Reclaimed Hardwood Flooring – A GREEN Alternative
Much has been written about Bamboo as the green flooring alternative. It is true that Bamboo has many green aspects to it when used as a flooring product. This article explores another green alternative to flooring which is reclaimed hardwood flooring. Much as recycling your aluminum cans, newspapers, plastic bottles from your daily lives gives you a feeling of helping the environment, reclaimed flooring accomplishes this goal with the flooring that you are using in your home.
Reclaimed flooring is flooring that has been salvaged from old buildings, warehouses, factories and other buildings as they are being demolished. For years the buildings have been leveled and then materials such as the beams that supported the building and the wooden flooring in the building have been burned or land-filled to clear the site for the next project. Many times it is impossible to stop the razing of old buildings and many times it is warranted that they should be torn down. Reclaimed flooring allows the materials in these buildings to live on in another form in the homes that we live in.
It is really amazing when you look at the construction of buildings from the 1800′s and early 1900′s to see the materials that were used. Heavy heart pine beams 12″ thick and 16″ or more wide and many feet long were used to support these buildings. Floors were made of wood as well. Doesn’t it make sense that there is a lot of use left in these old timbers? Today there would be no way to find trees large enough to make the solid beams that were used years ago. The fact is that the trees just are not given enough time (hundreds of years) to grow as large as the virgin forest that were used back then to produce the materials used in construction of a factory. These woods have very tight grains and are of extremely high quality as their use in the supporting of a building or factory required a high quality as to be strong enough to hold up the building without failing. Many different species were used in the construction of these buildings including heart pine, oak, both white and red oak, hickory, chestnut (which is now extinct in the United States) and many others.
The process of reclaiming this material for use in flooring removing the material during demolition and sending it to a flooring re-manufacturer instead of the landfill or burning it. Once the material has arrived at the re-manufacturer it is inspected and nails, bolts and other metal objects that have been embedded in it during the construction of the building are removed. The heavy beams are then re-sawn into the boards that are required to make flooring. A single beam that is 12″ thick, 16″ wide and 20′ long will produce over 400 square feet of flooring. After the beam has been resawn into planks it is sometimes ripped to reduce it in width. For instance a 12″ x 16″ beam may be cut into 16 boards that are each 12″ wide and 7/8″ thick. These boards are then ripped into thirty-two 6″ wide boards. The boards are then typically taken for kiln drying where excess moisture that can cause bending or warping of the boards is removed during the kiln drying process. The boards are then taken to a flooring machine called a side matcher or moulder where the tongue and groove are machined onto each edge of the board.
After these processes have been completed the old beams that were destined for destruction are ready to be installed as flooring in someones home. Not only is the quality of the flooring exceptional, the color and character of the wood is something that you cannot find in new flooring. So in this case there are no sacrifices in quality or look necessary to be “green”. Quite to the contrary, in the process of being green you are getting a unique, beautiful conversation piece that is different than any other floor in the whole world. Many times the seller of the flooring can also provide you a history of the flooring showing what building it was removed from, when this building was first constructed, and maybe even a photograph of the building.
When you are looking for wood flooring in your home, please keep in mind the green alternative of reclaimed hardwood flooring.
Install Hardwood Flooring
The first thing you need to do before installing hardwood flooring is to find out what type of sub-floor you currently have. The sub-floor is the actual base floor, which is either made of plywood or concrete. This requirement is essential as there are numerous types of hardwood floor installation methods and not all can be used to all kinds of sub-floor. By determining the kind of sub-floor you have, you are automatically narrowing down your options making it relatively easy for you to decide which one is best for the application.
Depending on the method that you are going to use, you will need some tools for cutting and drilling, measuring and marking, installing, and finishing and refinishing. The most common methods of installing hardwood floors are as follows:
Nail-Down Installation. Ideal for solid wood floors. As this kind of hardwood floor is usually thicker it tends to expand and contract so that gluing it down is never a good idea. It has to be nailed down in order to stay properly in place.
Staple-Down Installation. Since engineered floorings have been growing in popularity, the staple-down installation method has also been in greater demand as this is the only perfect method to use. Engineered plank or strip wood floors should be installed over a plywood sub-floor using this method. It is important to note, however, that you have to determine the staple sizes that should go with your flooring as certain wood floors require only specific staple size.
Glue-Down Installation. This time, if an engineered strip or plank wood floor is going to be installed on a concrete sub-floor, a glue-down method should be used. In this method, it is extremely important to remember that the sub-floor should be cleaned and flat before properly bonding and spreading the glue to prevent any serious future problems.
Floating/Free-Float Installation. As opposed to the already mentioned hardwood installation methods, the boards are going to be glued together. Gluing together the boards instead of individually installing them can prove to be more beneficial. It is more stable and will be more advantageous, especially when expanding and contracting takes place, as there will be no evidences of gaps between the planks.
Whatever method you are going to employ for the installation of your hardwood floors, remember that most of the tasks should be left to the professionals.
Flooring Tips You Must Know
Buying a new floor can be a frustrating and confusing process. Here’s a list of things to keep in mind before heading out to purchase your new floor.
1. Take note of the room layout.
-Draw an outline of the room or rooms. Indicate where the entrances are placed.
-Measure the room carefully and accurately with a measuring tape. Write down the width and length of a room. Remember to include closets and other areas that need the new flooring. Smaller print patterns can make the room seem a lot bigger.
-Take into account adjoining rooms and the flooring on those rooms.
-Make a note in which direction the room is facing and if there is a sliding door. Determine how much natural light enters the room. You might want to consider a laminated floor, ceramic tile or porcelain tile.
-Bring along swatches of fabrics from your furniture, curtains and wallpaper. These will help you decide on the color and style of your flooring.
2. Answer these questions to help you out in selecting the right floor for your room:
-How much foot traffic does the room get in any given day? The number of people passing or using the room would indicate the level of wear and tear the room would take. This would help you in deciding the type of flooring to get. A room with a high volume of traffic needs more durable flooring.
-What is the main function of the room? A room used mainly for leisurely activities will have less wear and tear. Delicate flooring materials can be chosen in this case.
-How many pets do you have? Pets tend to abuse the surroundings they are in, floorings maybe damage from scratching.
-How many kids do you have in the house? All the roughhousing and playing that the kids do tend to abuse the flooring. The more kids you have in the house, the more abuse your flooring will get.
-What color do you want? Remember that lighter colors make rooms seem bigger.
-How long do you want the flooring to last? We would of course like the flooring to last forever but wear and tear damages the flooring.
Eventually, it will need to be replaced or you may want to simply change the look of the room after a certain period of time.
3. How much is the flooring going to cost?
-Are the subfloor preparation part of the quoted price?
-Is the quoted price inclusive of the installation or is that a separate fee? This is a budgeting concern, you would want to know the actual amount you’re going to spend.
-Is the removal of pre-existing flooring included in the quoted price.
-Is the quoted price inclusive of the moving of all appliances and furniture in the room.
-Are all the necessary materials included in the quoted price? You wouldn’t want to find out during the installation that some materials are not included and that you still need to purchase more materials. That could be extremely annoying and frustrating.
4. Questions to ask the installers and the store:
-Are the installers independent, or are they store employees?
-Whose insurance will pay for installation errors?
-Are all of the materials recommended by the manufacturer so warranty will not be voided?
-Discuss with the salesperson the warranty information of the manufacturer. Keep a copy of the warranty.
-Discuss the maintenance procedure and keep a copy of the manual or brochure.
-Have everything documented including the diagram of the installation. Also, the amount of flooring needed in the room
-Ask who will be responsible for the removal of fixed features in the room, e.g. toilet.
-Always check the website of the store, if any, to give you an idea of the store. Take note of the affiliations to groups or other organizations.
It would be best to email the store in advance to have some questions answered before going there. It saves a lot of time.
-Have all the product information documented. The document should include the name of the manufacturer, product name, color, style and the installation procedure.