What is pine good for? First of all, forgive the grammar but it makes the point, don’t it? 🙂 If you DO NOT get the joke- I apologize it was pretty dumb. But the question ranks very on high Google search, so give the people what they want.
End-Matched In tongue-and-groove strip and plank flooring, the individual pieces have a tongue milled on one end and a groove milled on the opposite end, so that when the individual strips or planks are butted together, the tongue of one-piece fits into the groove of the next piece. See Side-Matched and Tongue-and-Grooved.
When you are buying unfinished boards, long 8′ and up, you do not need ends matched. The industry tells you that you do, not true.
Tongue-and-Groove In strip, plank and parquet flooring, a tongue is milled on one edge and a groove cut on the opposite edge. As the flooring is installed, the tongue of each strip or unit is engaged with the groove of the adjacent strip or unit.
Cupping is a result of slow moisture attrition from underneath. Buckling indicates a fast, massive amount of moisture attrition. With Buckling part of the floor has actually lost contact with the substrate. Cupping is when the edges are higher than the center of the board. Comparisons, cupping vs buckling reveal both caused by moisture and not necessarily poor installation.
More about CuppingNoticeable cupping that shows up over the span of a few days is likely because of underlying water damage. It may point to a serious problem, such as leakage. Floors that cup because of too much water vapor in the air will warp more gradually. Those culprits are more difficult to discover since there are no immediate changes. So again, cupping vs buckling comparisons provide answers to the type of water issues.
Buckling, the opposite of cuppingExcessive moisture also creates buckling in solid wood floors, engineered wood, and laminate. Regarding the nature of the damage, buckling is the opposite of cupping. It bows the other way, forming grooves and peaks. Many time buckling occurs over concrete slabs with hidden extra moisture.
Make sure there isn’t any standing water in the crawlspace or basement under your house caused by plumbing leaks or drainage problems. Be sure the ground slopes away from your house, and rainwater is diverted away from the foundation. If problems with high humidity in the crawlspace or basement under your house persist, consider closing up all vents and installing a dehumidifier under the house or conditioning the space under the house.
Distressing a wood floor for age is called antiquing. We are distressing the face by adding marks, color, character and or age. Adding age, provides the homeowner options. Tell the truth, or let them think you spent a fortune. We tell buyers that with our Caribbean Heart Pine you can truly fool everyone. Fool your friends, tell them it came from Benjamin Franklin boyhood home, they will never know.
Wire Brushing and Hand Scraping
Wire Brushing removes the soft sapwood leaving just the hardwood exposed to the surface. This treatment option not only adds texture and interest to your floors, it makes them more durable and easier to maintain. This type of face distressed hardwood flooring is ideal for those wanting to achieve a time-worn look without waiting for time to do it.
Hand Scraped floors are very labor intensive and there is no machine that can do it, not they way it is intended. Hand-scraping boards yields a similar distressed appearance seen in the wire-brushing technique. Highly in demand, this look truly shows off the grain patterns and character of the wood while achieving the lived-on wear of older floors. This type of distressed floor will add warmth and a rustic touch to any room and $2.00 to your cost:)
Should you nail and glue your hardwood floor? The correct answer is absolutely not! Surprised? Yes, we understand that your local installation pro told you differently. Want to know why? It is simple, they do not understand physics or real wood or they want to sell you a single use cover. And for good measure most of the “homeowner resources” portals for home improvement get all information from advertisers, who are? You guessed it, the 99% of improvement experts that want to sell you a floor more than one time.
Real wood floors need to move, tiny micro moves, but they move nonetheless. In fact, this movement, just like with earthquakes, is the reason for its stability. A nail allows this movement, as does the right type of glue, however, there is no need to use both.
Glue your hardwood floor
If you want to glue your hardwood floor, use the right adhesive. Bostik’s Best is urethane based adhesive designed to move with your floors, just like a nail. Furthermore, Bositk’s best has a built in moisture barrier as in marine grade strength. Do not expect to pay the same, it is expensive which means your contractor will want a substitute. In fact, many you say they are going to glue and nail your hardwood floor to prevent cupping. In fact, they are doing the exact with most domestic hardwood species and certainly, Southern Pine.
Please do not nail and glue our amazing Southern Pine floors. And yes you can glue 3/4 solid wood flooring! We just gave you the secret. Would like to talk with us about your project, with or without existing contractor. This is your house and your floor, most importantly the reasons to lease a fake floor versus buying a real one all benefit them.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’S) – organic chemical compounds used to produce engineered and laminate floor covers. VOC’s originate when off-gas from either a solid or a liquid substance leaks into surrounding atmosphere, or your house. While most VOC’s are not harmful, some link to serious health issues in humans and substantial environmental damage.
Types of VOC’s
The two types of VOC’s are Biogenic, naturally occurring and Anthropogenic, or man-made. Of course, the latter damages us, the one WE made. VOC’s are produced by fossil fuels, benzine, cigarettes, machine lubricants, paint strippers adhesives (glue) and of course formaldehyde.
Health risk of VOC’s
Potential health risk include minor problems such as eye irritation and dizziness to name a couple. However, exposure to some of the more toxic VOC’s can lead to birth defects, Parkinson’s disease, Leukemia, and a dozen forms of cancer. This dangerous category is highly regulated in the United States by the EPA and OSHA. However, Vietnam and China (just to name two examples) have very few regulations on even the worst and most toxic. The evidence of this can be found on 60 minutes a few years ago, do your research.
Laminate = Landfills
Laminate floors are not green, engineered floors are not green; in fact, they is the opposite of green. Laminate flooring has a huge carbon footprint based on the manufacturing process, which can include dangerous chemicals. Not to mention the massive energy output needed to product the product. Neither Laminate, nor engineered floors are renewable or recyclable; single use floors that end up in our landfills.
The chemicals used in engineered floor production are harmful, but laminate continues as the fastest growing component of our landfills. It’s difficult to quantify what chemicals, leach from laminate & engineered floors once they sit for a while; or what would be emitted into the air if placed in an incinerator. To put it simply, this stuff doesn’t decompose, because of all the chemicals (VOC’s) the material never breaks down organically.
End matched flooring is when a tongue-and-groove is milled on one end and a groove milled on the opposite end. The t/g is still on the sides but end matched floors have it on all four sides. The idea is that when the floors are butted together, the tongue of one piece fits into the groove of the next piece.
End matching is done so that shorter boards be put together, like a puzzle. With longer boards, staggered for stability, end matching is an unnecessary expense. This subject is more interesting in the hardwood market where you better ask up front if that 24″ average length floor has flat ends. Wood flooring offers more ways for its distributors to fool you than car dealers, but we just keep telling the truth.
To clarify, we can match ends on any of our SYP floors, just add .90 per square foot. It does not make sense for the very few times they will come in “handy”. The best example of a long length floor with its ends matched is Caribbean Heart Pine. The 12′ bundles you see in the photo have an average length of 7′, more than twice the industry average. If you have never heard of CHP, it is worth a look.
Gluing down solid wood flooring such as Southern Pine is easy, no secret that it is all about the adhesive. For years, the answer was that the normal shrinkage and swelling cycle that occurs with changes in moisture content (such as seasonal humidity) may weaken and eventually break any glue bond between the planks and subfloor. Second, a proper vapor barrier cannot be installed when gluing directly to concrete. But wait, in 2019, technology allows us to glue down 3/4 solid flooring, including wide planks.
Bostik’s BEST® urethane glue has very low moisture vapor permeability and is not adversely affected by moisture vapor. As a result, it will reduce moisture vapor transmission through concrete. When applied as directed as a moisture vapor membrane, it will prevent damages caused by subfloor moisture beneath dimensionally stable, engineered wood flooring only.Furthermore, the urethane based glue allows for those tiny movements and shifts that can occur during climate changes.
Most installers will argue this point for one of two reasons; number one they do not understand the concept of ‘movable’ glue with a moisture barrier instead of nails, or they don’t understand real wood. The purpose of nailing real wood flooring is so that it can make tiny seasonal moves, this is true with any species. This movement is another reason traditional glue does not work, it must move.
It is a waste of money and could certainly affect the performance of your floors. Face nailing for aesthetics is not about stability but more about the look you want for your home. The truth of the matter is that very few installers want to install solid wood on concrete, they will sell you engineered flooring- this is a fact you should always keep in mind when floor shopping.
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