Hardwoods, not our focus, southern pine is what we do! However, over the years relationships with hardwood flooring mills developed. Today, SYP Direct can buy “one offs”, or single orders for the homeowner where most buy truckloads.
Solid 100% real hardwood floors
Southern Yellow Pine Direct offers select hardwood floors from Tennessee and Minnesota, depending on the species. While Heart Pine has the same Janka rating (essentially) as Northern Red Oak most people consider all pine a softwood.
Find out about Character grade White Oak
Character Grade White Oak is essentially a blend of #1 and #2 common. By not sorting between the two grades we get longer lengths. 2-10′ bundles are the norm with our Character hardwoods.
Hit Skip Oak
Circle Sawn Oak hardwood flooring is new wood that is custom milled to look like antique lumber pulled from old barn. The circle saw marks left on the surface give an old-time, rustic, antiqued feel to the floor in the room it graces and works as well in formal as in casual settings. Circle sawn, aka hit skip can be before or after market.
Its popularity continues to grow, particularly in the United States where dark tones are trending. According to last year’s Annual Wood Species and Design Survey, administered by the Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Inc., walnut was the top choice for bedroom and home office furniture, second in entertainment centers, and third in dining room furniture. Walnut Floors in wide planks surged in popularity during this century, prices have followed seeming to rise every year.
Black Walnut from the pine folks
SYP Direct offers Black Walnut floors in unfinished 3/4 solid and unfinished engineered, 3/4 with 6 mm wear layer. Black Walnut floors offer a rich to purplish brown heartwood. The grain varies with the grade but straight grain is the most prevalent. Wavy or curly grain is sometimes present, we see it in the Euro Character grade. Black Walnut floors are tough and hard, they are moderately easy to finish and install, more on that if you are interested.
The DIY Suitability of American Black Walnut
It would be hard to overstate the species’ popularity among woodworkers in the United States. Its cooperative working characteristics, coupled with its rich brown coloration puts the wood in a class by itself among temperate-zone hardwoods. To cap it off, the wood also has good dimensional stability, shock resistance, and strength properties. The downside, price, price and price. Some allergies are reported and Walnut doesn’t really stain stain too well, but why would you stain it anyway- that is why you buy it, to see it.
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, researchers believe that nasal allergies affect about 50 million people in the United States alone, and that number is increasing every year. Allergies affect as much as 30 percent of the adult population in the U.S. and about 40 percent of children. Hypoallergenic means a product contains few allergy-producing substances known as allergens, and in our world, VOC’s. More on that later. So because there’s no agreed-upon scientific or legal definition of the term, the word “hypoallergenic” printed on a label doesn’t necessarily protect you.
Real wood reclaimed one dayReal wood is green
Volatile Organic Compounds, aka VOC.
VOC stands for volatile organic compounds, which turn into vapor at room temperature and enter the atmosphere through off-gassing. In turn, the VOC off-gas process creates that fresh paint smell, for example. Depending on the compound, VOCs can severely impact indoor air quality and result in negative health consequences. While short-term issues might be irritation of the eyes, nose or throat, or nausea and dizziness, some VOCs have the capability of causing liver or kidney damage, or even cancer.
Hypoallergenic has no real meaning and Zero VOC is just a rating.
Tung oil on wide plank caribbean heart pineReal wood is green
As the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) writes on its website; “There are no Federal standards or definitions that govern the use of the term ‘hypoallergenic.’ The term means whatever a particular company chooses, i.e. how they market the product. It is a marketing term in that it provides no real information about the product and how it performs. Our unfinished floors can be toxic or hypoallergenic, the finish is up to you.
Monocoat by Rubio- The green finish
7″ rustic caribbean heart pine.
Rubio Monocoat uses a unique molecular bonding technology to adhere to the topmost fibers of the wood it is applied to. Rubio Monocoat unique molecular bonding technology also allows for a one-coat finish. This means there is no need to continually apply oil or build up layers of polyurethane like with traditional finishes.
Carpet is the worst source for allergens
Carpet is king, of our landfills. The EPA estimates that there is 15 lbs of carpet for every citizen of the United States, in our landfills. It does not decompose quickly or even safely, and no it cannot be recycled, no matter what you read. Try to find a center that takes your carpet, not gonna happen.
Laminate and LVT
Laminate and Vinyl are the fastest growing components of our landfills. It’s difficult to quantify what chemicals, will leach from laminates once they hit the landfill versus the emissions if placed in an incinerator. To put it simply, this stuff doesn’t decompose, because of all the chemicals and glues, the material never breaks down organically.
What flooring is best for allergy sufferers?
Solid wood floors are the only true green, hypoallergenic flooring choice.
What type of floor is the worst for allergy sufferers?
Carpet is the toughest to clean while manufactures have been fined for having too much formaldehyde making a bunch of people very sick.
How can you tell if Formaldehyde was used in your own floor?
You can check if formaldehyde was used in your floor by looking for ULEF (ultra-low emitting formaldehyde) or NAUF (no added urea formaldehyde) labels. This is not hypoallergenic flooring!
What is Laminate?
Laminate is a thin layer of wood-color plastic, adhered to a composite. The processes use a variety of chemicals including formaldehyde. What is Laminate? How about what it is not, it is not green; in fact, it is the opposite of green. Laminate has a huge carbon footprint based on the manufacturing process, which can include dangerous chemicals in the manufacturing process. Laminate is not renewable or recyclable and every bit of it will end up in a landfill.
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.
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
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.
To find the cheapest oak floor you need to understand Oak grades. Red and White Oak grades are based on the face surface, specifically its appearance. The most common grades of domestic hardwood wood flooring are; clear (c & btr), select (s & btr), # 1 common, # 2 common and a variety of proprietary grades. Yes, proprietary, as in they make it up. Now, this is not always a bad thing, not at all. However, many times these creations are about raising the price, i.e. natural rustic = #2 common everywhere else.
The premium Oak Grades
Clear Grade Oak is cut and harvested from the innermost heartwood of the tree. Color discrepancies of dark to light and variations such as knots and worm holes will be at the absolute minimum if not non-existent in this grade of oak. The grain, however, will still be prominent while having a clean overall look. Due to clear being the highest grade, mills pick carefully through each and every piece to ensure that the milling of the seams, butt joints, and tongue and groove are milled precisely.
Select and Better. Select and Better will typically have clear pieces mixed into the bundles. You’ll have minimal variation from the sapwood. There will be virtually no knots or worm holes on these boards though some will be present. The appearance of the grain is strong with very slight color variations of heartwood and sapwood.
The Common Oaks
No. 1 Common. No. 1 Common grade is where much more variation and discrepancies will show through. You will have some knots and wormholes. You will have color variations of the sapwood to heartwood. The color is not as uniform as Clear or Select. There will be some lighter and some darker pieces and depending on the width of the board, you may have that occurring on the same board.
No. 2 Common. No. 2 Common will have a lot of color variations of dark and light pieces from the heartwood and sapwood. There will be an abundance of knots and wormholes. This floor will have a much more rustic appearance than clear or select. The milling and natural faults of this grade will not be as clean and precise as the above grades.
Defects, i.e. Tavern, Cabin grades
No. 3 Common. Not many professionals recommend No 3 Common for White oak- especially not for flooring. The pieces are too inconsistent in terms of milling and natural characteristics. More often than not, you will have a large waste pile after having to sort through all the pieces to find the ones good enough to install. With that being said, due to the high waste volume, you’ll have to account for that during ordering. While it is industry standard to order 10% more of the overall square footage, you’ll have to order over 20% more to make up the waste difference. Instead of choosing No. 3, it’s better to order No. 2 Common. You will still have all those natural characteristics but with an overall better product.
Cabin & Tavern Grades answer the question do you have “cheap oak floors”?
Cheap Oak Floors – Shorts aka micro shorts- While not technically a grade of flooring but worth noting. Shorts are exactly what that sounds like. Short pieces of flooring typically range from 6 inches to about 2-3 feet. While you will have some shorts in regular bundles (we call them spacers as they help in staggering the hardwood), when you order all shorts the bundles will not contain any long pieces. Regardless of the grade of shorts, there will be A LOT of seams. As a general rule, we like to keep our stagger to every 6 inches at lease. Meaning that the butt joints from row to row will not be closer than 6 inches.
Builders Welcome
Builders and installation professionals who understand that real wood takes time, welcome to SYP Direct. We do not take shortcuts and we do not sell to those of you that do, end of story. However, if you are a real wood pro, with or without pine experience, welcome to the best source you will ever find. Select Hardwoods from the best mills, amazing direct prices; White Oak, Red Oak, Hickory, Walnut and more.
Yes, SYP Direct offers hardwoods, such as Northern White Oak. Has anyone told you White Oak prices have gone up because of the popularity of Whiskey? “We’re starting to see the impact [the bourbon craze] is having on the white oak industry,” says Jeremy Scherf, a service forester with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. “If we don’t step forward now and start improving how we manage our white oaks, we could be looking at a shortfall.” (American Forest Foundation). What a huge public relations move, blaming whiskey barrels for a “shortage” of White Oak, which there is not. Do not be fooled.
Hardwood flooring grades
Hardwood flooring is graded based on the face surface, specifically its appearance. The most common grades of domestic hardwood wood flooring are; clear (c & btr), select (s & btr), # 1 common, # 2 common and a variety of proprietary grades. Yes, proprietary, as in they make it up. Now, this is not always a bad thing, not at all. However, many times these creations are about raising the price, i.e. natural rustic = #2 common everywhere else.
Character or Contractor grade
Our favorite White Oak grade is Character (Contractor) which blends #1 and #2 common. Why, create another grade? In the case of Character White Oak, at this mill, it reduces part of the sorting process, so you get longer boards that may require some work here and there, perfect for a contractor.
Long Length White Oak
SYP Direct offers unfinished White Oak in long length boards, not shorts or micro shorts. White Oak pricing from the mill combines grade and length, i.e. character grades. Understanding the importance of length to grade is key. Remember, grade means nothing if a board has been altered since mill, which they have unless you are buying direct. How do you? Compare apples to apples, price per square foot is but one component of value. For example are 10′ boards worth more than 3′, or 5′? Of course they are, now what about 8-10 and 12’s, in wide planks? Our prefinished floors are taken from raw materials to finished floor, keeping the lengths in tact.
Hardwood Flooring from SYP Direct
SYP Direct is more than just pine; in fact it might surprise you to know that today 50% of our business is ‘not unfinished pine. Buying hardwood floors from SYP Direct is literally broker pricing for consumers. Why would anyone buy hardwood floors such as White Oak from a company named Southern Yellow Pine Direct? Simple, we remove the people that either take a commission or shorten your boards. “Farther from the blade, the more you paid”, true 100% of the time. The best White Oak prices are always found at the mill in long lengths. We allow (end-users) homeowners to buy direct from the mill floor. We don’t eliminate the middleman, we take it tree to delivery meaning we eliminate several of them.
