#1 What should your material expectations be?
Hardwood Floors are a beautiful and very low maintenance addition to your home. Hardwoods are a product of nature and are manufactured in accordance with accepted industry standards which permit a defect tolerance not to exceed 5%. As an active member of the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) we are careful to use NWFA standards and guidelines throughout both the installation and finishing phases of any project. More expections here
#2 What should your finish expectations be?
Most of our questions have to do with the finish on the floor itself. NWFA standards call for “inspection of the floor to be from a standing position with normal lighting. Glare particularly from large windows, magnifies any irregularity in the floors and should not determine acceptance. From a standing position irregularities may be present but should not be prominent.
Our most common finish is the Oil Modified Polyurethane. We use only the highest quality commercial urethane on the market engineered with long lasting durability in mind. Regardless of how clean the floor is when we apply finish or how careful we are when we leave the house, there will be a small amount of Colorado dust in the air during, and after, the finishing process. We encourage you not to expect your floors to “feel” like your kitchen cabinets. Cabinets are stained and finished in factory settings, under carefully controlled pressures and dust-free environments. Your floor, over two eight-hour periods of application and drying is lying in wait for any dust particle in the air to fall upon it. We, of course, strive to keep the environment as dust-free as possible and it is also important to remember that most small and minor dust specs will “wear off” over time from normal foot traffic.
#3 How important is humidity?
Relative humidity is the most important factor in keeping the wood in good condition. Every effort should be made to maintain a relative humidity of approximately 35 to 45 percent whenever possible – especially during the dry heating season.
#4 Recommended Web Sites:
www.homerwood.com
www.wideplankflooring.com
www.kennebecwood.com
www.sumersetfloors.com
www.oshkoshdesigns.com
www.fretworks.com/vents
www.duraseal.com
www.egologicalhardwoods.com
#5 Long-Term Maintenance
Like all flooring products, your new (or refinished) hardwood floor will need occasional maintenance to keep its sheen and quality look. Like you would have a good carpet cleaned, you also need to have your flooring contractor return in the years ahead to help you keep a high grade coating that will not only keep appearance at a high level, but will serve as protection to the natural wood on your floor. Based on normal wear, the following is a guideline you might follow to keep your floor in top condition:
Every 2 to 3 years with normal wear we recommend what is called a Screen and Re-Coat. This is a simple operation that requires only the furniture be moved from the floor. Since this is not a sanding operation it is generally dust-free but it does level, smooth, and coarsen the top layer of urethane in preparation for a new top-coat. This screening is followed by the application of a fresh finish coat to give your floor the same look it had when it was first installed. The total project takes from one hour to half-a-day depending on the square footage of hardwood flooring. When complete, we ask that you stay off the floor surface until the new finish coat is completely dry and hardened. The cost of this service is on average half of what you would pay for a full refinish.
Every 6 to 10 years with normal wear we recommend a Re-Finish be done to your floor. This is a longer operation than the Screen and Re-Coat since it includes 2 to 3 sanding phases plus the screen and finish coats.
With this service sand the hardwood down to its original state, through all existing urethanes and sealers. When sanding is complete, we use a filler to fill any cracks or imperfections that may exist. The next step to the process is to apply a sealer coat, or stain to be followed by two urethane coats bringing the hardwood back to its original luster. The entire operation generally requires two to three days depending on the square footage of your hardwood flooring.
#6 The Behavior of Wood Flooring
Any article made of wood will continually expand and contract with changes in the relative humidity. Wood, being a hygroscopic material, when exposed to air, will dry or take on moisture until an equilibrium is reached between the humidity and the temperature of the air. Moisture absorption causes wood to expand and moisture loss causes wood to shrink.
Generally, wood flooring is expected to expand in wetter climates and shrink in dry climates. How much will depend on your particular area and the conditions surrounding the installation. In Colorado, during the winter months, two things tend to happen. As the temperature drops, the humidity drops. When the temperatures go down homeowners turn on their heating systems and keep doors and windows closed. This heat dries out the home and that, combined with the already low humidity levels, pulls moisture from the wood, causing the wood to shrink and causing cracks to appear between boards. This can be somewhat minimized by having a humidifier attached to the heating system and maintaining a relative humidity of 35 to 45 percent whenever possible during the colder months.
As temperature and humidity vary in the spring and summer, cracking should become more stabilized and remedy itself. As moisture is replaced back into the air, moisture is also absorbed back into the hardwood. Expansion occurs and wood floors return to their original state before the winter season.
It is recommended that you do not put any kind of filler in cracks that appear in your wood flooring during the winter months. When the wood expands in the summer, the excess filler will pop out or the boards will warp. Wood must be given the ability to expand. Thus, fillers may cause more unsightly cracks than those that natural expansion has forced on the floor, and the process of filling will ultimately solve nothing.
Finally, it is important to remember that shrinkage is not a flaw in the wood or an installation related problem. The material is just reacting, naturally, to changes in moisture levels.
Other causes for cracks in strip hardwood floors can include: 1) Foundation settlement when outside walls or center supports settle or shift. 2) Over-drying - when hardwood is adjacent to forced air heating ducts; and 3) Improper subfloor materials if the subfloor does not hold nails movement in the wood flooring results and cracking can occur.
#7 The Effect of Sunlight on Your Hardwood Floors
Sunlight will have an effect on your wood floors. Both the finish and the wood itself are affected by ultra-violet rays. An oxidation process in the wood still takes place even under the urethane finishes. This causes the wood fiber to darken over time. This aging adds a complimentary richness to the graining, particularly on natural finish floors. As the floor ages, and is exposed to light, it darkens, and sometimes picks up a yellow or gold tone. It is not just the finish that changes color it is the wood itself. Oil based urethane will amber over time due to the natural oils in its composition. To lessen the appearance of these effects it is necessary to keep direct sunlight to a minimum during daytime hours by using window coverings and periodically moving area rugs and any low lying furniture that may show obvious outlines.
#8 Are two coat of urethane enough, or should we pay for a third coat?
The standard contract with A&A will include two coats of urethane, regardless of which urethane you choose. This is the industry standard and provides sufficient protection for your floors. We do recommend that you have us back every two to four years for a maintenance coat to ensure your floors have not worn through in high traffic areas such as entries, hall ways and kitchens. Maintaining your floors this way is a much less intrusive and less expensive than waiting until a full refinish is needed. The exception to this rule is when the majority of your floor plan is hardwood, then a third coat at the time of installation would ensure two more years of wear without having to think about moving a houseful of furniture.
