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Home - How to

How to identify Heart Pine
12 Jun

How to identify Heart Pine

Heart Pine, Wood Floor Shopping

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 gorgeous finish. This starts with our dual kiln and precision mill work using mature Southern Pine. All grades contain stable knots and the gorgeous color variation we call character.

Identifying Heart Pine with grades

Grades and terminology should make it easier for a layperson to make a decision between those choices. Clear ‘naming’ and pricing based on those grades give you all the information you need. The problem? Some companies add terminology or, in some instances just make it up. Without spending too much time on the subject because it raised my blood pressure, let me give you one example. ”

If you want to identify heartwood color is crucial.

The way that you identify Heart Pine is color, over simplistic, duly noted but the answer is still color. Let me get some business out of the way before moving forward; not all Heart pine is new, and NOT all new pine is created equal. Glad that is out of the way, lets take a look at the colors we use to identify Heart Pine.

Creating Color- The transition from sapwood to heartwood plays a significant role. Sapwood is the living part of the tree responsible for transporting nutrients, while heartwood is the dead portion. The drying process in the kiln promotes the transformation of selected sapwood layers into heartwood. As the sapwood dies off, the cell walls change color, becoming drier and stronger to form distinct heartwood layers. In essence, the color of Heart Pine is a result of this transformation.

#2 Knotty Pine Prices depend upon heart content Heart Pine shown here.
Heart Pine SYP Direct
How to identify Heart Pine
7″ Prime Caribbean

When you Identify heart pine sapwood is the start

Sapwood is lifeblood of the pine tree. Sapwood carriers the nutrients throughout the tree, it is alive while heartwood is dead! What does that mean? Heartwood has less moisture than sapwood, until the Kiln. However, over time the tree “promotes” layers of sapwood to heartwood status. As the sapwood  stops flowing through selected layers of the tree (dying) it becomes as hard as heart pine. The tree pores fill up with organic matter and the cell walls change color, ultimately becoming dryer and stronger to form Heartwood layers. Enough about stability, want to see more pictures. Visit Pinterest but come back.

How to identify Heart Pine
How to identify Heart Pine
How to identify Heart Pine
TEXT ME NOW- Jason 601 826 1296
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Caribbean Heart Pine vintage finished
02 Jan

How to install real wood floors

Finish and Install

How to install real wood floors- it takes time

How to install a real wood floor is the question and finding the right installer is job one. It is the first thing we tell people asking how to install real wood floors.  When installing a real wood floor, of course, you want the proper skill set, but being honest is the most important quality.  Installing a real wood floor takes time, and time is money for anyone paying labor, such as your local flooring store. Quick sounds great because you want to get your house back in order as soon as possible. However, quick means fake wood floors as installing a real wood floor takes time.

More FAQ

How to install real wood floors when moisture is an issue

Wood is hydroscopic, it will absorb (expand) moisture when exposed to high humidity and will expel (shrink) it in low humidity environments. Southern Pine on the microscopic level is more porous, than Oak for example, which allows the species to handle moisture changes better than most hardwoods.  Before wood floors are ready for your home, the moisture content must be normalized, i.e., consistent throughout the house. So, acclimation is one to key when asking how to install real wood floors.

Our Southern Pine- installing a real wood floor

Southern Pine is Kiln dried prior to manufacture or milling into floors. A Kiln is a closed system using temperature, humidity and air flow to lower the woods moisture content. Moisture content is the measure of the weight of the water in the wood, expressed in a percentage. A “kiln dried” grade of Southern Pines moisture content should be at around 12% with a maximum of 15% and settling around 10%-12% depending on width.

Storing your wood floors

Storing your floors prior to installation is about controlling moisture. Moisture will damage wood floors, all of them not just the real stuff. The good news is that we have some time-tested methods designed to prevent moisture issues and visual damage to your floors. Proper storage and handling make the acclimation process much easier.

Pine install and sub floor

Installation picture of Peter M Caribbean Heart Pine Floor in PA

Pre-condition prior to installing a real wood floor

How to install real wood floors, the right way must include some preparation. Preparation is necessary, including acclimation Do not skip this important step, cheap and takes very little time. The first step, apply a pre-conditioner to the face of every board. Apply a light coat evenly and let it dry. After this application, you will not have to worry about “splotchy” or an uneven finish around the knots. Your installer should insist on that step if they understand pine.

Real wood flooring and job site acclimation

Acclimating a Southern Pine floor allows time for the wood to adjust itself, enabling the floor to a reach a stable, balanced state. In this state the wood neither absorbs nor expels moisture. The state is referred to as EMC or equilibrium moisture content. Simply put, EMC is the consistent and stable differential between wood floor and sub-floor, i.e., no hot spots. Wood floors should be stacked in each room which will be receiving the floors. Acclimation time, generally speaking is between 5-14 days which can be shorten with proper preparation.

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How to install real wood floors
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Southern yellow pine being refinished oil based
12 Jun

Refinishing Pine Floors

Finish and Install

Refinishing pine floors is restoring

Want an example of refinishing Pine floors? They are everywhere, flooring well over a hundred years old, some much older, being turned into the showpiece of a restoration. North and South, Southern yellow pine floors were the standard for centuries because it is both durable and beautiful. White Oak and others, all newcomers.

Rustic, Classic and Modern

Pine floors truly fit within any style, from modern to rustic. If you need examples of the durability of Southern Pine, look no further than the Antique Reclaimed pine market. Many times durability gets confused with pine being a “softwood”, while true you should understand two important additions to that statement. First, not all Southern Pine is the same, not even close. Second, the character of Southern Pine allows for easy blending of even the worst scratches, simply by hiding them. 

Refinishing pine floors allows the owners to upgrade from Southern Pine to Antique Reclaimed Pine without buying anything at all or tearing anything out for that matter. An example we offer folks goes like this; One owner buys LVT the owner Southern Pine, in ten years one has an asset worth $30,000, what does the other one has? Another floor cover, whatever the hottest new trend may be in ten years and the privilege of paying to have the old one torn out. Now most homeowners go on oblivious to what they have given up when they buy that first floor, not you because now you know the truth. Real wood is the only choice. So refinishing pine should never be option number two, do not even consider doing anything else until you see what is under the finish.

Finish the refinish 

Finishing is part of refinishing, get it. Of course you do, we want to simplify this process that some advice givers make confusing. Relax, the hard part is over as the “re” part of refinish seems to cause the most difficulty for some. Anyone can finish a floor, but not everyone can make your floor look its absolute best. Maximize the value of your investment by creating a showpiece for your home.

Choose finish type with desired characteristics

Is it easy to maintain? What about chemical or VOC’s? Clear or tinted? The number of choices outside of Home Depot can be a little intimidating. Start with your goals, protection from dogs? Does that mean protection like a bar top or easy to fix? The plot thickens, right? Our company finishes Southern Yellow Pine using Monocoat, Bona and Tung Oil finishes all of which create wonderful floors but they are very different. For a discussion on finish the finishers comfort zone or style should play big part in decision. If your local professionals have track record with a certain finish type which fits your goals, perfect. We are here to help and walk you through the entire process customized to your project.  If you are ready, contact me today and we can get started. If not keep researching your floor, it is an investment, keep that in mind!

Refinish & Reclaim

Refinishing sanding heart pine unfinished wide plank caribbean heart pine
Caribbean Heart Pine

Preparation for Refinishing

Preparation for the room is an essential part of refinishing pine. We suggest one room at a time, tape it off to control the dust, you will be glad you did.  Refinishing any type of floor is messy and you don’t want the dust and debris to end up all over your home. Face nailed flooring, the look of antique pine. Countersink any nails that have worked their way up to keep them from damaging the sander, logical. Maybe the most important, clean the floors. You must remove as much of the dirt and debris as possible before sanding. (Tremont Nail Company, if you are interested)

Refinishing pine floors requires removing the old one

You need a floor sander, buffer and the finish of your choice; the “sander” can be machine or human”. This is one area that we urge clients to use someone with experience, it might be a friend or relative but do not practice with your floor. However, do not search for installation professionals, you need a specialist. Confused? Yup, it gets that way now that everyone wants us to buy floor covers, we call them leases. If you are a DIY; depending on the floor you will need several different grades of sandpaper to reach the smooth surface desired. Practice in closet, best advice we can provide along with give us a call to see if SYP Direct has a local professional. 

Step One

Choosing the right professional for this project starts with the requirement they refinish not replace. Remember your floor refinished properly can become the showpiece (again) of the house, or it might be torn out for laminate. This is not a decision to take lightly, hold your ground and get a second opinion.  So where do you search for a true refinish specialist? If you search Google you get so many results, what about Angie’s List? 

Buying real wood flooring online can lead you to Angie’s list for an installation professional. Remember, Angie get her money, i.e. the customers are contractors or brands who advertise. Who will tell you the truth about pine and real wood floors in general? SYP Direct presents the A List, a resource without agenda. The amount of misinformation passed off as a “resource” designed to help you find your floor, by our totals, about 95% of it.

 

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Southern Yellow Pine Direct offer homeowners the reliability of an A+ rated BBB company; the best quality, pricing and service bar none. We operate under an "old school" philosophy that the customer is always right. We make sure you are just that by educating and dispelling myths about Southern Pine and Heart Pine flooring.
Remember we are a mill to order manufacturer of unfinished and prefinished Southern Pine, including our speciality Heart Pine. Our lead times are normally about two weeks, with Hardwoods and Imports the lead times vary and that is an understatement. 2 days -2 months has bee the answer since COVID. But things are imporving, as White Oak prices continue to fall. (Jason Howard 9/9/2022)
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