A History of Flooring

If you are knowledgeable about flooring, then you will be all too aware that choices like hardwood are usually described as’classic’ or’classical’. A good deal of this moment, this can be used to make it seem appealing when actually, it is entirely true when you are considering it in a historical angle. What exactly floors did our ancestors actually walk on? If you are a major fan of background and are taking a look at buying your next flooring, then keep reading.

The Very Original Floors
This guide will be moot unless we discussed the very first flooring that existed but it is not quite as exciting as you may think — that the very first floors were really the floor itself. Typically, the flooring of huts were whole sand and straw, or boards of timber put down in case you were blessed. A far cry from the luxury oiled wood flooring we are utilized to now correct? You also need to bear in mind our ancestors shared their own huts with their critters and all types being abandoned on the ground, which would subsequently find trodden down and create the surface as hard as concrete.

In warmer climates such as the tribal people in the usa, sand proved to be a common practise. Although not the most agreeable thing to have as flooring, it might collect waste and absorb moisture, finally resulting in a mucky clump which would get swept away and replaced with a new layer. Another frequent practise was to use shells and seeds as a protective coating. Pretty but we’d still rather have laminate!

Stone’s Vast History
With rock being use for structure and resources by humans since the start of time, it’s not surprising that it was made use of for floors also. There’s plenty of proof that the Romans used it in their bath houses, to medieval castles and a lot of use from the Dark Ages. This then developed into colourful stones like mosaics that are still used now. Granite was just another common substance also, frequently used a sign of wealth and prestige.

If you’re in your ancient history, then you will probably know the Romans were quite complex and advanced to their time and lots of their innovations are still utilized to this day. They took stone floors to a completely new level and produced a floor that has been heated from below and consequently underfloor heating was created. This was made so that the tiles were propped up to make a gap between the surfaces of the floor, so that the heat was competent to fulfill this gap. This abstract innovation was used only in homes of the wealthy and communal buildings and is still seen as a luxury today.

Wood Flooring
Moving on from ancient times, hardwood floors has an extensive history also. A gorgeous and classical option, we can’t ever see hardwood floors going out of fashion any time soon. Although wood flooring has ever been popular, sales have soared in the last decade or so and is probably the most stylish choice right now. With the world becoming more contemporary, maybe we’re searching for a taste of something from a bygone age. Additionally, but wood is incredible durable and is very likely to last more than the usual life-time. Many Victorian and Edwardian houses still have the original hardwood flooring!

Wood flooring’s origin can be traced back to the 15th century, even with a lot of old palaces and manor homes boasting wood which has been laid when the building was constructed. Parquet and herringbone are often associated in older houses, with many of us appreciating its lavish and intriguing pattern in our houses now.

What About the Floors Of Today?
Contemporary flooring consists of mainly Luxury Vinyl Tiles, laminate and cork. With technology advancing every minute, that knows what flooring stuff can emerge in the future?

Have Your Say
Have you got any knowledge of the history of floors? Let us know in the comments below under!

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PREFINISHED WOOD FLOORS: ACCESSORIES PROVIDE THE FINISHING TOUCHES

You already understand the benefits of installing a prefinished (factory finished) wood floor in your home — that is why you’ve been agonizing over which one of the many selections is the best match for your interior decor. But now that you’ve made your choice, there is yet another choice to make — which hardwood floors moldings are needed to bring the finishing touches to a room’s conversion.

Happy couple with a kid in their new home laying on the floor with cardboard boxes around

What moldings do you need? Well, that is based on the room’s configuration and the scope of the undertaking, but two factors are very significant: the moldings should be a fantastic match with the floor colors — you want the trim to blend in, not stand out like a sore thumb and the moldings ought to be the same high quality as the floor being installed.

Fortunately, Floor Sanding Epsom Provides a solution for these two factors. They offer a complete line of high-quality wood floor moldings in numerous wood species such as Maple, Oak, walnut, Brazilian cherry, and lots of others that match all their prefinished hardwood flooring selections. You might also pick from prefinished, unfinished, and organic finishes on most of the trims. Now the one thing you need to do is decide which trims are perfect for your project.

Wood Floor Transition Moldings
While it isn’t true in each situation, the majority of the time when your hardwood floor meets another floor material, there should be a piece of trimming added. Moldings should also be installed on hardwood stair treads and in any step-down, that occurs in your flooring. A few types of hardwood moldings to consider:

Reducers — those are perfect for alterations to another flooring material whenever there is a height difference entailed for example to vinyl or any ceramic tiles. Reducers are available in a variety of heights.

Thresholds — those hardwood molding have different shapes, but just about all have curved edges to reduce tripping. Thresholds are typically used in doorways or walk-thru openings to provide a different separation between two different flooring materials. They’re often used between hardwood and carpeting, ceramic tile or other flooring materials that could be a different height than the wood surface.

T-Molding — this trimming is somewhat like a threshold, but is designed to separate two hard surfaces that are roughly the exact same height.

Stair Nose — this trim is also known as bull-nosing because of its curved front edge. It is used in the front of this tread if you’re switching stairs over to wood and can also be utilized in landings and step-downs from the ground.

These are just a few of the numerous hardwood moldings that Particular Wood Floors offers. The descriptions about the site can help you decide if the trim is ideal for your application or give us a call today to see what your alternatives are. We love to help with new flooring projects.

REFINISHING WOOD FLOORS – GO DUSTLESS AND STAY HOME!

If you’ve been putting off refinishing your hardwood flooring because you just can’t face the hassle, help is on the way. Floor Sanding Epsom , Epsom’s premier flooring business and a National Wood Floor Association winner, includes a state-of-the-art dustless floor refinishing program that does the job in just a couple of days — and you don’t have to go out.

THE DUSTLESS REFINISHING PROCESS

Until now, the strangest part about refinishing flooring was that the dust — regardless of how much you recorded ducts, took down window treatments, and strove to seal the cupboards, the dust that the sanders kicked up took up residence on your house and settled for what seemed like months. No more.

The Atomic Dust Containment System, by BONA (you have seen their cleaning products in stores), does mitigate the sanding dust so much that you and your pets may stay in the house throughout the procedure. The BONA system traps dust particles and immediately blows out them to a containment system at the truck. This tech is a whole lot healthier for everybody, primarily since there’s no stress on the respiratory systems of the technicians and the homeowners. If asthma or other respiratory concerns have stopped you from having your floors redone, the BONA system reduces airborne dust by 99.8% — the only dust remaining in your home is what is already there. Additionally, as there are not any microscopic dust particles drifting down from the ceiling ports, the new finish is as smooth as glass — no more tiny granular spots are sealed to the end.

BONA DUSTLESS SYSTEM IS QUICKER AND EASIER

Before, if you refinished your floors the old-fashioned way, you almost had to completely move from the house for a few days — particularly in the event that you have a bigger home and have been doing all the flooring. The BONA process is ultimately a more cost-effective method to refinish your floors — no storage, hotels, or pet dressing to factor into the total cost.

Floor Sanding Epsom invites one to contact us to get a consultation about how the BONA Dustless procedure can restore your flooring to their prior sheen and shine. The consultation is free, and you will be pleased you did.

Keep Your Hardwood Floor Shining Like A Star!

Hardwood floors look unusually stunning and include luxury appeal to your house. Brazilian Cherry, Exotic Acacia, Maple, Classic Oak are very popular but you get a wide variety to choose from. They compliment any kind of decoration and keep your house warm in winter.

Although stone and tile flooring are significantly sterile and simple to maintain, they do not have the same heat and texture as timber floors. Homes with hardwood floors never go out of need and sell quicker comparatively.

You’ve got a wide variety to choose from and some eco friendly choices since these trees grow back quicker.

Types Of Flooring

Engineered Wood Flooring

This is manufactured using three to eight layers of wood veneers. Best layer consists of high quality wood and sub layers can be of different or same course.

These floors expand and contract less than solid wood flooring during changes in humidity and temperature, but cannot be sanded and polished as many times compared to the solid hardwood flooring.

Solid Wood flooring
These are thick and are made up of solid wood from top to base. The advantages of this sort of flooring is that it can be easily installed on any sort of surface and can be sanded and sanded umpteen times. Solid wood floors cost you little more than the engineered counterparts. Engineered floors are easy to maintain when compared with solid hardwood flooring.

So you’ve got hardwood flooring? Wondering what it takes to wash and maintain them is a piece of information to assist you.

Cleaning

Cleaning your floor is important and it depends upon the surroundings of your house. If you have children and pets in your home then you need to clean it often to avoid scratches. Use a vacuum cleaner with no beater bar.

Water is a enemy of wood floors. Never put water directly on the floor instead use a damp mop if it is suggested by the professionals who installed your flooring or by the specialists in the local hardware store.

Wipe off liquid spills quickly, else they penetrate and damage the floor.

Maintenance of Wood Flooring

Another advantage is hardwood floors is easy to repair when broken. There are many common ways wood flooring become damaged.

If openings develop between boards because of natural environmental aspects, just waiting for the period to change will allow the timber to fix itself. If the gap is bigger than a dime and continues, a specialist may be able to tighten the wood up.

Scratches can be mended using touch-up kits located at most local home improvement stores. You’re able to address big scratches by refinishing the floor.

Prefinished vs. Site Finished Hardwood Flooring

Clients often ask us if or not unfinished flooring is better. I would normally only recommend site finished floors if you are attempting to match an present website finished flooring and are rebuilding the whole area. We don’t suggest it for boards around 2-1/4″ wide.

There’s a misconception that site finished floors is totally sealed and won’t move. When website finished floors shrinks in winter, the openings that develop will decode the finish, which is especially the case in broader boards.

Additionally, since the boards in a website finished floor are stuck together by the end the openings will develop at the bottom point in the finish that might be every 3- 4 boards. This is known as”side bonding” and doesn’t happen in prefinished flooring. At a prefinished flooring the planks are free to psychologist individually so you’ve got small gaps between each board, rather than large gaps randomly throughout your floor.

Keep Your Hardwood Floor Shining Like A Star!

Hardwood flooring look unusually stunning and add luxury appeal to your house. Brazilian Cherry, Exotic Acacia, Maple, Classic Oak are popular but you get a wide variety to pick from. They compliment any kind of decoration and keep your home warm in the winter.

Although tile and stone floors are significantly sterile and simple to maintain, they don’t have the exact same heat and texture as wood floors. Homes with hardwood floors never go from sell and demand quicker comparatively.

You have a wide array to select from and a few eco friendly choices as these trees grow back faster.

Types Of Flooring

Engineered Wood Flooring
This is manufactured using three to eight layers of different wood veneers. Best layer consists of top quality wood and sub layers could be of same or different course.

These floors expand and contract less than solid hardwood floors during fluctuations in humidity and temperature, but cannot be sanded and sanded as many times compared to the solid wood flooring.

Solid Wood Floors
These are thick and are composed of strong wood from top to base. The advantages of this kind of flooring is that it may be easily installed on any kind of surface and may be sanded and refinished umpteen times. Solid hardwood flooring cost you little more than the engineered counterparts. Engineered floors are easy to maintain compared to solid hardwood flooring.

So you’ve got wooden floor? Wondering what it takes to wash and keep them is a piece of information that will help you.

Cleaning

Cleaning your flooring is important and it’s dependent upon the surroundings of your home. In case you have kids and pets in your home then you need to clean it more often to avoid scratches. Use a vacuum cleaner with no beater bar.

Water is a enemy of wood flooring. Never put water directly on the floor rather use a damp mop if it’s suggested by the professionals that installed your flooring or from the specialists in the neighborhood hardware store.

Wipe away liquid spills immediately, else they penetrate and damage the floor.

THE EPSOM GUIDE TO BAMBOO FLOORING

Bamboo Hardwood Floors For Your House

The easy bamboo plant has revolutionized the hardwood floor and recovery business in Epsom.

1. Bamboo is relatively inexpensive and quick to grow;
2. It’s easy to grow and harvest it in an environmentally friendly fashion;
3. It comes in Many Different beautiful colors;
4. It’s durable and simple to maintain;
5. It is quite beautiful.

In retrospect, it is a little bit surprising why it jointly took us this long to comprehend bamboo for a choice material for house construction and repair. Bamboo plants can re-grow in just four or five years. Most trees used in conventional hardwood floor construction, by comparison, take three to six years to re-grow.

The Two Types of Bamboo Floors:

1. Engineered Planks

This method is done without employing a subfloor, therefore it will be quite quick. Planks are just snapped together, and they move over an underlayment, typically made of foam-rubber.

2. Solid Bamboo

In this technique, the bamboo planks are stapled or nailed down. This procedure takes a bit longer to perform — typically two times as long as the floating flooring functioning — but you will find a solid, dependable floor. Once you’re done with the installation, you can immediately go in furniture and also have a dance party, if you are so inclined.

Different Bamboo Grains

• Vertical grain is very beautiful. It is made up of lot of different strips of wood stacked and glued together.
• Flat grain is bamboo sliced into lasagna-like sheets and then glued together.
• Strand bamboo is sliced and diced but much more finely — a la angel hair pasta, instead of lasagna. The fibers are usually bonded with resins and other additives to create the plank extremely tough.

Not all bamboo floors are created equal, obviously. Since most bamboo manufacturing operations are located in East Asia, you normally pay a little premium. Lower end bamboo flooring are most likely on par with red oak floors. Solid bamboo sells for as little as $2 a square foot, whereas high end engineered bamboo can cost as much as $7 per square foot.

For help figuring out if bamboo is the best selection for you, visit the Epsom bamboo floor specialists at Epsom Floor Sanding. We can direct your job and help you stay on budget, so you are totally pleased with the outcome.

Adding Texture and Character to Your Wood Floors

The general tendency in hardwood floors over the past many years is a move away from formal décor towards spaces using a homier, more lived-in look. Rustic chic, as an example, has been steadily gaining in popularity and shows no signs of slowing. Listed below are a variety of texturing and edging techniques which can add character to your hardwood flooring, while at exactly the exact same time hammering scratches, dents and imperfections.

Hand-Scraping

For those seeking a traditional and rustic (although not always worn) look, hand-scraped floors are a fantastic alternative. Hand-scraping is the conventional method of smoothing timber by pulling a draw knife — a very long blade with handles on both sides — round the boards. This procedure results in a sturdier flooring by scratching away softer wood on the outside of each plank and exposing the harder grain underneath. Scrape marks out of a draw blade are generally found from the floorboards of all pre-industrial houses.

Nowadays, most planks are milled together with machines, making them smoother and far more uniform than those generally seen in, say, Colonial houses. Hand-scraping is still used today, but to recreate that traditional style in machined lumber to add a more varied texture. Obviously, hand-scraping creates boards which each have a slightly different form and thus a distinctive,”hand-made” feel.

Many flooring companies today advertise their boards as”hand-scraped,” though in fact they achieve the impact with machines. If you would like to replicate the genuine character of traditional hand-scraped timber and also have a say in the depth and degree of the texturing, then be sure to choose an organization which actually performs this process by hand.

Wire-Brushing

Like hand-scraping, wire-brushing is a method for scraping away the soft exterior of a board to expose the tougher grain below. Rather than a blade, however, this technique involves scraping away substance using a wire-bristled brush. Running your hand together these floors, you may easily feel the contours of the woodgrain. Wire-brushing also creates a somewhat pastoral or lived-in effect, though is often more subtle than hand-scraping. This is a great option for high-traffic areas and homes with pets or children, as minor scratches and dents will more easily blend in with all the feel of the ground.

Beveling

Another way to add a country feel to your wood floor is by forming the borders of each plank. A similar method, called”pillowing,” generates a”U” shape between planks. While square, or”kissing,” edges eliminate the prospect of dirt and dust collecting in the seams, they are more difficult to install and tend to be somewhat formal appearing. Beveled edges, however, make it effortless to install planks by masking subtle differences in the height of each. If you like the notion of simple installation but are worried about high upkeep, micro-beveled edges create much smaller seams and thus cut down on the amount of dust which will accumulate.

Distressing and Patina

Last, current trends in floors have a tendency to observe the outdated, lived-in appearance. This naturally poses a challenge for the homeowner that would like a fresh floor with a classic appearance. This is where painful and patina come in.

Distressed floors, such as distressed jeans, recreate the indications of wear by simply marking the surface up.

Patina, strictly speaking, is your natural sheen which timber develops with wear and age. While accurate patina may only be reached with the components, therapy using minerals, compounds, paints and UV rays may approximate this impact with remarkable precision.

Trusting Experience

Employing a number of the above methods may add character and uniqueness to your hardwood flooring. However, having so many alternatives to pick from can make the job of selecting a flooring somewhat daunting. For this reason, it is almost always a great idea to check with a seasoned professional. The specialist artisans at Oshkosh Designs have over 25 years of experience in the wood flooring business. They can help ensure that you choose a hardwood flooring that you’re happy with because of its life — and yours.

 

 

Wood Flooring Options For Dinning Rooms

The reality today is that carpet won’t be on your own short-list, but wood flooring is highly likely to be correct there at the top of your list. What exactly would be the best wood flooring alternatives to dining rooms?

Before narrowing the detail of your timber flooring, here are some fundamental questions you Want to ask yourself:

• Can you have under floor heating in your dining area?
• Is there some humidity in the room or subfloor? Or is there a risk that there may be humidity in the future?
• Does your dining area get a great deal of direct sunlight?

In case you have under floor heating in your dining room, then your hardwood flooring choice will be restricted to engineered hardwood flooring. This is because solid hardwood floors simply won’t resist the rises and falls in temperature caused by the direct warmth coming from your under floor heating. When strong wood is subject to these severe modifications, it tends to warp and bow because of the expansion and contraction that it undergoes. It is for this reason that engineered wood flooring is the only real option for setup over under floor heating. All that said, there’s absolutely not any need to think of having to select engineered over solid wood as a limitation, because nowadays, the option of engineered wood flooring is indeed wide.

If there exists or there is likely to exist any humidity in your area, the same rule applies: choose engineered wood flooring. But it is well worth investing in reducing the humidity or threat of moisture into a minimum before laying any new flooring. And finally, if your dining area gets a lot of sunlight, then you really owe it to yourself to consider investing in a flooring option that includes a UV filter in its own end , or employing a UV filter after you have fitted your floor. As a result, you will reduce the chances of your floor disappearing with the lighting.

As soon as you’ve obtained these principles out of the way, you can get to the fun component of picking your new dining area flooring. You have to take into account if you may choose engineered or solid wood floor (supposing your dining area does not fit into the 2 categories outlined previously ).

Thereafter, the color you are expecting to achieve will most likely drive the types of wood you select. If you’re searching for a unique and natural color of timber, this will specify that species will probably be greatest. By way of instance, if you’re searching for honey or beige tonesthen your selection is most likely going to favour walnut . Having said this, there are a few superb dark wood choices now available which are treated to seem darker than they’re naturally. It will be foolhardy to allow these slide your web since they’re natural appearing and make a real fashion statement at a dining area.

Most dining rooms don’t have to suffer too much traffic, which can be good news when it comes to your choice of finish. By all means you can still opt for a tough and hardwearing lacquer finish to your dining area, but you will not be reluctant to do so. Based on the furnishings you are putting in your dining room, it might be a good idea to decide on a pleasant, aged looking floor to give a bit of historical charm and play to your area, instead, a light and airy white washed floor will bring a dark area to life and will enhance just about any modern or bohemian dining furniture.

The size of your dining area will drive to a extent the size of the decor you put in it. That said, it may well be that you have a reasonably modest dining room but have opted to dedicate the entire space to your own table and seats, leaving little if any space for anything else. If it comes to flooring, you may be tempted when choosing the width of plank to stay with tradition. Tradition says that in tiny rooms, narrow boards will be the order of the day and it’s just in big rooms that you are able to get away with broad boards.