MADERA Guide to Wood Floors New York | [email protected] | Los Angeles | [email protected] 718 484 7260 | maderasurfaces.com | @maderasurfaces Introduction MADERA wood floors are a unique expression of nature made from living material that should be treated with the utmost care. Our guide to wood flooring provides comprehensive guidelines to consider when purchasing, receiving, acclimating, installing, protecting and maintaining your wood floors. The most important thing to understand is that wood floors are a living and breathing material. Wood is affected by its environment and can react drastically to changes in temperature and humidity. Like all living things, wood performs best in a stable environment, in equilibrium with temperature and humidity. With this in mind, we cannot stress enough how important it is to properly understand the conditions within your home environment and how to adjust them accordingly if necessary. Wood floors are a significant investment and we recommend that you read through the guide and follow the recommendations to ensure that your floors last a lifetime. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding your wood floors and the conditions in your home. New York | [email protected] | Los Angeles | [email protected] 718 484 7260 | maderasurfaces.com | @maderasurfaces Table of Contents Section 1: Purchasing Wood Floors .................................................................................... 4 1.1 Engineered or Solid Wood Floor ..................................................................................... 4 1.2 Finished in Advance vs. Finished on Site ........................................................................ 5 1.3 To Bevel or Not to Bevel ................................................................................................. 6 1.4 Selecting the Grade of a wood floor ............................................................................... 7 1.5 Lead Times ...................................................................................................................... 7 1.6 When to Schedule Delivery of Your Wood Floor ............................................................ 7 1.7 Who should install your floor? ....................................................................................... 7 1.8 Who will receive my floor upon delivery? ...................................................................... 8 Section 2: Receiving and Acclimating Your Wood Floors .................................................... 8 Section 3: Installing Your Wood Floors ............................................................................. 10 3.1 Selecting the Right Installer .......................................................................................... 10 3.2 The Basics ..................................................................................................................... 10 3.3 Installing a Finished Floor ............................................................................................. 11 3.4 Installing Floors with a Square Edges ........................................................................... 12 3.5 Install to Achieve the Right Look and Feel in your Home ............................................. 12 3.6 Installing Over Radiant Heat ......................................................................................... 12 3.7 Installing Over Cement Slab .......................................................................................... 13 Section 4: Protecting and Maintaining Your Floors ............................................................. 9 4.1 Protect Your Floors During Moves ................................................................................ 14 4.2 Daily Protection and Maintenance ............................................................................... 14 Section 5: Environmental Conditions and Wood Floors .................................................... 16 4.1 Excessive Dryness ......................................................................................................... 16 5.2 Excessive Humidity ....................................................................................................... 17 5.3 Use Your Hygrometer ................................................................................................... 17 5.4 Humidification is Not a Part-Time Thing ....................................................................... 17 5.5 Humidification Systems ................................................................................................ 18 New York | [email protected] | Los Angeles | [email protected] 718 484 7260 | maderasurfaces.com | @maderasurfaces Section 1: Purchasing Wood Floors There are several things to consider when purchasing a hardwood floor. We want to make this process as easy and pleasurable as possible, as there are plenty of other things to worry about when renovating your home. This section will go over the most important considerations while choosing the perfect floor for you. 1.1 Engineered or Solid Wood Floor There are benefits to both engineered and solid wood flooring, and the decision is not as clear-cut as many would like to make it out to be. Below is a description of both solid and engineered flooring and some points to simplify the decision-making process. Solid Flooring. A solid floor is the most traditional hardwood floor and has been around for centuries. A solid floor is milled from a single piece of lumber, with a tongue on one long side of the board, and a groove on the other. MADERA solid wood floors also have an end-match, a tongue and groove on the ends of each board. Engineered Flooring. There are several common misconceptions about engineered flooring, one being that it is not made from real wood. MADERA engineered wood floors are made from real solid wood, the only difference being the way it is put together. Unlike a solid floor, MADERA engineered wood flooring have two elements: the wear layer and the substrate. The wear layer is a 4mm or 6mm thick slice of solid wood, which, just like a solid wood floor, is cut from a board that comes from a log felled in the forest. The substrate is a multi-ply veneer Baltic birch plywood. The plywood is stable, strong, and moisture-resistant, which is why many consider engineered flooring to be more stable than solid flooring. The visible top wear layer is adhered onto the plywood and then treated like any other wood floorboard. Frequently Asked Questions 1. Is engineered flooring more stable than a solid floor? It is true that engineered flooring offers more dimensional stability than a solid wood floor, due to the stable nature of the Baltic Birch plywood. Also, because the wear layer is thinner than a solid wood floor, it is less sensitive to changes in the environment that can cause wood to swell or contract. A solid floor will shrink when it is dry, and swell when it is humid. The amount of change is much greater in a solid floor than in an engineered floor. Engineered flooring stays straighter and flatter than a solid floor when the environment changes. Solid floors can cup, crown, bow and/or twist more easily than an engineered wood floor. That being said, engineered flooring has its own set of risks. In very dry environments, the wear layer on am engineered floor can check, crack, and even delaminate as the solid wood shrinks and the plywood maintains its original shape. For this reason, it is sometimes said that solid flooring reacts better in dryer environments, while engineered flooring reacts better in New York | [email protected] | Los Angeles | [email protected] 718 484 7260 | maderasurfaces.com | @maderasurfaces higher humidity environments. Everything comes down to maintaining a good and healthy environment! 2. How many times can I sand an engineered floor? The simple answer is a 6mm floor can be sanded and re-finished up to five times. A 4mm wear layer can be sanded three times. Keep in mind that you can buff and re-finish your floors numerous times without sanding down any of the floors wear layer, and there are new re- finishing techniques that rely on chemical removal of a finish rather than a mechanical removal of the wood. 3. Is an engineered floor always pre-finished? No. Engineered refers to how the floor is made. An engineered floor can be pre-finished or finished on-site, just like a solid floor. 4. Is a pre-finished floor always engineered? No. A solid floor can also be pre-finished. 5. Is an engineered wood floor more expensive than a solid wood floor? This depends on several factors, including the type of wood and dimensions of the floor. In our experience, engineered flooring is more economical on floors that are over 7” in width. In general, the wider the floorboard the more cost savings there are with an engineered wood floor. 1.2 Finished in Advance vs. Finished on Site The decision to purchase a floor that has been finished in advance versus a floor that will be sanded and finished on site can be a tricky one. There are a lot of opinions out there when it comes to this. These are based on pre-conceptions and bad experiences that may be rooted in old technology. Advances in finishing technology, as well as the oils and polyurethanes being used these days have greatly improved in the last decade. Finished in Advance Most MADERA wood floors are finished in advance. That means that the floors have been treated with