28 Apr

Maryland and Southern Yellow Pine Direct have been a perfect match since 2014 when we launched the Online Mill concept. The state understands the versatility of Southern Pine, from the beach styles to very early American, the classic pine, MD seems to “get it”. Of course our Beach floors are popular, but 3 to 5″ Heart Pine remains the favorite. SYP Direct markets directly to residents using our network of installers and Do It Yourself clients all over the state.

About Maryland

Maryland is a Mid-Atlantic state that is defined by its abundant waterways and coastlines on the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Its largest city, Baltimore, has a long history as a major seaport. Sixteen of Maryland’s twenty-three counties, as well as the city of Baltimore, border the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay. MD has a combined total more than 4,000 miles of shoreline making it a perfect state for Coastal or Beach Style floors.

Beach & Coastal Floors

Are Chesapeake Coastal floors different from most, are they Whitewashed? When you step into a house on a MD beach, you immediately know you are in a whole different world, whitewashed or otherwise. The rooms are open and airy, the furniture is casual. Colors may be pastels or lighter colors and distressed for age.

Local Source for Pine

Maryland consistently ranks in our top 10 by state when measuring total sales. As we say, we are the best local source for pine no matter where your zip code. Of course SYP Direct is not local to MD the way Crab cakes or the Ravens. On the contrary, we are your best source for the best pine at the best prices. In fact, Longleaf pine, the slower growing version which gives us New Heart Pine, is not found locally in commercially viable stands. All the pine grown today is the faster growing Loblolly species, great for construction but lacks the colors and character of trees three times their age.

More about SYP Direct

Southern Yellow Pine Direct is the only A+ rated mill to order online flooring store. Our company wants to add value to your home with a forever floor, not a floor cover! Southern Yellow Pine Direct is the homeowner’s resource for the best pine flooring on the market. However, we are so much more than just flooring. Custom stairs, lap siding, gap siding, post, and beams, shipped directly to your job site. SYP Direct works with your contractor if you are simply purchasing your own materials. Do not get stuck with ‘bundled’ services, finish and installation does not have to include the floors. Say no to bundled services, contract your own floors. SYP Direct provides all the support you need to convince or find a new installer.

1x4 Southern Yellow Clear Pine few knots

28 Sep

1×4 Clear Southern Pine

Our favorite Finishes, Wood Floor Shopping

Clear aka C and Better Southern Pine

Clear pine is tricky, how so? Well true C grade looks like our main picture, without any vertical grain or heartwood. However, you have Clear Heart Pine is not not C grade, but may or may not be vertical grain. Furthermore, Souther Pine may be quartersawn, producing vertical grain without heartwood.

SYP Direct is proud to offer our 1×4 Clear Southern Pine for $3.45 per square foot. Now that the price thing is out of the way, let me tell you more about the grade. If you are curious why Southern Pine is desribed as a 1×4 when it is actually neither one of those numbers, blame dimensional lumber. The terminology is what it is, but remember not all Southern Pine is created equally.

More about our Clear Southern Pine

Clear Southern Pine has a formal name, C & Better and it has “altered” names such as Select or Prime. Our C & Better is available in vertical grain (live sawn) Heart Pine, which is actually hand selected or just normal knot free Southern Pine. Vertical grain only available in 1×4, C & Better Southern Pine in 1 x 6 and 1 x 8, which are 5 1/8 and 6 7/8 respectively, both are cheaper than the 1×4 FYI.

Unfinished 5" C & Better

Finished for customer

Finished to order 1x4 Clear Southern Pine flooring

What is vertical grain?

Vertical grain is not quartersawn, but all quartersawn has vertical grain among other variations. Ok, forget that stuff, vertical grain heart pine is the middle of the tree- our 1 x 4 is no exception. Can vertical grain heart pine have knots? Yes, but they will be very tiny, pin knots if any.

Vertical grain clear heart pine

Vertical Grain New Heart Pine flooring from syp direct

Painting Clear Southern Pine

Clear grade is normally what people use when painting, white wash is great example. We see painting used for walls- we offer our customers:

Unfinished Rustic Southern Pine T/G, V Groove, Gap Siding, Shiplap

Unfinished Clear Southern Pine T/G, V Groove, Gap Siding, Shiplap

For more information and or samples contact us now.

Walls and Ceilings

12 Sep

Prime Grade

Heart Pine

Prime grade is uniform in color, very few, if any knots. Colors in a range from golden brown to red brown heartwood. While both rustic and prime grades contain a minimum of 85% heartwood, rustic has knots. Some might call it character. Prime grade is virtually clear except occasional small pin knots. Color is more consistent and harmonious, with a high degree of red heartwood and limited sapwood.

Rustic and Prime Grade have 85% heartwood & this is why that matters.

Heart Pine floors are sold based on this number which should contain a range, such as 50-80% or in 85%, as with the rustic and prime Caribbean Heart Pine. In fact, these floors contain the highest percentage of heartwood found in any new heart pine except for actual old growth, which is extremely hard to find and awfully expensive. So, with that in mind can you choose which of these boards is new and which are reclaimed? Tell them it came from a two-hundred-year-old Kentucky Horse barn; they will never know if you finish it right!

Prime grade might be what you imagine when thinking about Heart Pine flooring, classic if you will. The colors are more uniform compared to our rustic grade, of course but there does exist enough variance to make it “interesting.” Prime Grade Caribbean Heart Pine will have a few tiny pin knots compared to the larger knots and sapwood in the Rustic grade. Prime Grade wide plank Caribbean Heart Pine screams luxury, email us for recent customer pictures and samples.

Sometimes you feel like a knot, sometimes you don’t.

Prime Grade Caribbean Heart Pine

Milk Paint tung oil blend shown here with mineral spirits

16 Aug

Chattanooga TN Air B&B

Heart Pine

View On Airbnb2 Bedroom Loft on Chattanooga’s North Shore

Amazing Air B&B with SYP Direct Floors

The New York Times named Chattanooga one of the “Top 45 Places to go” in the World. And it’s no wonder. Tucked between the mountains of Southeast Tennessee, along the beautiful Tennessee River, Chattanooga is one of America’s most breathtaking cities.

Chattanooga Tennessee

Chattanooga has the reputation of being aggressively welcoming. And that “welcome to Chattanooga” is extended to everyone—no matter your faith, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender. (Chattanooga.gov)

More to come on this project.

Summertime flooring projects

This summer, SYP Direct has delivered floors to these amazing cities, Chattanooga TN, Eureka Springs AR, Madison MS, Charleston SC, Chapel Hill NC, Tyler Texas, East Hartford CT, Newport IN, Forestville, CA, and Gulf Shores Alabama. While these are not all the cool towns and enclaves to which we delivered this summer, but this gives you an idea of a normal month.

Wall Skin

We pursue homeowner equity not shareholder with a one house one floor philosophy.

If you look at our project in East Hartford which was over 50,000 square feet of prefinished flooring compared to our 800 square foot Gulf Shores AL jobs, they resemble each other extraordinarily little except for the fact that they both used solid wood. Our customers range from the “too rich” to the folks looking for the “best deal” and we love them both. Customer service brings referrals which are so valuable to a company that does not want any repeat customers unless they move or add on. One House One Floor, real wood will outlive your home and one day salvaged then turned into an accent wall.

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, […]

Made in America?

Made in America means real wood What is the made in USA rule? “Of course, it is made in American it came from Home Depot, and it says so in the name, American Walnut.!” But like many things (cars), this term is added to make you feel good about the purchase even though you wanted real wood. Terminology Made in America today means the finish with engineered floors and only boxes with anything else such […]

Say yes to pine walls

Southern Pine is perfect for walls using Ship-lap, V-Groove and tongue and groove.

Pressure Treated Southern Pine

Southern Pine has long been the preferred species for pressure treatment because of its unique cellular structure that permits deep, uniform penetration of preservatives. Porous defines the cellular structure of Southern Pine, which allows the species to handle changes better than most. Some 85% of all pressure-treated wood produced in the U.S. is Southern Pine. Southern Yellow Pine Direct offers treated dimensional lumber such as the 4 x 4 beams shown below. Contact Jason for […]

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.