Category Archives: Hardwood

With your new hardwood floor installation, you want to make sure you are doing your very best to keep it in the best shape possible. As people have become more concerned with how they can maintain their home’s cleanliness, more people have wondered just what the best practices are when it comes to their hardwood. Getting your hardwood installed was a big decision, and you want to make sure you are protecting it as much as you can. Below, you’ll find an easy three step process to follow when it is time to clean your Colorado hardwood. We were able to use some infor from this article here for proper hardwood floor maintenance.

1. The first step is to remove the largest particles (dust, pet hair, leaves brought in from outside, etc.) with a hardwood floor vacuum or by sweeping. In this step, it is important to only use a hardwood floor vacuum or a regular vacuum with the deactivated brush roll so that your flooring does not get scratched. Additionally, these types of vacuums tend to also have rubber wheels to prevent scratching as well.

 

In those high traffic areas of your home (think the kitchen, entryway, and hallway) it’s best to do this step once a day. While this might not be feasible all the time, the more frequently it’s able to occur, the better your hardwood will look in the long run – just remember the investment you made into your floor!

 

2. The next step is to mop your Denver hardwood. It is up to you what type of cleaning solution you choose to use, just make sure that it is safe on hardwood floor installations! In fact, if you wanted to create a solution yourself, a simple mix of dish soap and water will suffice. Never shake this mixture but mix gently.

 

Rather than using a soaking wet mop to throw onto large sections of the floor, do small sections at a time with a damp mop. Not only will this dry quicker and allow you to use the room again sooner but will also protect the hardwood from getting soaked. When completing many things on your chore checklist in one day, clean the floors last so that they have time to dry before you need to walk on them again. Using too much water at once is quite possibly one of the worst things you can do for your flooring, as it can get in between the cracks in the wood and make it swell and warp underneath. Additionally, refrain from using any waxes or types of furniture sprays on your hardwood rather than a hardwood-recommended product. These will most likely void the warranty on your floors and will make them extremely slippery. To get your floors to dry faster, consider turning a fan on in the room.

 

3. The last step is to take care of scratches or dullness. While a solution you provide for your floors often won’t be quite as good as a professional could do, it can be a good idea to do if your floors are still relatively new and there isn’t much damage to take care of. The longer it has been since your hardwood floor installation, the more scratches (and life!) happen. Knowing how to deal with them and minimize them is key. For some instances, using a liquid hardwood scratch concealer is a good, quick fix – simply follow the directions of the product you decide to use and let it dry!

 

Once your floor starts to look a little dull after a few years of heavy foot traffic, it is possible to restore a bit of that shine with a floor polish. Additionally, you can also use a floor wax to do the same thing while also cleaning them. If your floor is really starting to look worn, you might also consider refinishing it. This option we typically recommend leaving up to the experts as the flooring would need to be sanded and then have a new finish applied (sanding can create a lot of dust that most homeowners are not prepared for). If you’re not sure how to fix scratches or dullness – or simply don’t have the time – we encourage you to use a Colorado hardwood professional for the best results.

While these may seem like some very in-depth steps to follow, they become routine once you’ve followed them a few times! With the proper maintenance of your hardwood floors, you will be well on your way to enjoying them for many long years to come. Incorporating this cleaning regimen into your daily, weekly, and monthly chore list is a great way to keep your hardwood a priority in your home – and you should be able to tell a difference almost immediately. Another great way to cut down on the amount of dirt accumulating on your floors is by having some high-quality mats at all of your entrances. Taking off your shoes before you come inside is another way to reduce the dust and outside dirt from being tracked in, especially during stormy or snowy days when you are more likely to have wet shoes.

For those with animals, keeping your pets groomed with their nails cut is another preventative measure to maintain your floors. Taking the time to wipe your pet’s paws off before coming in from the outside will ensure dirt and mud aren’t tracked in. And lastly, keeping a mat underneath their water bowls will stop water from standing on the hardwood. Through only a few preventative steps, your hardwood is set up for a long healthy life! Because the actual installation of the hardwood has just as much impact as the maintenance of it, using a trusted hardwood installation company is crucial in the long run. If you are in need of new hardwood or simply have questions on the best way to take care of your new installation, feel free to give us a call! Being able to protect your floors is our favorite part about our business.

Reclaimed wood or reclaimed lumber is wood that was once part of buildings that have since been torn down. The wood is reclaimed to be used for things like wood flooring. Reclaimed wood is different than salvaged wood which is wood that has been cut down and stored but was not previously used for construction.

Read More What Is Reclaimed Wood?

On design blogs, hardwood floors tend to all look pretty similar. There are some truly stunning hardwood floors, but they tend to range from light brown to dark brown. Most of them are made from domestic hardwoods that look great when stained. However, every once in awhile, you might come across a floor that truly stands out. One of the most striking colors you’ll likely see is purple. Purple hardwood floors are still fairly rare, but they’re growing in popularity. There are two ways to achieve a purple floor; you can choose purple wood, or you can stain it. Staining hardwood it is fairly straightforward. It’s just a matter of choosing the color of purple you would like. Purple woods are available for hardwood flooring, though. 

Read More Purple Hardwood Floors Are a Hot New Trend

It is conventional wisdom that hardwood floors will increase the resale value of your home and also make it easier to sell your home. Is that true? While it is difficult to gauge because the housing market is subject to fluctuate and every home sale is subject to dozens of different mitigating factors, it does seem to be true that hardwood floors increase your home’s value. The first factor in the calculations is a return on investment (ROI). 

Read More Hardwood Floor Makes it Easier to Sell Your Home

The amount of moisture in the air is known as humidity. Everywhere you go, the humidity is going to be slightly different. That means that the humidity in the Pacific Northwest is different than the humidity in the Southeast. It also means that the humidity in your house is different than the humidity outside or even in your neighbor’s house. It’s influenced by your HVAC system, your house size, house shape, insulation, and much more.

Read More Do Hardwood Planks Need To Be Acclimated?

When it comes to finishing a hardwood floor, gloss and semi-gloss have been the reigning champions for years. The choice for many homeowners has been between those two choices. Gloss is shiny and, when polished regularly, can look almost wet. Semi-gloss is shiny but not quite as ostentatious. Glossy is a way of making a statement; semi-gloss is sort of the standard look. However, that has been changing. Satin and matte are some of the most popular choices for new floors. There are reasons for that.

Aesthetic Reasons

For the most part, homeowners are choose satin and matte finishes for aesthetic reasons. Matte finishes look very good with distressed wood or with reclaimed wood. They also look great with a rustic look. A rustic, cabin look doesn’t quite lend itself to the highly polished look of gloss or semi-gloss. Satin finishes are not quite as flat as a matte finish. So, they could be something of a middle ground.

Satin and matte finishes lend themselves very well to dark floors as well. Dark floors are popular in hardwood floor trends. To capitalize on that, you could choose a matte finish for a gray or a whitewashed floor. That will give your floor a very 18th and 19th century look. Oftentimes, those floors were finished with wax or oil that breaks down over time. That’s why they often look unfinished or flat.

Practical Reasons

Homeowners are also choosing satin and matte for practical reasons. When your floor gets dirty, the dirt obscures some of the reflectiveness of the floor. That disruption is partially why your floor looks dusty when it is. Scratches do the same thing. Scratches from chair legs, dog claws, and other sources will mute a glossy finish. That is why a floor that is significantly scratched looks cloudy.

Satin and matte finishes don’t suffer from those conditions to nearly that extent. Matte finishes are already muted in terms of reflectiveness. So, dust and dirt won’t stand out very much. That’s not to say you’ll never need to clean your floor; obviously, you will have to keep it clean, but it won’t be as noticeable in between sweepings.

Scratches don’t show up as prominently either. Homeowners with dogs and cats are choosing satin and matte finishes so that they can go a little bit longer before they feel the need to refinish the floor.  These practical and aesthetic reasons are credited for the surge in flatter hardwood floor polishes.

There are many decisions to be made when installing or refinishing hardwood floors. Now you have another decision…matte or satin?

Interior design in general and hardwood flooring in specific are susceptible to going through different trends. Typically, what happens is some designer and/or company begins doing something new. Then, customers see it and start asking for it. Other companies begin imitating the style to please their customers. Soon, you have a full-blown trend. That’s what has happened with true black. For a long time, muted colors were very popular. Grays, tans, and browns grew in popularity for a long time. Greige became the most popular color for a while, as well. Greige is a blend of gray and beige. Finally, the trend has come to its fruition. True black is surging in popularity.

 

What is True Black?

 True black is exactly what it sounds like. True black is black that does not have influences from other colors. Black is thought of as one color, but in reality, it’s more of a spectrum of colors. There are cool blacks that trend towards very dark blues. There are warm blues that trend towards very dark red. True black, however, is completely black. It does not have any influences from other colors. It is the darkest possible color and the purest possible black. This is often achieved by several applications of true black stain.

True black began as a small movement, but it has been growing. Many customers are choosing true black for several reasons.

Why Choose True Black?

The first and most obvious reason to choose true black is because you want your floor to be black. Black goes well with just about any other color. You can offset your true black floor with bright colors on the walls and ceilings as well as bright furniture. You can also complement your true black with muted colors to create a generally muted look.

You can also choose true black for practical purposes. True black is often used when customers have damaged floors or when they have floors made of many different types of hardwood. Hardwoods, even the same species of hardwood from different batches, can be very diverse in their color and grain. If your floor planks don’t match, you can easily make them match by staining them true black. The richness of the stain will hide most differences. Furthermore, you can hide damage. For example, if the hardwood is scratched or stained, true black will cover those imperfections.

 

There are practical as well as aesthetic reasons that true black is the most popular hardwood flooring color for 2020. There are several exciting ways to get on this trend.

Reclaimed hardwood is very popular right now and has been for at least a decade. This is hardwood that has been used for one purpose and is then repurposed for use as hardwood flooring in a home. It could be hardwood flooring from a different home that is resold or could be something completely different. Whatever the case may be, the implication is typically that the wood has suffered from some weathering. The weathering is usually scratches, oil stains, milling marks, burns, and holes. Wood from barns is the iconic example of reclaimed hardwood. It has been exposed to the elements for years and years. Oftentimes, it was unfinished and exposed to the elements which amplifies the amount of weathering. So, barnwood is wood from barns. It’s also a classification of wood that simply looks like barnwood.

 

New Barnwood

 Barnwood doesn’t actually have to be from a barn anymore. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be reclaimed hardwood. It could be brand new wood that has been crafted to look as if it has been weathered. If you’re looking for this kind of wood, you can choose barnwood that is handcrafted or worked by a machine. That typically means that the wood is scraped and wire-brushed.

Scraping is a technique by which a draw knife is drawn over the wood. A draw knife is a knife with a handle on either side of it. The knife is then pulled over the surface of the wood to scrape away the layer of the surface. This is an older method for smoothing the wood. It smooths the wood but leaves behind a pattern of scrape marks. It was very common when hardwood floors were still processed by hand.

Wire brushing involves running a stiff-bristled metal brush over the wood. This scratches the wood in unique patterns. When done by hand, it creates unpredictable patterns through the wood. When done by machine, the patterns tend to be a little more uniform.

 

Buying Barnwood

 The easiest way to find barnwood is simply to buy it from a hardwood flooring supplier. Homeowners no longer have to go in search of old barns or antique homes undergoing remodeling. Now, barnwood can be bought brand new.  Many suppliers offer an option for what they call barnwood. Since there is no standard definition, each manufacturer will produce something slightly different. The basic contours will be the same, though.

When it comes to finishing a hardwood floor, gloss and semi-gloss have been the reigning champions for years. The choice for many homeowners has been between those two choices. Gloss is shiny and, when polished regularly, can look almost wet. Semi-gloss is shiny but not quite as ostentatious. Glossy is a way of making a statement; semi-gloss is sort of the standard look. However, that has been changing. Satin and matte are some of the most popular choices for new floors. There are reasons for that.

 

Aesthetic Reasons

 For the most part, homeowners are choose satin and matte finishes for aesthetic reasons. Matte finishes look very good with distressed wood or with reclaimed wood. They also look great with a rustic look. A rustic, cabin look doesn’t quite lend itself to the highly polished look of gloss or semi-gloss. Satin finishes are not quite as flat as a matte finish. So, they could be something of a middle ground.

Satin and matte finishes lend themselves very well to dark floors as well. Dark floors are trending in popularity. To capitalize on that, you could choose a matte finish for a gray or a whitewashed floor. That will give your floor a very 18th and 19th century look. Oftentimes, those floors were finished with wax or oil that breaks down over time. That’s why they often look unfinished or flat.

 

Practical Reasons

 Homeowners are also choosing satin and matte for practical reasons. When your floor gets dirty, the dirt obscures some of the reflectiveness of the floor. That disruption is partially why your floor looks dusty when it is. Scratches do the same thing. Scratches from chair legs, dog claws, and other sources will mute a glossy finish. That is why a floor that is significantly scratched looks cloudy.

Satin and matte finishes don’t suffer from those conditions to nearly that extent. Matte finishes are already muted in terms of reflectiveness. So, dust and dirt won’t stand out very much. That’s not to say you’ll never need to clean your floor; obviously, you will have to keep it clean, but it won’t be as noticeable in between sweepings.

Scratches don’t show up as prominently either. Homeowners with dogs and cats are choosing satin and matte finishes so that they can go a little bit longer before they feel the need to refinish the floor.  These practical and aesthetic reasons are credited for the surge in flatter hardwood floor polishes.