Hardwood Flooring

A hardwood floor adds warmth and beauty to a house. Installing it with high quality takes time and skill but the results are nothing short of spectacular. And if done right, will last for a very long time!

Process:

• Buy hardwood
• Acclimate it
• Glue and nail it
• Sand it
• Stain and Seal it
• Finish it

Hardwood comes in a variety of grades with FAS leading the chart followed by Select, then #1 and #2 etc. The top grades FAS or Select are mostly used for flooring and fall into the premium category. This basically means they are longer / wider and with less defects. #1 is also used but has more defects. For our project, we went with the Euro Character which is pretty much a grade in between FAS and Select. It’s a unique grade which has characteristics (natural marks in the wood like knots, bird pecks etc). Although the name is Euro, the wood we used a purely american white oak hardwood! Other choices were Red Oak, Maple, Walnut etc.

After purchasing the hardwood, it’s important to acclimate the wood for a minimum of 72 hours to ensure it blends with the moisture and temperature of its surroundings and hence not shrink or expand after installation.

The key steps during installation is the use of glue and nails to lay the hardwood on the sub-floor. Since we bought “Select grade”, we pretty much got boards that were 2' — 10' long and that’s a good thing. The longer the board, the more beautiful they look!

And here’s the fun part.. getting to select the stain (the final color of the wood). We went with a Natural look of the White Oak and actually avoided the stain altogether. Just did multiple coats of Natural Seal.

The finish was just applied and we marked the sections that were completed so that no one steps on it. We went with a traffic rated finish on the first floor as it also has the Kitchen area and the finish helps manage water spills better. We used the regular finish on the second floor that has the bedrooms.

The finished product! This 5" wide White Oak has a character of it’s own!

Homeowner tips:

• Hardwood is beautiful while also a little harder to maintain. It’s natural for it to dent if objects fall on it. So best to protect it from sharp objects.

Builder tips:

• Plan for a lot of glue during installation
• Use the longer boards in key areas like the entry foyer, living room, kitchen, master etc. Use the smaller pieces inside the closets or other not so visible areas
• Ensure that there is no other work going on during the stain / seal / finish process until everything has dried up so as not to spoil the wood finish
• Cover the finished wood with protection paper while rest of the finish work goes on

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Here’s to a more comfortable, sustainable and beautiful home!