Frequently Asked Questions about Hardwood

What steps do you recommend for determining your flooring needs?

We recommend that potential customers go through the following checklist:

1. Sketch a rough diagram of the floor plan. Your diagram should include the following:

• the names of the rooms (e.g., living room, hall, etc.)
• the approximate measurements
• the type of flooring currently on the floor
• the type of subfloor if known (e.g., wood, concrete, terrazzo)
• the location of thresholds indicated by dotted lines
• the volume of use and type of use (e.g., rarely used/dinner parties)
• the quality of the lighting: low, medium, and high.

2. Calculate the approximate square footage of each area by multiplying the length by the width. Add 15% for overage by multiplying your total square feet by 1.15.
3. Decide how many years you want the new flooring to last (for example, you may want to remodel in five years in order to put your home on the market).
4. Gather color keys and samples of your primary colors in each area (e.g., wallpaper, drapes, paint, fabrics) or take pictures of the areas to help in the color selection.
5. Consider what moldings you want around the edges and/or at the thresholds.
6. Identify your decorating style.
7. Calculate your budget and inquire about sales.
8. Review your calendar to select a time for the work. Generally, you should anticipate times during the work week. Also, be sure to ask how long the project will take.

How are bamboo floors made?
Bamboo poles are split lengthwise, leaving crescent-shaped "splits" of bamboo. These splits are then run through a shaper to give them all a rectangular cross-section. These milled splits are then kiln-dried, color selected and laminated together with a hot-press and high-tech European glues. The resulting planks are then milled in a variety of ways to produce the flooring and plywood that suits your needs.
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How are the strips of bamboo joined and what is their overall appearance?
Our bamboo floors are laminated with vertical grain showing or horizontal grain showing. Vertical grain lamination not only provides greater stability to insure against cupping and delaminating, but also makes for a much more refined, even color. The vertical grain of our bamboo floors has been drop-tested and rated harder than oak and maple.

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What are the advantages of Engineered Bamboo floors?
Our engineered floors are made this way to create a floor that has maximum dimensional stability. Once the floor is put together, the force of the various cross-laminated layers averages out to zero, therefore, the floor is stable enough to "float", "nail down" or glue down. An engineered floor is much less likely to be affected by temperature and humidity changes.
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Are Engineered Floors the same as laminate floors such as Pergo?
Absolutely not! Laminate floors are photographs of wood printed on plastic and glued to a particle board plank. They cannot be re-finished. Scratches and dings often go right through to the particle-board core inviting many problems concerning moisture and longevity.
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What are Solid Wood floors?
The grain of a solid floor is oriented in one direction throughout the body of the plank. Whereas an Engineered floor has a "cross-laminated" core, a solid floor does not. Solid floors must be nailed to a healthy plywood substrate. Solid floors are cheaper to produce and therefore cost less. They are also often aesthetically pleasing to a consumer who likes the notion of a 100% solid wood floor.
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What are Engineered Floors?
Engineered floors mean that the layers of the floor are "cross-laminated". For example, the grain of the top "wear-layer" runs "North-South". The grain of the middle layer, or "core", runs "East-West" and the grain of the "backing" layer once again runs "North-South". All of our Engineered Floors come pre-finished with Aluminum-Oxide UV finishes and have square edges (no "V-grooves" to trap dirt and moisture).
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What are HG and VG?
HG refers to Horizontal Grain bamboo. Horizontal Grain floors and plywoods orient the wider horizontal edge of the splits upwards. HG bamboo makes the "nodes" of the bamboo more pronounced and "bamboo-looking". VG refers to "Vertical Grain" bamboo. Vertical Grain floors and plywoods orient the thinner edge of the splits upwards. The VG bamboo results in a more homogenous, less "bamboo-looking" element.
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What is a "floating" floor?
Engineered floors can be "floated". This means that rather than nailing or gluing the planks to the subfloor, the boards are edge-glued together above an underlayment. A floor may be floated above a concrete subfloor, above radiant heat and in condominiums where a nail-down floor is either not possible or not permitted. Other advantages of a floated floor are that much less sound travels from the floor above to the living space below most "walking" sounds you hear from the floor above are transmitted through the floor, to the nails, into the joists, and out through the ceiling of the floor below; also, a floated floor expands and contracts as one giant piece, rather than as individual boards.