1. I want real hardwood floors, what is should I ask for, what's the difference, which is better?

In hardwood floors there are two groups of floors, engineered floors and nail-down solid wood floors. The answer for most homes in the Austin area is engineered floors.

Engineered floors are cross-laid plys of wood designed to be installed on almost any surface. By laying one ply of wood in one direction and the next ply in the other direction, the wood expands and contracts very little. These types of floors can be glued directly to your existing slab.

Nail down or solid wood floors are simply one piece of wood and have a great deal of expansion in one direction, the long direction of the wood. They cannot in most cases be laid on a slab floor. If a great deal of preparation is done, they can be laid on a slab, but this must be done in the building stage by recessing the slab, gluing 3/4 plywood to the slab and then nailing to the plywood. Ultimately, the wood is still glued. If you were to do this in an existing home, your doorframes, cabinets, baseboards, and other floors would all require extensive replacement.

Which is better? Engineered floors are designed for slabs, are finished in the factory with better and more coats of polyurethane than is possible with site floors, and in most cases can be refinished easier. For most Austin area homes, engineered is the best and most reasonable choice.

2. What kind of wood should I choose?

There are a lot of different kinds of trees. When you are buying wood you must keep in mind that you are buying a tree. It will have an endless variation in grain, texture and character.

Oak floors feature a distinctive grain and a generally even background tone. Some pieces will be lighter and some darker but generally falling into a fairly narrow range of color. They are the most familiar, come in the most colors and have been the best sellers nationwide and locally for years. With oak you will find the widest variety of widths and special styles.

Pecan floors have more character. What this means is they will have more streaking and variation in grain. The boards will be more individual in look. These will generally be found in golden hue type colors.

Hickory floors are best described as like the Pecan only more so. More character, more distinctive, almost rustic looking.

Maple wood floors are my personal favorite. They have less grain, and the grain is less distinctive that any other common specie of wood. These floors are usually in the lighter whitish and cream colors and give a cool calm feel on a hot Austin afternoon. Maple floors will have occasional black marks. These are branch marks & mineral streaks, where the wood has retained minerals brought up from the roots in abundance. All woods will have these features but they show up more on the clean maple surface.

Teak is just one of the many new items that are now available. The uniform grain and distinctive color of teak make this a real showcase floor. It has unparalleled durability. In years past the most common use of teak was on the decks of Battleships.

Elm, Bamboo, Jajuba, Cherry, Pine, Walnut, we got it all, and we have most of it installed on the floor in the showroom. Come down and take a look.

3. How do you care for a wood floor?

Care is very easy anymore. These floors are all have a polyurethane finish like furniture only thicker and require only dust mopping and a twice-monthly application of a cleaner in the traffic areas. Absolutely no waxing.

When your floors are done you should install felt pads on the bottoms of furniture.

Baseboards, Quarter round
You do not have to replace your baseboards to get new wood floors. We will install the new wood up to the edge of the existing baseboards and then install a small piece of trim, a quarter-round between the floor and the baseboard.

For the best results, plan on painting the quarter-round after installation. While you are at it, get some 3M Blue tape, mask the top of the baseboard and put a quick coat of paint on the baseboard and the quarter-round. If you spill a little paint on the new floor, have a sponge handy and wipe it up, it should not hurt the floor.

If your baseboards are painted then you should have painted quarter-round to match the baseboard. If your baseboards are stained, then the quarter-round should blend between the floor and the baseboard.

Trim
Your trim won't match your floor. While this may sound crazy, here is why. Your trim is made from a solid piece of wood and is usually several months older than your newly made wood floor. All wood floors will mellow and become more golden with time. You trims are made to match your floor over time, not necessarily the day it is installed.

4. How can I harm the floor?

Wood floors are not warranted for damage from marring, which is indenting or from scratching. In most cases, you will probably not ever do either.

Where we have seen this is the following:

Leaning back on chairs, you can lessen the effect by allowing the felt pad to be slightly larger than the chair leg.

Roller blades, Skates, Cleats – No surprise here.

Big Screen TV's -- These are real heavy and the roller can damage the floor. To move, get some carpet samples, which we will give you, and put under the set (fuzzy side down), and then slide it to the new location. This works great with all heavy items.

Piano's -- Anything that is very heavy and concentrates the weight on a roller will hurt the floor.

High Heels -- Especially where the heel has lost the bottom. The more concentrated the point and the heavier the wearer, the more likely a problem.

Dogs -- Dogs, even large ones, won't typically hurt a wood floor. Where we have seen damage is large dogs that spend most of their time indoors, but even a small dog can be a problem if their toenails get very long and hard. Periodic trimming, a recommended practice, should eliminate the problem.

5. How often do I have to refinish a wood floor?

Probably never. The only time that you would have to refinish your floor is if you did not like the color. Then you would want to sand your floor to the bare wood, stain it a new color, and then apply a finish. Most engineered floors will allow you to do this twice.

If after several years the finish has dulled and the floor has lost its luster, you should try a product made by Robbin's Hardwood called Flor-Ever. It is a latex, consumer applied, finish restorer that can really work a miracle. It will bring the shine of the floor back, cover small scrapes and even out the luster of the floor.

If that fails, you probably need what is called a screen and recoat. This is the application of the clear top surface after a slight roughing of the finish.

Personally, I have had hardwood floors under foot my whole life and never had any of the problems described in the last two sections.

6. Am I destroying the environment or denuding the rain forest by buying a wood floor?

Wood is a good ecological choice. Most of the trees harvested in North America and forested off of reclaimed timber cuts. To ensure a constant supply, more trees are planted than are cut. When you buy South American exotics you are really helping to conserve the forest. Wood for floors earns the area a lot of money and creates a lot of good jobs, yet takes very little wood. The alternative is cutting for charcoal production to burn as fuel. Production woods are reforested to ensure a good supply of wood near the plant.

7. Can I Do This Myself?

If your wife will let you, it sure is a lot of work. We can give you advice and detail how to install the wood yourself. You will have pretty good success if you are comfortable working with wood and wood tools. You should plan on having a helper or two and should be able to lay about 200 feet per day with a day added for trimming out the floor.