Hardwood Flooring, Wood Floors, Real & Solid

Hardwood Flooring Products, Wood Flooring, real & solid varieties continue to rule over all other flooring choices in the eyes of the most discerning customer. Hardwood flooring today gets bundled in with other man-made forms of flooring such as Laminate flooring and Engineered flooring products.

Frequently these latter products are erroneously labled as hardwood flooring confusing, even duping, the unwitting public. So let's set the record straight, solid hardwood flooring is just that solid hardwood flooring. It consists of nothing more than one solid piece of lumber that has been sawn into a uniform plank of varying lengths and widths.

It may or may not be finished and it likely will have been milled to have a tongue and groove surrounding it to aid in installation. The price of solid hardwood flooring is based on several factors such as type of wood or species and its availability, quality of the wood in terms of knots and other natural flaws which are assessed in grades with clear grade being the best.

Two other factors affecting the price of the best solid hardwood flooring are width and length of the planks, where longer and wider being the higher priced. Longer wider planks in clear grade are simply less plentiful than shorter narrower pieces. Longer sections install much faster than shorter narrower lengths too.

One of the distinguishing factors between flooring suppliers is the average lengths of the pieces per carton or bundle. It is common for suppliers to sell random lengths from 1 to 4 feet long and then package it in a 6ft long carton. The best of the best hardwood flooring comes in random lengths 1 to 7 feet long with at least two 7 footers per carton.

Finally, if you are opting for pre-finished solid hardwood flooring, a super choice, you'll want a make sure that the finish consists of at least 7 coats and has aluminum oxide in the solution for resilience. This formula is usually associated with the better flooring and is reflected in a superior finish warranty. Beware of the finishes that go too far overboard however--they tend to look milky and plastic when compared to a nice satin finish of high quality.

The edges of and millwork of better floors is clearly superior too, with very tight tolerances and good fit. The better imported materials are rigidly tested for the perfect level of moisture content, milled, finished and packaged in the USA. When you hold a piece of flooring with a high quality finish at the right angle to a light source you should not see inconsistencies or "orange peel" patterns. The finish should be very smooth and consistent in high-end solid hardwood flooring.