Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood is one of the most highly-desired flooring options. It goes well with classic, rustic, chic, and modern décor. People of all tastes love this kind of flooring.

It’s easy to see why.

Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood floors aren’t popular just because they’ve been around for centuries. They possess unrivaled beauty and richness; they add warmth and sophistication to any home. Good quality hardwood floors increase the value of any property, and improve indoor air quality. They’re environmentally-friendly; these days, all harvested trees are replaced with new plantings to make sure forests are left with no deficit. Floors made of hardwood require only limited maintenance, and provide decades of wear. They are the perfect choice for new construction or pre-existing homes.

The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) defines wood flooring as any flooring that contains real wood on the wearable surface. This is a broad definition that includes floors that are not exclusively composed of wood. The term, “hardwood flooring,” is sometimes used to distinguish between solid wood floors and engineered real wood floors. However, most flooring manufacturers, retailers and contractors call both solid and engineered floors “hardwood flooring.”

Solid Hardwood Flooring

Solid hardwood floors are real wood planks that are milled from a single piece of timber from top to bottom and can be used in any room that is on or above ground. The thicker wear surface of solid hardwood floors make them extremely long-lasting. If overworn, they can be sanded and refinished.

Solid hardwood flooring typically comes in thin and relatively short planks, and there are some limitations as to their installation on concrete. So, with the increasing demand for wider and longer wood planks and the increased use of concrete as a subfloor, engineered wood flooring has created a lot of buzz. That said, solid wood floors remain widely used and popular.

Engineered Flooring

Engineered hardwood flooring is made up of 100% real wood but is composed of two or more layers of wood pieced together to form a plank. Typically, engineered wood flooring uses high-quality wood as a top layer, and the inner part is made of cheaper wood layers stacked perpendicularly. Engineered wood floors expand and contract in response to temperature and humidity less than solid wood floors, and this makes them ideal for all types of structurally sound, flat, clean, and dry subfloors at ground level, above, or below it. While some engineered floors can be sanded and refinished just like solid hardwood floors, they can’t bear as much of this. When it’s known that sanding and refinishing are unlikely, they can be an ideal flooring option.

Hardwood Flooring Installation

Hardwood flooring comes with a variety of installation systems, one of which consists of joining hardwood flooring planks together. Typically, the wooden floor planks have tongue and groove – meaning on one side and one end you find a groove, while on the other side and end you find a tongue. The tongue of one plank engages with the groove of the adjacent plank thus joining both planks. This mechanism is not visible once planks are joined but a distinction is visible between planks.

Another installation option that again joins the hardwood flooring planks to each other is the “click” system. This method is similar to that of the tongue-and-groove, the only difference being the manner in which they fit together. The “click” method requires planks to be connected at an angle to make the curved or barbed tongue fit into the modified groove until a “click” is heard.

Apart from the different systems available for joining planks, installers must consider what way they’ll contact the subfloor. One of the methods is the glue-down method – the hardwood flooring is glued to the subfloor. Another is the nail-down (staple-down) method – where the connection is made by driving mechanical fasteners such as nails or staples into the planks causing them to latch onto the wooden subfloor beneath. In the floating method the flooring is laid down on top of a layer of underlayment. The individual planks are locked together, but are not glued or nailed to the subfloor or the underlayment.

Hardwood flooring installation systems used for joining planks together are always executed in combination with methods that consider the contact the hardwood flooring makes with the subfloor. For example, tongue-and-groove flooring can be installed by glue-down, floating, or nail-down (staple-down) method, while for “click” floors only floating installation is being used.

The expansion space left between the hardwood flooring and the fixed vertical obstructions (walls, columns, cabinets, etc.) must be hidden by installing a trim (baseboard and/or shoe molding). The gaps between the hardwood floors and other floors in the house are bridged by transitions.

Hardwood can be installed on stairs, requiring installation of planks with options for both treads and the risers or on the treads only (as other material could be used for the risers). A matching stair nosing goes on the outside edge of the step to meet the hardwood in the horizontal plane and the riser in the vertical plane.

Your Hardwood Flooring Installation Project

Some homeowners take on hardwood flooring installation projects themselves. We rarely see good results with this. It often costs more, and causes a lot of stress. Installing hardwood floors is more complicated than what’s usually shown in DIY videos. For economy, efficiency, and optimal results, it’s best to hire professionals.

If you’re looking to install hardwood floors in the San Diego, CA area, please contact us. As a hardwood flooring installer with over fifteen years of experience in residential and commercial flooring, we serve our customers with dedication and expertise (read our customers reviews here). Our free, non-obligatory in-home estimate will give you a better idea of your options. You can request a free quote here right away.