Hardwood flooring is a type of flooring made from the timber of hardwoods. Hardwoods are wood from broad leaved or angiosperm trees. Along with broad leaves, they usually have enclosed nuts or seeds, like acorns. Hardwood has a higher density and hardness and is more resistant to decay than softwood. Some common examples of hardwood trees are beeches, birch trees, boxwoods, chestnuts, cottonwoods, elms, oaks, mahoganies and maple trees.
Hardwood flooring comes either pre-finished or unfinished. Pre-finished hardwood already has a polyurethane finish with aluminum oxide added. Unfinished hardwood has to be sanded upon installation and finished on site. The types of oxides used in the finishing of the hardwood flooring determines how much wear the floor can handle.
There are two types of hardwood flooring: solid and engineered. Solid hardwoods are typically ¾" thick and can be installed with a nail-down installation method over wood sub-flooring. Solid hardwood is very susceptible to the effects of moisture and temperature; it expands and contracts with moisture and temperature changes in the atmosphere. Solid hardwood is not recommended for installation over a concrete slab. Engineered hardwood uses layers of hardwood veneer to create the flooring which ranges in thickness from 3/8" up to 9/16". A wood veneer is a thin slice of wood; veneer layers are usually glued and pressed onto core panels of different materials. To create engineered hardwood, veneer layers are stacked on top of each other with their grain of wood perpendicular to each other. Tongues or grooves are then added when the desired thickness is achieved. The stain and finish are the last steps in manufacturing engineered hardwood floorings. This type of flooring is less susceptible to the effects of moisture and temperature. It is dimensionally stable.
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