Wood Flooring

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Wood flooring has always been very popular. Wood floors have a formal, beautiful and warm look that is ideal for all kinds of rooms. They are also eco-friendly, affordable and the best part is, there is a lot of variety available. They are also relatively easy to maintain. Additionally, wood floors increase the value of a house and are therefore an investment. These days, wood flooring is being done in unique and custom designs like borders, medallions, hand-distressing, painting, mixed media, stain and exotic wood.

There are certain things to be considered while selecting wood flooring: the budget, the kind of wood to be used, the style or design, the traffic in the place where the floor would be installed, the color of the walls and the rest of the furniture, the kind of maintenance that could be possibly done and so on. Other questions to be considered are: how long the installation will take, if the contractor has a license and the warranties and guarantees.

There are different types, style, species, cuts (plainsawn/ quartersawn/ riftsawn) and grades (clear/select/common/first/second / third) of wood flooring. There are different styles of wood floorings: parquet, which is a series of flooring pieces arranged in a geometric design; plank hardwood flooring, which are linear and wider planks of wood; and strip, which is linear flooring that is not as wide. The various types of wood floors are acrylic impregnated wood floors, engineered wood floors, solid wood floors, pre-finished wood floors and unfinished wood floors. Wood floors are also classified on the basis of the kind of installation: floated, glued and nail/stapled. Other distinctions are the dimensions, the patterns and the color (ash, maple, pear, walnut, plum, oak stain white, bamboo, beech, mahogany). There are also exotic species of wood floors like birch, cherry, white oak, maple and red oak. Different kinds of woods are being combined to make custom wood floorings.

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Wood flooring styles also depend on the kind of room. Custom designs like feature strips, medallions, accents and borders are ideal for foyers or entry rooms because these are formal areas. Lighter wood colors are ideal for formal living rooms and dining rooms, while darker colors are good for kitchens and family rooms. Darker colors are also perfect for bedrooms and office rooms, but the wood should be stronger since these rooms contain heavy furniture that is likely to be moved frequently.

Decorative Parquet Floors Big selection of unique hardwood floor parquetry, medallions and inlay borders. Custom designs for any style.

Wood flooring can be installed by yourself or you can take the help of a contractor for installing and finishing wood floors. Since there is so much choice today, it is better to take the advice of a specialist in selecting the right kind of a floor. The internet is also a very good source of information for wood flooring.

Wood Flooring provides detailed information about wood flooring, laminate wood flooring, hard wood flooring, engineered wood flooring and more. Wood Flooring is the sister site of How To Clean Marble.

Laminate Flooring - Everything You Need To Know

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Laminate Flooring mimics the look of traditional woods while offering easy installation and lasting durability. At first glance, it can be difficult to spot the difference between hardwoods and laminate flooring. What appears to be a natural wood grain pattern is really a thin layer of decor paper (a photographic image) under a tough-as-nails protective film that is glued and pressed to a high-density backing board. Laminate Flooring comes in an array of wood effects as well as stone and ceramic effects.

Laminate floors main advantages are that it is easy to install, is very hard wearing and relatively inexpensive compared to real hardwood flooring.

Laminate flooring is a floating floor, which means it does not fasten directly to the sub-floor. Instead the planks are clicked together. This enables the floor to be fitted fast and with no real mess.

Most laminate floors today fit together with a click system with the most common being the Uniclic system as used by Quick-Step. This is extremely easy and fast to fit. The ingenious Uniclic system has a special shape of tongue and groove. You simply place the tongue of one plank into the grove of another at an angle and press down. Their sophisticated and very accurate milled shape makes it possible to create a very tight connection during the installation. The floor can be walked on straight away.

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If you are laying laminate flooring over a concrete sub-floor then you will fist need to lay down a damp proof membrane (D.P.M.). This is basically a sheet of plastic usually around 5mm which helps protect the Laminate from moisture. On top of this goes the foam underlay this acts as sound absorption and also helps even out minor irregularities in the sub-floor.

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Most manufactures now offer a combined D.P.M. and underlay along with several underlay's that have better sound absorbing qualities.

You can now also get some laminate flooring which already comes with a built in underlay. This underlay is pre-fitted to the bottom of the flooring and is usually of sound absorbing quality. If you are fitting this type of laminate over a concrete sub-floor you still have to lay down a D.P.M. (Damp Proof Membrane) first.

Laminate flooring has been around in Europe for around 15 years and has seen massive growth in the past few years. In 2004 over 750 million square meters of laminate flooring was sold worldwide this was an increase of 13% on the previous year. The biggest growth market is in the US with an impressive growth rate of 25%.

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What is Laminate Flooring Made From?

Laminate flooring is usually made up of four layers:

1. Overlay (Wear Layer)
The top wear layer is provided by the melamine resin, a highly wear resistant material that makes laminate flooring so hard wearing. This top layer is very similar to the top layer on counter or kitchen work tops but is usually around 40% stronger. This makes the laminate flooring highly resistant to scratches, burns, dent's, stains, etc.

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2. DPL (Decorative Paper) or HPL (Decorative Paper + Add High Strength Paper)
It is the decorative paper which gives the laminate flooring its individual appearance, ranging from highly authentic wood reproduction, ceramic or stone designs. An important thing to look out for when purchasing laminate flooring is to understand the difference between DPL and HPL. We will talk about this latter

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3. Core layer
This is made up of either high density fibreboard (H.D.F.). or medium density fibreboard (M.D.F.) This is saturated in resins to make it extremely hard. Most manufactures also add a moisture resistant resin to the core. This is important as it helps keep the flooring protected against moisture penetrating the boards.

4. Stabilizing layer
The bottom layer is the stabilizing layer; this is what gives the laminate floor its stability. It is made up of moisture resistant resins

How is Laminate Flooring Produced.

This is where DPL & HPL are different.

In the direct-pressure laminate process the decorative covering layer and stabilizing layer are pressed together onto the core layer.

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While the high-pressure laminate process, on the other hand, the decorative paper and overlay are pressed onto special high-strength paper first. Only in a second stage is this so-called high-pressure laminate glued to the core layer. This makes the flooring a lot more tougher and more resistant to dents etc.

How is Laminate Flooring Graded

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Apart from the different warranties that manufactures offer and the difference between DPL & HPL the other thing to look out for when purchasing laminate flooring is industry standard load and traffic categories. These are broken into two different categories and are as follows.

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Residential

Class AC21 - Moderate Loads. Ideal for bedrooms etc.

Class AC22 - Normal Loads, Ideal for living rooms etc.

Class AC23 - Heavy Loads. Ideal for anywhere in the house (except bathrooms)

Commercial

Class AC31 - Moderate Loads. Hotel Rooms, meeting rooms, etc.

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Class AC32 - Normal Loads. Offices, waiting rooms, etc.

Class AC33 - Heavy Loads. Large offices, shops, public buildings.

My name is Jason Ashby and i have 21 years experiance in the flooring trade. First starting out as a flooring installer then progressing into training people in all aspects of flooring. I also run an online UK store selling laminate flooring products. For more informtion regarding laminate or wooden flooring please visit http://www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/laminate-flooring-information.htm