INTO THE WOODS
Feature Story
The hot style in flooring right now is the porcelain tiles that mimic wood planks.
But it’s hard to beat the real thing, said Kevin Mullany of Benchmark Wood Floors. “The performance and characteristics of the wood and its resiliency underfoot cannot be matched,” he said. “Wood floors are repairable. When sanded and finished, you have a lifetime of color and warmth and value created from wood that cannot be imitated.”
Wood flooring’s versatility is also something that makes it a desirable choice, said Dale Ruth Sr., owner of Choices Wholesale Flooring Solutions.
“You can go with either a smooth floor or a wire-brushed surface or a hand-scraped surface,” he said. “Hand-scraped or wire-brushed appear to be stressed, giving it a different appearance. The reason for those other-than-smooth surfaces is that the hand-scraped and wire-brushed surfaces tend to hide scratches and imperfections and it gives it more of a rustic look, too. A smooth surface is a more elegant, traditional look.”
Wood is certainly holding its own against the influx of the tiles and currently “the trends are wider boards and longer boards,” Ruth said. “It’s an appearance thing — what looks best — less joints, more continuity of design and so on.”
The up-and-coming trend that Mullany said he sees is lighter wood overtaking the darker, traditional walnut.
“Rift and quarter sawn white oak is No. 1,” he said. “Oak is very durable, it’s been used for centuries for its durability. And when we take that cut, it has an added dimension of stability, minimizing shrink and swell due to moisture absorption and moisture release.”
And there are few surfaces with the adaptability of oak, Mullany added.
“Another advantage to oak is it accepts stain very evenly and very well so it will accept any stain that you choose,” he said. “From the grays that are very popular today to the reds. Any color you want to go with.”
With many newer homes in New Mexico built with concrete slabs, wood floors are an easy way to reduce some of the stress on the body from the hard surface, Ruth said, as opposed to gluing the wood flooring directly to the concrete.
This is done through a method of construction called floating in which a pad is laid atop the concrete and underneath the floor then the tongueand-grooved flooring is tied together so it floats upon the surface like an island.
“A floating floor is less expensive to install because glue is expensive,” Ruth said. “The other positive thing, they are softer under your feet, because you have a pad underneath them. The downside is they’re noisy when you walk on them. They kind of have a hollow sound, if you will. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”
The surfaces can either be solid wood, or an engineered floor, with the latter generally being less expensive.
“The advantage of a solid floor over an engineered floor is in most cases you can re-sand the floor numerous times in case you want to take out gouges or change colors,” Ruth said. “An engineered floor has a veneer on the top of the hardwood and the rest of the plywood or HDF core — high-density fiber board. The advantage of the engineered floor is more dimensional stability than a solid floor.”
That means there’s going to be less expansion and contraction as it absorbs and releases moisture.
Much like painting or photos, the finish that’s applied to the surface will have a distinct effect on the wood’s ultimate look.
“The other thing to think about is the gloss level,” Ruth said. “All the finishes have different gloss levels. If you compare it to paint, there’s gloss, semi-gloss, eggshell and flat. It’s the same thing. The trend is toward lower gloss and the reason for that is there’s less showing of spots like water spots and dust and it is easier maintenance with a lower gloss.”
A polyurethane finish that’s supplemented with a hardener like aluminum oxide is good for high-traffic areas and requires low maintenance, but the downside, Ruth said, is it can be difficult to repair.
“Then there are oil finishes,” he said. “They’re easy to repair and but require some periodic maintenance like re-oiling the floors.”
Mullany said that can also provide an interesting look.
“Penetrating oils and resins have a matte, low-luster finish,” he said. “You can maintain that with oil soap and mopping the floor once a week.”
For a time, the use of reclaimed wood from old barns or old houses was quite popular, Mullany said, but that has begun to go out of vogue because the structures are disappearing too fast and the cost factor involved.
“They’re a part of Americana now and there’s a kind of movement to not taking those down anymore,” he said. “We’re seeing some resistance on that point, and with it being a limited resource.”
While the look can be spectacular, reclaimed wood can cost as much as 2½ times the amount of traditional wood, Mullany said.
“You’re talking about some big man hours to make it work,” he said. “And we’re talking about what’s a pretty limited resource, old barns in the Midwest.”