How Hardwood Flooring is Made
How hardwood flooring is made It all starts with the trees All hardwood flooring is not created equal. America's temperate climates produce forests with hundreds of hardwood species. Location of Hardwood Forests The e trees are cut into logs Trees used for flooring are chosen for natúral beauty with tight grain and few knots. The logs are cut into planks Flat or Plain Sawn is by far the most commonly used cut. It contains more variations than the others. Quarter Sawn cuts a log into quarters before it cuts the strips of wood to make hardwood flooring boards. Rift Sawn cuts a log at a different angle than quarter sawn before it cuts the wood into hardwood flooring boards. Though it is more expensive than the other, methods, it is also more stable, providing higher quality flooring. The boards are planed The planks are planed on all four sides to smooth saw marks and level the plank. Tongue and Groove After the planks are planed, a machine cuts the tongue and groove edges that make the boards fit together tightly. Tongue and groove construction allows the boards to expand and contract, without creating gaps between planks in the installed floor. Smaller shops without a tongue and groove machine use a mounted router to mill the edges. Distressing At this stage, the planks may go through a distressing process to give them an older, antique look. This may be accomplished by hand (hand scraping or hand sculpting) or by machine. Stain & Finish The final product is either sealed/stained with several coats of protective finish or shipped unfinished to the marketplace. Pre-finished floors offer easier installation, especially for the do-it-yourselfer, but floors finished after installation offer a more impenetrable seal to moisture from above and a more uniform look. Shipping Once the wood has been made ready, it is shipped to locations throughout the U.S. Sustainability Some solid hardwood flooring is recycled from wood recovered and refinished from old wood, including sources like siding and floors once used in old factories, houses and barns and even from sunken boats or logs recovered from lakes and rivers. Reclaimed wood is often sawn into the familiar proportions of flooring, re-planed, and finished. Additionally there are sustainable lumber choices such as bamboo, and wood harvested from domestic managed forests. stepfastflooring.com.au
How Hardwood Flooring is Made
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