SYP Direct sells White Oak solid hardwood flooring

28 May

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 to mountain with everything in between. One of our first big trips was to the Raleigh area where we visited our floor. (The Mercantile Antique Mall). Photo

Lye treatment

North Carolina finish to order Heart Pine

https://premierefinishingandcoating.com/Reidsville, North Carolina is the home of Premiere Finish & Coating. Please visit their site, the technology is state of the art. “If you can dream it, we can create it”. SYP Direct specializes in unfinished Southern Pine and Heart Pine, but our premium services include ‘finish to order’ flooring.

Our partnership with Premiere centers on finishing our authentic long gorgeous pine, with one caveat. We ship our unfinished pine from our mill in Alabama, sometimes we have floors waiting to be ‘finished to order’. That is a fancy way of saying, not sold yet; and or if the timing is right we can share a ride from Alabama for your pick up. Call us today to find out what we have in Reidsville. 1-888-286-2057

Premiere Finishing & Coating has expanded its capabilities in a significant way by installing two new production lines with enhanced finishing capacity for cabinetry, doors, frames, moldings, panels, and other mill-work.

North Carolina the best deal in Heart Pine- Bona Natural Traffic on 1 x 8 x 12 Mill Run Heart Pine

The photo below or of samples of our finished order bona natural traffic on our 1 x 8 mill run heart pine those floors are finished tongue in groove and left in all 12 foot boards quite unique and available for pickup in Reidsville North Carolina

Bona Traffic for commercial and residential along with Monocoat by Rubio are our two go to finish products. For more information send us an email requesting information about the process of ‘finish to order’, and or follow the links.

Mill Run Heart Pine finish to order Bona Traffic natural — Finish to order

03 May

Box Store Pine Floors

Wood Floor Shopping, Misconceptions, Misdirections and Misinformation, Our favorite Finishes

29 Apr

5″ Caribbean Heart Pine

Heart Pine

5″ Caribbean Heart Pine is available in both rustic and prime grades.

Prime grade might be what you imagine when thinking about Heart Pine flooring. The colors are more uniform compared to our rustic grade, of course but there does exist enough variance to make it “interesting.” Prime Grade 5″ Caribbean Heart Pine may have a few small knots compared to the larger knots and sapwood in the Rustic grade. Prime Grade wide plank 7″ Caribbean Heart Pine screams luxury, email us for recent customer pictures and samples. And just in case you are wondering, prime costs about .60 more per square foot.

Unfinished 5″ Caribbean Heart Pine

First of all, this is the 85% version. Second, we answer the FAQ “what is Caribbean Heart Pine“? Visit that link for full information on the species. And if you are trying to match an existing pine floor visit this page or give us a call.

Better Looking with age

Perhaps one of the most desirable traits of Caribbean Heart Pine is that natural beauty becomes more evident with time. As the wood ages, its patina emerges providing a palette of rich, vibrant colors ranging from yellows to vibrant reds and coppers that deepen and intensify with age.

85% Heartwood with both grades of Caribbean Heart Pine

Both versions have 85% visible heart content. So, what is heart content? Heart content is color and color variation; sapwood and heartwood, also known as character. Rustic Caribbean Heart Pine contains more sapwood, as you would expect since sap comes from knots. The sapwood color, grain and knots differentiate rustic from the prime grade, it is not about quality just your style.

Wide plank Caribbean substitutes for Antique Pine

Caribbean Heart Pine is the great substitute, “tell them it came out of Benjamin Franklin’s boyhood home, and they will never know it.” The question: create the age or pay for it, i.e., Antiqued New or Antique Reclaimed Heart Pine. The d added to antique means a process not a declaration of age. In fact, Antiquing is the act of creating age, which becomes much easier with the right materials. Caribbean Heart Pine meets all the criteria in either grade, prime or rustic.

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.

#2 grades wide plank southern pine is awaiting finish

15 Jun

Lead times

Wood Floor Shopping

Caribbean Heart Pine prices remain unchanged during COVID

30 Nov

Price specials

Wood Floor Shopping

Mill Run New Heart Pine

Right now – Prefinished 7″ wide plank new Heart Pine- $6.95 per sq ft 3/4 solid t/g all 4 sides with micro bevel- amazing floor and price. 8700 sf available (12-12-21).

If you want information on your options and our mill schedule for Mill Run New Heart Pine contact us today.

5″ Rustic grade Caribbean Heart Pine

With 85% heart content our 5″ rustic grade Caribbean Heart Pine sits in multi-million-dollar projects all over the country, some of it thanks to SYP Direct. With the recent price increases in Southern Pine because of the demand for dimensional lumber low prices are tough to come by for most DIY and builders. With that in mind we are going to offer our 5″ Caribbean Heart Pine at $3.65 per square foot, a 10% discount with 1050 square feet which constitutes a full pallet. For more information give us a call 888 2286 2057.

December 2021: Southern Pine 1 x 6 (3/4 x 5 1/8) in 8′ 10′ or 12′ – Full Pallet $2.05 plus shipping 1200 sq foot pallets- $2.20 less than pallet. #2 SYP pictures

Our best seller offered as price special, 1 x 6 Character grade Southern Pine at $2.55 per square foot bringing some good news during COVID. SYP Direct will try and lower at least one part of your project cost. At $2.55 we consider it the best value in real wood flooring so at $2.25 it approaches ridiculous when compared products such as Clover Lea. Compare this product to anything on the market, with up to 40% heartwood this floor offers unmatched character and value.

10-12' (that is feet fyi)

Blue magic prefinished southern yellow pine

Price specials of today 6/30/2022

Thanks for clicking the link. The prices listed on this page are incorrect, please contact us for current price list.

3/4 solid 7"

Seven inch wide New Heart Pine finished fawn color

Call us now 888 286 2057

Finish to order

SYP Direct floors offers #2 Southern pine aka #2 Knotty Pine, solid wood flooring in rustic setting and Rocky Branch Finish

Long length finished heart pine

"Blue Magic" Prefinished Select Clear Southern Pine

Clear/Select Southern Pine free of knots 1 x 4 x 10′-12 tongue and groove all four sides with micro-bevel.

Buy Blue Magic

South Carolina Pine Floors before and after

26 May

Site finished

Finish and Install, Our favorite Finishes

Site Finished the Advantages and Disadvantages

Time, the amount of time and effort to site finish and install real wood versus factory prefinished versions is substantial. The simplicity of factory finishes are an advantage as well. All you do is, acclimate and install it, with a few cuts here an there. Of course, prefinished wood floors offer very few choices as they sell to the masses. Color, widths, edges, length of floors, multi color and stain options are all wide open with a site finish. Beach blue, very popular with actual homeowners but not mass produced very often. Check out Beach Floors from SYP Direct customers.

Lipstick on a pig

Putting ‘lipstick on a pig’ means you are attempting to fool someone, for one reason or another. Prefinished pine floors mass produced for liquidation stores are the absolute perfect example of this practice. A 50% measure of heartwood meets standards for a Heart Pine, it our minimum. However 50% at Lumber Liquidators has a different meaning. Every other board will have some heartwood, seriously the lengths are 8″ and up- do you see the problem? One of the worst, prefinished Caribbean Heart Pine which you will find advertised at cheaper prices than the unfinished version. How? Lipstick baby! The prefinished version is not the same 85% heart pine, not even close but is allowed to share the name. All we can say, Caveat Emptor or buyer beware. .

How long should floors acclimate before installation? How long does acclimating a wood floor take? Acclimation is not about time but moisture content. For example, Southern Pine boards should acclimate to 10% and White Oak, 6The first thing we must understand about acclimating a wood floor; wood is hygroscopic.

What does this mean for your floor?

In laymen terms, it will absorb (expand) moisture when exposed to high humidity and will expel (shrink) it in low humidity environments. So, if we do not have the boards at the same moisture content this process will not be done with a consistency and could result in separation. This is true for both finished and unfinished floors.

Can you glue down ¾ solid real wood?

Yes, if you use a polymer-based adhesive such as Bostiks. Bostik’s Ultra Set “Single-Step2” is a high-performance adhesive with built in moisture control and a sound reduction membrane. Using Bostik’s helps maintain the long-term durability of your Floor based on its polymer technology, allowing for movement just like nails. Bostiks contains one percent recycled rubber and is a certified Zero VOC product along with the Greenguard stamp. Bostiks is the only adhesive SYP Direct recommends for gluing down solid wood.

Southern Pine floors from Montana and other states

Buying a wood floor unfinished means you are going to finish on site versus prefinished. A site finished floor using Tung Oil much different than Monocoat, more on that later. Site finished wood floors start with unfinished boards, planed smooth and ready for sanding. Site finishing means you are limited by the imagination not inventory. While prefinished floors, which are mass produced, have 10 colors with 100 different names, site finished floors have no limit. However, site finishing real wood certainly has drawbacks centered around inconvenience.

Which one is the best factory or site finish?

So what is best, buying unfinished or prefinished wood floors? Unfinished floors must be site finished, while prefinished floors are finished in a factory. Site finishing unfinished boards allows the artisan to create and no factory finish compares with the look of a hand finished floor. Having said that, installing prefinished floors take much less time than its real wood counterpart.

site finished wide plank Heart Pine using 2 C process from Monocoat

4 color blend Monocoat

Site finished or Prefinished

Prefinished hardwood flooring has been finished prior to arrival. These floors have been run through a flat line factory finish. Many of you recognize the term UV coating, which always means a factory coating for protection applied on top of the stain. Site finished wood floors start with unfinished boards, limited by the imagination not inventory.

How to find a real wood pro

How do you find a professional willing to install and finish real floors? Yes, within a budget helps define the question, so put affordable in front of professional. Wait, capable or experienced should be part of the equation, too. So now the question becomes, how to find a willing, experienced, affordable professional to finish your real wood floor? As you search, remember time is money and real floors take time, but they are an investment not a lease. You will be surprised with the resources we offer once who are ‘in the fold’. Get the floor of your dreams or at least some honesty-hope to hear from you soon.

Tung Oil the best example of “time is money”

The problem with a Tung oil finish is about time not the look or protection. After drying time, this oil finish forms a protective final coat strong enough that to be used by ships, on the deck. Yes, Ships used Tung Oil because of the ease of repair, yes ships on water. We realize you thought boats had Vinyl or Engineered hulls because the way each handles water but no, all real wood finished with natural oils. Tung oil is FDA approved as food safe, butcher blocks, and cutting boards where it again encounters water. As for Southern Pine and Heart Pine our experience has been with blends or additive products, i.e. not 100% pure Tung Oil. However, as long as you are using 50% or greater Tung Oil you can get that amazing protection which looks great on pine

Face Nailing? Face nailing is when the nail is driven perpendicular into a piece of material, with the nail head exposed. We suggest that our customers face nail wide plank Heart Pine when the width gets to 10″ and up. Although our slow-growing Longleaf Heart Pine, as with our 85% heartwood Caribbean Pine, are far more stable than box store versions, we still suggest a little extra prevention in the wider planks. So, while you do not have to face nail our Wide Plank Heart Pine, and in most cases, all will be well, it is still better safe than sorry when the solution takes such little effort or resources.

04 Jun

Monocoat wood floor finishes

Our favorite Finishes, Finish and Install

30 May

Best finish for pine floors

Finish and Install

The best pine finishes are the ones that create gorgeous floors. Over the years we have come to trust all of the following; Monocoat, Milk Paint, Bona , WOCA and Tung Oils. Milk Paint tung oil blends, Monocoat by Rubio, Bona High Traffic, WOCA oils are all 100% approved to finish our Southern Pine, Heart Pine and we have the pictures to prove it!

Get a sample of Caribbean Heart Pine with Monocoat Ebony, Mahogony and Cherry. In March of this year, we had a project that required us to compare each of these, and blend them to match an historical restoration.

Click here for Monocoat FAQ

Monocoat 3 colors

Tank the inspiration dog for a Monocoat by Rubio finish on wide plank pine in Monroe La

Rubio Monocoat Natural Oil Finish

Monocoat is a plant-based, environmentally responsible, non polluting, single-coat, durable wood finish. Rubio Monocoat contains 0% VOC and has no effect on indoor air quality. Using a proprietary bonding technology, Monocoat essentially becomes part of the woods molecular structure. Easy to use and maintain, Monocoat also makes fixing scratches a breeze.

Bona High Traffic

#2 Knotty Pine Prices depend upon heart content Heart Pine shown here.

“The Best” of anything is contingent upon its purpose

The best finish for pine floors is contingent upon what the homeowner values, i.e. protection versus those who want no carbon footprint. And, the best finish for pine floors depends upon the look you are attempting to achieve. One the best examples, the french bleed! If you are not familar it is an undercoating (dark) around edges which have been sanded creating the illusion of seperation and age.

New construction is easy but what if your home is a jobsite?

Are you finishing the floor while living in the house? Do you have kids or pets? We can ask all of these questions, but what we really need to decide is surface or penetrating finish, i.e. poly versus oil. Want to see an amazing Tung Oil Blend, check it out.

Picture to right- Milk Paint 50 / 50 blend with citrus solvent

What is the best finish for pine floors? Hard to argue Clear Poly.

Surface finishes sit on top of the floor as opposed to penetrating the wood like oils. Lacquer, shellac, varnish and wax are some common types of surface finishes. But without question the undisputed king is polyurethane, and price is only one reason. One of the most durable finishes, ‘Poly’ is also inexpensive and easy to apply.

Bona Natural Oils

All the benefits of a natural oil finish plus the performance you expect from Bona. The elongated open time of Bona Craft Oil 2K, along with its rapid initial cure, make it easier to work with and allow for light use in just 8 hours. Bona and Monocoat are what we recommend to DIY homeonwers.

Prefinished 7″ Rustic Heart Pine in all 8′ and 10′ foot boards

Natural Finish

WOCA, Minwax and natural oils

Our customers have relayed their experiences with BONA and WOCA oils. Both are easy to apply, zero voc and east to maintain. Not to mention the gorgeous floor underneath those natural oils. For more information on a specific product, get samples and try them out with our pine.

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Prefinished Heart Pine