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HOMESTUDY-BASICS

FLOORING TYPES

Unfinished vs Prefinished
Unfinished flooring must be job-site sanded and finished after installation. Prefinished flooring is sanded and finished at the factory. Prefinished flooring may be an especially attractive option for remoddelling, since the installation process is faster, simpler and cleaner.
At the other hand unfinished flooring may provide more options for customizing color, specie and sheen.

Solid Strip and Plank
Solid strip and plank flooring is nearly always nailed down-almost never glued.
As the name suggest, solid flooring is made from single pieces of lumber, rather than constructed from veneers.
Made most often from oak, strip flooring is usually 3/4 inch thick, 2 1/2 or 3 1/4 inches wide, although other common widths such as 1 1/2 and 2 inch are available in limited quantities.Some solid wood flooring is 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch thick.

Engineered (Laminated) Flooring
Once known as laminated flooring, this flooring type is increasingly being refered to as "engineered" flooring. It is designed to be glued directly to suitably dry and finished concrete subfloors, as well as over structurally rigid plywood subfloors, although many engineered floors can also be nailed down.
U.S.-made versions of this product originally used all rotarycut oak veneers, hut flat-sawn or sliced veneers have been introduced for the top, or "face" side, of the flooring. These have a more normal "lumber look" and replicate the look of solid wood flooring. Engineered flooring is also available in a variety of species.
Engineered flooring is produced by bonding three or more layers of wood. The crossing of grain direction within the boards makes this a very dimensionally stable product, able to resist nearly all expansion and shrinkage from normal moisture changes. This is one primary feature that makes laminated products suitable for use directly on concrete and in below-grade applications.
Engineered strip and plank flooring is produced in thicknesses of 5/16-3/8-1/2 and 5/8-inch. Strip is usually 2 or 2 1/4 inches wide, while plank is normally 3 to 5 inches.
"Floating" floors are a sub-category within engineered wood floors. In most floating floor Systems, the flooring boards are glued together along the tongue and grooved edges, and installed over a foam or cork padding. Since the boards are not attached in anyway to the subfloor, the system is said to float. Floating floor systems have proved popular in multistory residential applications, since the foam or cork underlayment provides a measure of sound-deadening capability.
In all cases, manufacturers' recommendations will dictate which adhesives are to be used, and how the adhesive is to be applied.

Parquet Flooring
Parquet flooring can range from the very expensive custom-designed patterns to standard classic patterns to the less expensive "finger-block" type of parquet. Parquet is almost universally installed by glueing it to concrete or wood sub floors.It is available in unfinished and prefinished as well as many species.

Grades
Mills that are members of the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association (NOFMA) sell unfinished oak strip flooring by the following grades: No.2 Common, No.1 Common, Select Plain or Select Quartered, and Clear Plain or Clear Quartered.
Clear flooring has a very light color range and is virtually free of defects, but may have minor character marks.
Select contains more natural characteristics, such as small, tight knots and limited color variations.
The Common grades have a more variegated appearance (some say more character), because they contain more knots, color variations and other natural features.

Cuts
Most wood flooring is plainsawn, hut riftsawn and quartersawn wood flooring is also produced. Both are generally more expensive than plainsawn, but they tend to be more dimensionally stable and have a more consistent grain pattern.
Solid plank flooring is also usually 3/4 inch thick and usually comes in 3- through 7-inch widths, although wider widths are available in some species. Random-width plank flooring usually combines several widths, (3, 5 and 7 inch, for example) to produce a more variegated appearance. Solid strip and plank flooring are also sometimes produced in other thick-nesses, such as 1/2 or 5/I6.
Solid 3/4 inch plank and strip are installed by blind-nailing over a suit-able subfloor. Over crawl-space or in basement homes, an approved ply-wood or OSB subfloor must be provided.
Over slab subfloors, the nailing base may be provided by an approved sleeper system or an approved plywood or OSB subfloor. In all cases, a suitable vapor barrier must also be used.

Acrylic Impregnated
Several manufacturers produce an acrylic/wood flooring product that has proved especially popular in commercial applications, because of its wear-resistance. The basic technology involves forcing an acrylic liquid into the pores of the wood, usually through a vacuum process.