Hand finished inspiration for finish to order "tank"

04 Oct

Sustainable Timber

Misconceptions, Misdirections and Misinformation

Sustainable timber, i.e., timber that has been harvested and replenished which may occur naturally or farmed. ‘Sustainable Forestry’, however, involves more than just planting a tree when you cut one down. Sustainable timber management or forestry means doing no ecological damage to the surrounding environment.

Plant a tree

To those who want to help stop Global Warming- buy a real wood floor and plant a tree.

Healthy, sustainably harvested timber creates forest that become more resistant to wildfire, insects, disease, and the impacts of climate change. Like so many things, the message that the timber industry and sustainable forestry are contributing to climate change has gotten distorted. When you consider the replacement products we use instead of wood, i.e., petroleum-based vinyl, composites, and plastic the eco-friendly product is obviously real wood. What about concrete and steel? “As conservationists, we make building materials that store carbon and require far fewer fossil fuels to produce compared to steel and concrete.” (Forest2Market.com September 2022).

Sustainable timber means green

As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide CO2 from the atmosphere and release oxygen. We learned this in junior high. Not only do trees sequester or hold carbon, but they also put it to use. Great but what happens when you turn this tree into a floor? Wood flooring is about 50 percent carbon by dry weight. Wood products continue to store much of this carbon indefinitely. In the case of buildings, the carbon is kept out of the atmosphere for the lifetime of the structure—or longer if the wood is reclaimed and used to manufacture other products.

Plant more trees

In national parks and designated wilderness areas, the federal government is prohibited by law from sustainably harvesting and replanting trees. According to U.S. Forest Service-Forest Inventory and Analysis data, lands set aside from active forest management – such as parks and wilderness – serve as a carbon source because trees are dying at faster rates than they are growing.

Sustainable timber create floors that last forever

No matter what else you hear while shopping, solid 3/4 floors should outlive the house, i.e., be salvaged one day. On the other hand, all ‘floor covers’ with very few exceptions, everything else ends up in a landfill. Seriously, the bathroom counter-top you see here was produced by a novice salvaged decking.

No clear cutting

To be clear, we are not talking about clear cutting or harvesting non sustainable forest. Anti-forestry activists cling to the flawed assumption that old trees will sequester and store carbon. As if old trees are immortal and should be forever untouched. Not so fast! The science is that younger trees sequester carbon at higher rates than older trees, yes. Even worse, when older trees die, they emit carbon and methane.

Failing to clear dead trees causes wildfires

Conservationists are not to be confused with anti-forestry activists, even though the media often gives them that label. Anti-forestry activists reject Indigenous knowledge and experience that comes from thousands of years of managing forests, while raising millions of dollars to perpetuate the idea that the United States risk deforestation. Far from scarce, many western landscapes, “have overstocked stands with more trees than the forests can support”.

1x10x12 wide plank new heart pine flooring

18 Aug

Is it Kiln dried?

Misconceptions, Misdirections and Misinformation, Customer Bill of Rights

We use 2 step, air and then computerized steam. “Is it Kiln dried to 6% like White Oak”? We get this a whole bunch even from installers, mostly up north. (joke, sort of). All of our floors are kiln dried to 10% or just under. Yes, Oak is 6% but Heart Pine is not White Oak. At a molecular level pine allows moisture to both ‘come and go’ without losing integrity, not so with many hardwoods. Kiln dried with relief grooves on the back. Our boards are precision milled; tongue and groove with straight edges and ends every board is barefoot ready.

Is is Kiln dried using air?

Air-drying lumber simple means to stack lumber and expose it to the outdoors. Depending on the species of wood and desired moisture content the air-drying process could take several months to almost a year. Make sure to properly stack the wood for sufficient air circulation and acclimation.

Call now for quotes, samples and answers 888 286 2057

Is it Kiln dried to reduce moisture?

Kiln drying is a standard practice in wood production mills and serves to efficiently bring green lumber moisture levels down to “workable” range–moisture content levels that will not end in the myriad of problems that can be caused by excess moisture levels in wood.

What Is Kiln-Dried Wood?

Kiln-dried wood is wood that has been dried in an oven (kiln). With a kiln, you can control the environment such as temperature, humidity, and steam levels for a set period. Allowing you to dry wood to the desired moisture content faster than air-drying.

Salvaged pine decking using skins 1/2 thick

16 Aug

Why homeowners buy LVT

Customer Bill of Rights, Wood Floor Shopping

Why do people buy ‘single use’ floors? (A product designed with planned obsolescence ridiculous promises and useless warranties.)

LVT MARKETING- Waterproof- Lifetime Warranty-and Luxury in the name.

Homeowners buy it because the marketing is amazing and frankly trying to find real wood wears them out over time. Hand it to the majors, they’ve created a repeat customer product line; a new one about every decade or so. The industry is a mess everyone wants fake wood or vinyl or plastic; whatever can be torn up and thrown in a landfill one day to make room for another ‘single use’ cover. Manufactures and their distributors have four conventions per year and one huge one just to talk about all the new and latest technology that they are going to sell homeowners. All of this is to perpetuate a population of consumers and salespeople buying into a false premise, fake is better than real.

Real wood is Green

Repurpose real wood

Repurpose real wood – salvaged or reclaimed. We want everyone to repurpose real wood. With that in mind, please enjoy this video which cost us $75.00 six years ago, We are “thrifty” like most of our customers, but the content is good. Salvaged is ‘saved’, reclaimed is repurposed; and not the kind of repurposing we are talking about with our folk art. The video should clear it up and if you are shopping for reclaimed […]

Knotty Southern Yellow Pine floors MI lake

Glue down Southern Pine

In reality, you can glue down Southern Pine in standard 3/4 thickness. No problem, you want to glue down Southern Pine you use Bostiks Best. It has a built in moisture barrier and is urethane based so that is allows movement like a nail. But today, in this blog glue down Southern Pine is 1/2 inch, with the long lengths up to 14′ an option. SYP Direct does not sell anything but real wood and […]

How to identify Heart Pine

Welcome to our blog post on how to identify heart pine. To be clear, we are talking about how to identify New Heart Pine. In this informative guide, we will provide you with valuable insights on recognizing heartwood, and in a broader context, ‘heart content’. Both of these are essential for those homeowners (installation professionals) looking for quality New Heart Pine. Quality is easy to define, with the end result being an installation and a […]

Antique Reclaimed Heart Pine with saw marks

Baseball, Apple Pie and Southern Pine

It has to be real wood. Southern Pine, real wood, is the most Eco-friendly choice for your floor, period. The exceptions, of course, are endangered or illegal timber, but that is not relevant to our discussion. Our New Heart Pine is not farmed and take from private landowners. While our Yellow Pine is sourced from North Louisiana, farmed timber. That is great information but the reason the real wood is green? IT LAST FOREVER. In […]

SYP Direct sells White Oak solid hardwood flooring

North Carolina

In 2018 SYP Direct was named Houzz Hardwood flooring dealer of the year in South Carolina, but North Carolina was the #1 state for sales. In fact, the two Carolina’s have both been in our top 5 states by sales volume for 14 years in a row. The reasons are not all about style and taste because when are talking about North Carolina and ‘her’ sister to the south, the population varies dramatically from coastal […]

Shipping to California

Yes, we ship to California, Oregon and Washington State. Nationwide with A+ BBB rating.

Box Store Pine Floors

Box store pine floors are not as good as ours and they are more expensive. Let me repeat, apples to apples they way more expensive. And even their cheaper stuff is stupid expensive for what it is, or certainly what it is not. In world where laminate and hardwood are regularly used to market some floor cover, you might want to use a healthy skepticism when floor shopping. Rule number 1- or at least the […]

Dog Friendly

2024 Dog Friendly Floors Update Dog friendly floors are all about the finish. Of course, you will here that real wood is not good for big dogs or even dogs in general. This is simply not true, at all. However, before we talk about the finish, we should address the question of Southern Pine and if it is a dog friendly floor. There is so much confusion regarding pine because there are so many variations [...]

Prefinished or Unfinished floors?

When you are deciding between prefinished or unfinished floors the first consideration should be your experience, or a trusted professional with the experience. Prefinished hardwood floors have had all the work done to them before they arrive in your home and are ready to be installed. In most cases this means sanded, stained, and finished with a UV aluminum oxide coating as a topcoat. On the other hand, unfinished boards require; acclimation, finish, drying time, […]

What do ‘not know’ about VOC’s (AND FYI that picture is Independence Hall)

The answer is that very few of us know they exist in almost everything manufactured for mass merchandising. Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) can be used to produce products and created as biproducts. VOC’s can be harmless; they can be dangerous but the majority of just the “unknown” as is not enough information to make a determination. Paint, wood-finishing products, lacquers, hydraulic fluids, petroleum fuels, adhesives, pesticides, cleaning supplies, building materials, furniture, and electronic equipment such as printers all contain VOC’s.

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Buying flooring online means knowing your source

16 Aug

Reclaimed or Salvaged

Heart Pine

Reclaimed or salvaged?

What is the difference between reclaimed and salvaged? If you were in the flooring industry someone might say $15 a square foot, and they wouldn’t be far off. So, if you’re shopping for reclaimed oak or heart pine it’s important to know what you’re looking at it’s important to know where it came from or its provenance.

Salvaged Heart Pine Accent Walls

Salvaged is something like an old floor being taken up trimmed out and turned into an accent wall, as seen on the left. (If you are interested in Salvaged dirty top wall skins click the pic) But back to the question at hand what is the difference between salvaged and reclaimed? Reclaimed means to be repurposed reclaimed, i.e., when beam turned into flooring.

New is Reclaimed and Reclaimed is Salvaged, that is the definition of Green.

Accent Walls?

Learn more- easy to install and to make look “cool”. If I can do it anyone can.

Rustic does not always have knots and vice versa

19 Jul

Laminate is not wood

Misconceptions, Misdirections and Misinformation

Laminate is not wood, nor is it a floor, it is a floor cover made of chemicals and composites. Imagine a photocopy of real wood chemically bound to particle board or cheap composites. Made with synthetic materials or very thinly sliced pieces of wood, laminate equals replica. Made to look like wood grain by using a method similar to printing a photo, i.e., designed to fool those not paying attention.

Laminate is not wood- what is it?

So, in simplest terms, you print a layer of wood-colored plastic and then adhere it to a composite wood substrate like particle board.

Landfills are full of laminate and engineered floors

Laminate = Landfills

As we will discuss later in our post, the variety of substrates used differ widely in quality and components. Chinese laminate manufacturers use a wide range of materials including dangerous chemicals. First, China leads the world in carbon pollution by a large and growing margin. Second, it has virtually no regulations regarding products imported and shipped back the United States.

What is in it?

The chemicals used in manufacturing laminate are dangerous and they are the fastest growing component of our landfills. ’s difficult to quantify what chemicals, will leach from laminates once they hit the landfill. Not to mention the emissions from incineration. To put it simply, this stuff doesn’t decompose, because of all the chemicals and glues, the material never breaks down organically.

Laminate is not wood imported it is re-imported

Laminated wood is a rimport, a re-imported bi product of our timber. We ship our trees to China only to bring it back home full of toxic chemicals. We send them solid wood, which requires no toxic chemicals to produce, and in return we get plastic ‘wood like’ composite garbage. Today upwards of 10% of Americans have laminate flooring or some type of vinyl. Every bit of it will end up in landfills poisoning the groundwater and damaging the air quality.

Laminate is not wood nor is it a floor- it is a floor cover

Laminate and Engineered floor covers are filling our landfills. Over the next 4-5 years, deposits into landfills will double from current levels of 300,000,000 lb. per year. Laminate & Engineered, add in LVT too, are a leased floor covers which rot forever on public lands? LVT, laminate and engineered floors are not green, they are not even biodegradable. Environmentalist scream about deforestation, but what is “greener” than One House, One Floor.

Have your floors reclaimed instead of landfilled

If we put the entire carbon footprint of Southern Pine flooring into the carbon footprint single use floor covers, and their chemicals products it would be like putting a BB into a boxcar.

17 Feb

Why use VOCs?

Misconceptions, Misdirections and Misinformation

Why Are VOCs Still Used?

What a great question? The answer is that very few of us know they exist in almost everything manufactured for mass merchandising. Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) can be used to produce products and created as biproducts. VOC’s can be harmless; they can be dangerous but the majority of just the “unknown” as is not enough information to make a determination. Paint, wood-finishing products, lacquers, hydraulic fluids, petroleum fuels, adhesives, pesticides, cleaning supplies, building materials, furniture, and electronic equipment such as printers all contain VOC’s.

The footprint of fake wood

If you listen to most “enviromental” warriors, logging and timber is the equivilent of fossil fuels when accessing a carbon footprint. This is ridiculous. Managed timber doesn’t lend itself to wildfires and real wood doesn’t end up in the landfill. If every house only had one floor over its lifetime, how many tear out and installations would that save, the house? Real wood floors will outlive your house. In fact, one day they will be reclaimed or salvaged as they are reinvented a century later. Try that with laminate.

Real is good

wide plank solid real wood floor finished tinted oils

'Pure' on CHP

Caribbean Heart Pine with Monocoat Pure finish — Moncoat "Pure"

Do not blame others

The manufacturing process no longer occurs in the United States and there is no possible way to regulate the number of vendors sending VOCs into the U.S. However, do not blame the countries doing the manufacturing because they are not the sellers! Consumers depend on the manufacturers to protect their health, first and foremost. Unfortunately, a large majority of retailers continue to use VOCs despite their harmful effects. Why do they continue to use VOCs? Demand for cheap goods always gets the blame, and while it plays a part; that demand was created by the cheap manufacturing processes not vice versa.

17 Dec

Real wood flooring

Wood Floor Shopping

Real wood floors are the only constant you find in million-dollar homes. Do not take my word for it, ask your friend the realtor, most of us have one or more. So, if engineered wood and laminate are so great, why are they not in these homes? Are real wood floors more expensive than engineered? They are if you believe what you find on the Internet, seriously the entire internet. More propaganda exist around the subject of your floors than any other product for your home. In fact, finding someone to tell you 100% of the truth is difficult, as some of you may understand after your own search

Say no to bundles

Installation included always means one thing, it will be fast. Everyone wants to offer bundled services that rarely include real wood for two basic reasons, time, and money. How many trips does a real wood floor take versus engineered or laminate? To clarify, we are referring to a site finished real wood floor, not premanufactured aka prefinished. Well of that depends upon the type of finish, for example Monocoat requires less trips than Tung Oil. Even that distinction depends upon the number of Tung Oil coats, not Monocoat though right? Just seeing if you are paying attention because this next part is important.

So, if Jane the contractor can come to your home twice versus four or ten times, make more money and give you a worthless warranty which will she choose? Survey says, 80% do not offer site finishing at all and about 5% specialize in real wood. How did this happen? When did we start believing fake is better than real? Do you think fake floors are green because we are not cutting down trees? That is 100% the opposite of the truth- seriously. To find out more follow us to Real wood is Green give us a call for more discussion.

Researching Harwood Floors Online

If you are researching hardwood floors online you may notice that the term does not mean solid real wood floors, not at all. You may find laminate hardwoods, two words that define oxymoron. Researching floors is wading through a sea of bad choices if adding value to your home is the goal. Only solid real wood floors are an investment, the rest are simply a future liability, yours or the next homeowners. Here is one example of the worst offenders, Angies List. Not because the people are bad but because the run their business as if they are helping homeowners, not entirely true. Their customers are not homeowners but the professionals who list their services, you know the 95% who want you to buy LVT?

Comparing engineered versus real wood floors as investment flooring versus a single use durable good

Yes, we have prefinished floors without any production lead time including Bayou Rustic and two trusted sources. Bayou Rustic manufacturers finished to order heart pine using SYP Direct floors, exclusively, lead times are based on type of finish. However, years in this business allowed SYP Direct to create a powerful pair of sources for manufacturer direct pine floors. These products include but are not limited to, prefinished #2 Caribbean Pine which can be found with three options, Fawn, Vintage and Natural.

The best real wood floors are heart pine

01 Oct

Waste Factor

Finish and Install

How much extra wood flooring should I order, what is the waste factor? Two questions we get during the first call or at least the first time we quote a price. When comparing floors, the first question you need to ask, how much extra I should order? The reason, 10% is normal and anything different indicates something out of the ordinary. For example, if someone tells you need to order 600 square feet when you need to cover 500 there is an issue. The only time to exceed 10% is with tavern or cabin (#3) grades or with very small wide plank orders.

Waste factor

The waste factor is not all about defects, in fact the defects cuts outs should never equal more than 10%. Unfinished real wood flooring is not like sticking down a laminate or clicking together an engineered floor the boards are large they are heavy and towards the edges of the room often require cutting. The cut outs cut offs, cut arounds and everything that does not become floor, designated the waste factor. The one exception would be a small order of 1x10x12 which has almost 8 square feet per board. If you mess up too many of those during install and your order is small, you have a problem.

Reasons to go above 10%

A small amount of wood means a small number of boards , errors or more important or avoiding them is more important to be more accurate. Just imagine for a minute if you want to order 400 square feet of 1 x 8 x 12, with waste 440 square feet. Each board contains 6.875 or essentially 7 sq feet per board, so the order contains 64 boards. So that, every board really counts.

All floors including covers have a waste factor

It may come as no shock that we are not fans of engineered or laminate flooring, we refer to them as covers. In fact, you do not buy a floor cover, you lease it. One step further, that leased cover ends up in a landfill with the chemicals which created them, and the ones used to stick them down. But I digress, back to the waste factor which like taxes everyone has to address them. A waste factor is about the skill off the installer, the quality of the materials and the shape in which the arrive.

waste factor

How many square feet per board

1 x 4 x 8 = 2.08 sq ft

1 x 4 x 10 = 2.60 sq ft

1 x 4 x 12= 3.125 sq ft

1 x 6 x 8 = 3.42 sq ft

1 x 6 x 8 = 3.42 sq ft

1 x 6 x 10 = 4.27 sq ft

1 x 6 x 12 = 5.125 sq ft

1 x 8 x 8 = 4.58 sq ft

1 x 8 x 10 = 5.73 sq ft

1 x 8 x 12 = 6.875 sq ft

1 x 10 x 8 = 5.83 sq ft

1 x 10 x 10 = 7.29 sq ft

1 x 10 x 12 = 8.75 sq ft

Shipping wood floors

We ship flooring all over the United States, literally that is not marketing. When we ship 1800 miles, 4 pallets weighing 3000 lbs each our biggest concern are the ¼ in edges we call tongue and groove. Many customers do not fully grasp that real wood is long and heavy but should not be manhandled because of those connections that we call the tongue and groove. Remember, our amazing floors and price mean nothing without true delivery cost; i.e. the amount it takes to complete the job.For more on how we protect your order and keep the waste factor below 10% let us hear from you today.

Special Pricing Mill Run Heart Pine

June 6th 2021- Southern Yellow Pine Direct has 5200 sq ft. of 1 x 8 x 12′ Mill Run Heart Pine waiting for you to choose your finish. Choose from 12 standard colors, as well as luxury brands such as Bona, Monocoat and WOCA. For more information contact us right now, first come first serve.

05 Dec

Real Wood Floors

Customer Bill of Rights, Misconceptions, Misdirections and Misinformation, Wood Floor Shopping

Load More Posts

#buyrealwood

The trust about Investment floors

What is an investment floor?

Future landfill

One House One Floor

Engineered to fail

Laminate is the new carpet

Carpet & now Lamiante

Plant a tree

Sustainable timber means green

Sustainable timber create floors that last forever

No clear cutting

Failing to clear dead trees causes wildfires

Is is Kiln dried using air?

Is it Kiln dried to reduce moisture?

What Is Kiln-Dried Wood?

Real wood is Green

Repurpose real wood

Glue down Southern Pine

How to identify Heart Pine

Baseball, Apple Pie and Southern Pine

North Carolina

Shipping to California

Box Store Pine Floors

Dog Friendly

Prefinished or Unfinished floors?

Reclaimed or salvaged?

Salvaged Heart Pine Accent Walls

New is Reclaimed and Reclaimed is Salvaged, that is the definition of Green.

Accent Walls?

Laminate is not wood- what is it?

Laminate is not wood imported it is re-imported

Have your floors reclaimed instead of landfilled

Why Are VOCs Still Used?

The footprint of fake wood

Real is good

'Pure' on CHP

Say no to bundles

Researching Harwood Floors Online

Waste factor

Reasons to go above 10%

All floors including covers have a waste factor

waste factor

Shipping wood floors

Special Pricing Mill Run Heart Pine

Understanding Solid Wood Floors

Buying solid wood usually means a site finish

Sanding unfinished solid wood floors

Mill to order makes install easy

Stop leasing temporary floor covers

Advertising by box stores

Angie’s List wrong on flooring

Buying Real Wood Flooring

Investment Approach to Flooring

Invest in Solid Wood Floors