss your desires. He feels that proper attention and review of procedures to existing hardwood floors and renovation really do require a visit and review of what your goals are for the area in question. Keith Clay will properly evaluate and determine what needs to be done. Keith Clay can make recommendations on this evaluation for you to consider. We have multiple 'Green Flooring Products' available that can be discussed if you have any questions.
If you have never had hardwood floors either in your home or commercial application, you may be asking what types of wood are these hardwood floors made from? Is it all wood through and through or is it a small top piece that is wood and the rest something else?
They are of course from trees, but specifically the term applies to types of trees.
The term hardwood designates wood from broad-leaved (mostly deciduous, but not necessarily, in the case of tropical trees) or angiosperm trees. Hardwood contrasts with softwood, which comes from conifer trees. On average, hardwood is of higher density and hardness than softwood, which is a factor in why hardwood floors are so long lasting. With considerable variation in actual wood hardness in both groups, with a large amount of overlap; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. Hardwoods have broad leaves and enclosed nuts or seeds such as acorns. They often grow in subtropical regions like Africa and also in Europe and other regions such as Asia.If you are interested in specific varieties in conjunction with the purchase of buying a floor; let's talk about that when you call to set an appointment. Please indicate if you are interested in 'Green Floors and Green Products' as well. Sustainable flooring products are all the rage right now and manufacturers are getting on board to supply the increased demand for these highly sought after products.
As far as what types of Hardwood species are available for beautiful floors, they are more varied than softwood. In todays trends, the industry has increased in growth tremendously in both style and variety. There are about a hundred times as many hardwood species as softwoods. The vessels may show considerable variation in size, shape of perforation plates (simple, scalariform, reticulate, foraminate), and structure of cell wall (e.g. spiral thickenings).
Hardwoods serve an enormous range of applications, including buildings, furniture, flooring, utensils, etc. Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor. It is usually used to mean parquetry, but it can also refer to carpets, laminate flooring, raised flooring, and linoleum. The most popular type of flooring is hardwood flooring, with an increasing popularity of bamboo floors all of which carry the title Green Flooring.
Hardwoods are generally far more resistant to decay than softwoods when used for exterior work. However, solid hardwood joinery is expensive compared to softwood (in the past, tropical hardwoods were easily available but the supply is now restricted due to sustainability issues) and most "hardwood" doors, for instance, now consist of a thin veneer bonded to medium-density fiberboard (MDF). Samples of many types of flooring are available for you to review, or if you have specific colors you are needing to match or just love, we can discover more information that may help you assess your selections for purchase as well.
A recently classified hardwood is Palmwood, which comes from the monocotyledon group of plants and is being promoted as a sustainable alternative to the shrinking stocks of "conventional" hardwoods. There are some exterior use opportunities for this type of product. If you have specific interest in finding out more about this product, we can help you with that process.
Saving the environment is a critical position in many areas of our industry. Keith Clay promotes and uses Green Flooring products, Green certified systems, Green certified coatings, Green certified sealants, and Green certified refinishing systems and products. Many of these exotics are considered sustainable and quite appealing for their longevity and pest free properties. If you have more questions about Green products available just let us know, Keith Clay supports Nationally recognized products and we can have an in depth discussion about that when you call.
