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.

Matching Wood Flooring To Wood Worktops In The Kitchen

Would you ever have too much timber in a kitchen? This is a question we frequently get asked by people that have a wood floor and are considering a wooden worktop. What should they do? In our view (and of course we are a bit biased), you can not have too much wood in kitchen. If you think about it, a wood floor can be flawlessly off set by some contrasting cabinet doors which are then topped off with a timber worktop. Where’s the problem? In all honesty, the problems come when you don’t plan your wood mixtures. Here are a few scenarios that we think could do the job really well. If you are working around a floor that you don’t want to change, then here are some helpful hints:

If you have got a light colored oak floor

If you have obtained a light coloured oak floor, the chances are you will have an interesting collection of markings in your floor, which make interest and activity at floor level. If that is the case, then it’s ideal to opt for a worktop that pretty much fits your floor or is almost without markings. When it comes to color, fitting light with light is really effective and can work well with light or dark coloured cabinet doors.

In case you have loads of lighting in your room, you can decide on a complete contrast and team a really dark worktop with your light floor. That said, again if your floor has lots of interest, try to go for a worktop with discreet markings. As a last option, based on the age and condition of your floor, you could look at staining it to match the worktop appearance that you would like.

If you’ve got a Moderate coloured oak floor

If you have obtained a medium colored floor, then the chances are you’re very likely to need stick together with the warm tones of your area and compliment this with a hot toned worktop. In reality exactly the identical message goes as with the light coloured floor. If your floor has plenty of attention, either attempt to mimic the look of your floor in the worktop or go for a worktop which has very little markers. Attempting to put two woods collectively that have lots of knots and patterns, but that are different is similar to putting floral jeans using a checked top. Even though it can function, it takes a brave person to give it a go.

If you Have got an almost black Walnut floor

For anybody with an nearly black floor, unless they’ve a great deal of light in their kitchen, the best advice is probably to opt for a nice, brightly colored wood worktop, unless you’re planning extremely light coloured cabinet doors. With a dim floor, a dim worktop and dim cabinet doors, you’ll have a real challenge to disperse light in your room, either naturally or artificially, so having one mild element in the equation is vital.

It can be that you decide on a dark worktop to tone with your dark flooring and then blend the two using high gloss white or stainless steel cabinet doors. This would add comparison and fashion, while providing you the sought-after monochrome, contemporary appearance. Nevertheless, if you would like to plump for a light colored worktop, then the likes of a full stave, premium bamboo option will top the entire look off with class.

If it’s a Brand New floor you Are planning, Instead of your worktop, then here are our top tips:

If you Have got a light Colored iroko worktop

If you happen to have a premium, complete staves iroko worktop, then you can really pick any flooring option that takes your fancy. A genuine blank canvas, the most premium grade iroko timber is virtually knot free and has a long and interesting grain. If your budget is tight, then you could very happily team this using a rustic tier floor that has plenty of attention and in regards to color, you may simply choose whatever takes your fancy. Our personal preference is to team this option off with a nice dark floor, but if you enjoy a light and airy area, who are we to criticize?

If you Have got a Moderate Colored Walnut worktop

If you have opted for a moderate coloured walnut worktop or have inherited one from a prior owner, then the odds are you would be best to stay with a natural, neutral palette to the flooring. Adhering to warm wood tones provides a cozy and homely feel for the area. The only issue to keep an eye out for this is that you don’t mix two forests which have a great deal of distinct markings. In case your worktop has plenty of markings, then it is important to select out a flooring option that’s fewer markings or is possibly aged or desperate to seem as though it’s been retrieved in an old construction.

If You’ve Got a Moderate Colored oak worktop

When you’ve opted for a moderate colored oak worktop or have inherited one by a prior owner, then the odds are you’d be best to stick with a natural, neutral palette for the floor. Adhering to warm wood tones provides a cozy and comfy feel to your region. The sole issue to keep an eye out for this is that you don’t combine two forests that have a lot of distinct markings. In case your worktop has plenty of markings, then it is important to select out a flooring option that contains fewer markings or is perhaps aged or desperate to seem as if it’s been retrieved from an old structure.

Think outside the box

If you’re worried about swamping your room with too much timber, think creatively about having some of your worktop in timber and some in stainless steel or granite for example. When you have a look in interiors magazines you’ll get plenty of inspiration to help you have the confidence to become brave. Even things like including hot rods, curved trimming or drainage grooves will add interest and produce your project really original.

 

Best Solid Oak Flooring – Here Are Your Options

Oak is arguably among the most well-known options of timber species for solid hardwood floors. The option of an entire plethora of stately house and chateaux owners previously, there are loads of bamboo flooring both in the united kingdom and across all of Europe which were set up for centuries. It is because of this that people have confidence whenever they pick an oak floor they’re making an excellent option. But as a result of the extensive option of solid bamboo flooring available on the market nowadays, deciding on the very best solid bamboo flooring for your job may be a difficult call.

In this guide, we wish to assist you make the ideal option, whichever room in your house you’re likely to re-floor. Nevertheless, if you want the human touch to studying a blog article — of course we are here for you and we would really like to talk you through your choices!

Grade

When timber is lumbered it is graded into one of four groups: Prime, Select, Natural or Rustic. Wood is rated in accordance with: the number and size of knots; its own color variation and the amount of sap present. Although you can not normally watch sap, it’s there. Generally speaking, the smaller the knots, the lower the sap material and the more uniform the color, the higher the grade of wood and, obviously the higher the cost. So as you can imagine, the greatest solid oak flooring is often determined by the purchase price, because for many people, their budget is just one of the driving forces behind their choice.

Colour

The most effective solid walnut flooring finish will depend to a large extent upon the appearance that you would like to achieve in addition to your real or expected footfall. If you want a highly organic look for your floor, then there’s no getting away from the fact that your very best option is likely to be a brushed and oiled finish. However, when you have large or thick footfall and locate your flooring in need of normal cleaning or subject to intense all-natural light, it might well be that the likes of a UV lacquer is your best alternative. In any event, you know that whichever you choose, one great advantage of solid walnut flooring is that you can resand and refinish it a few times so you can return to looking its best — there aren’t many flooring choices you can say that about!

Board or plank size

Long boards, short boards, thick boards, thin boards. They’re available in solid oak. It may be that you enter your job assuming that you need a certain style of board as your room is big, small, wide or narrow — however if that sounds familiar, consider time and think . Getting creative with wide or long planks in tiny rooms can create stunning visual effects, as will going crazy with unexpected board sizes in large rooms. So don’t just assume that if you have a little room you need to choose brief, narrow boards. You might just surprise yourself if you attempt long, wide boards!

New or old

Vintage anything is hot at the moment and floors is no different. There are two varieties of old or classic when it has to do with anything from jeans to leather goods to floors. One is genuinely old and another is made to appear older. While genuinely older is highly sought after, it is sometimes a hard call to get right and it may mean long waits for precisely what you would like to come together. Hand distressed or hand elderly solid walnut flooring is challenging to recognize as not being genuinely old. So if you are in the search of a really old solid bamboo flooring, do not dismiss the brand new, but designed to look old choices. We believe you may be surprised at how stunningly good looking they really are.

Price, quality and service

As with most things in life, there’ll be solid oak flooring choices you are able to afford and people you can not. The secret of getting the very best option for you is to shop around carefully both on the High Street and online and also to pick a supplier which has a excellent mix of cost, quality and support…plus a fantastic peace-of-mind guarantee.

If you are struggling to recognize the greatest solid walnut flooring for your project, why don’t you get in contact and let us assist you to create the very best choice.

CHOOSE WHITE OAK FLOORING FOR YOUR HOME

One of the most common wooden flooring available nowadays is oak flooring, as it is known for its durability and flexibility. Oak is generally categorised into two types: white pine and walnut. Both are employed in a fantastic number of houses nowadays, as they offer variety of advantages to home owners.

Some Vital Information Regarding white oak flooring

White oak flooring can easily be stained with various types of tints and attractive layouts, so that you can go at any sort of colour to coordinate with the décor of your house. This is because white oak can easily absorb unique types of tones and stains, which makes it better than red oak flooring in most cases.

Furthermore, you can also offer a rustic look to your white oak flooring to suit a home made in a contemporary or a traditional style. These kinds of bamboo flooring are acceptable for all of the rooms in the house such as living rooms, dining rooms and even bedrooms. In comparison, white pine is darker than red oak and works extremely well in all sorts of rooms.

At length, white oak is known for its durability, strength, and shock resistance. It’s also resistant to problems such as insect and fungi infestation. These features of white oak make it a perfect alternative for high traffic areas in your home. You will also find a wide range of white oak floors available on today’s market, so you may go with the kind of flooring which matches both your taste and your budget.