BEFORE YOU BUY
Recycled wood and carefully selected specialty woods can produce the most beautiful, durable, and valuable flooring in the world. Whether the finished product is to be a solid plank or an engineered floor, the realization of this potential depends on the knowledge and expertise of the manufacturer. There is a very short list of companies who are able to process antique wood correctly. There are equally few who select specialty woods and manufacture engineered floors with an eye toward beauty rather than mass production. The following guidelines will tell you what to look for in order to make an informed decision.
RECYCLING ANTIQUE WOOD IS AN ART
Many customers assume that the manufacturing of solid antique wood is very similar to the manufacturing of standard, solid hardwood flooring. This is not true. Recycling antique wood requires many extra steps in manufacturing and far more technical knowledge of wood as it ages under stress. Simply cutting, drying, and milling regular logs is relatively simple with regard to the amount of technical expertise required of a manufacturer. It is far more difficult to recycle antique wood correctly.
ALL COMPANIES ARE NOT THE SAME
Many customers assume that the manufacturing of solid antique wood is very similar to the manufacturing of standard, solid hardwood flooring. This is not true. Recycling antique wood requires many extra steps in manufacturing and far more technical knowledge of wood as it ages under stress. Simply cutting, drying, and milling regular logs is relatively simple with regard to the amount of technical expertise required of a manufacturer. It is far more difficult to recycle antique wood correctly.
“SHORTCUT” PROCESSING IS COMMON
Over the last 40+ years, the recycled wood flooring industry has grown tremendously. The reason there are so many is because of the rapid growth and expansion of the sawmill and hardwood flooring industries. It seems almost anyone can now buy a few beams and subcontract the sawing and milling to a local sawmill or small hardwood flooring plant. Even though these individuals, and their subcontractors may have little, if any, knowledge of recycling, they can produce a flooring product that may look like the real thing although several important steps in processing have been left out. Many companies may be running outdated equipment and producing a poorly milled product which shrinks badly because it is not kiln dried. Often the problems are compounded by failure to correctly remove defects in the wood. These and many other manufacturing shortcuts can expose customers to serious liabilities. Initially customers may be enticed by claims of the same quality with a much lower price. This is a very common tactic in many industries. In reality, prices are most often lower because of “shortcuts” which have been taken during the manufacturing process. Education is the only form of insurance in this industry.
MAJOR PROBLEMS MAY BE HIDDEN
Specific problems that occur with recycled materials on a regular basis are as follows:
(a) Antique wood which has not been properly kiln dried can have insect larvae present in the finished product. These larvae can lie dormant for months and later hatch out in your home after installation. Some companies may offer very reasonable sounding excuses for “air drying” rather than kiln drying. “Air dying” is not acceptable. Failure to kiln dry is dangerous and may result in huge liabilities for the customer.
(b) Antique wood which has not been kiln dried can shrink excessively and render a floor that has cost the customer thousands of dollars, virtually useless. Kiln drying is an absolute must. Skipping the critical kiln drying step results in exposing fewer cracks and fractures that are present in antique timbers. This means that the yield from the wood is much greater for the manufacturer and the price can therefore be much cheaper. The important thing to know is that as antique wood throughly dries to 6-8% moisture content, it will eventually expose these cracks anyway. It is much better to expose these potential defects before the wood has been milled into flooring rather than afterward. In this way, unacceptable cracks and other hidden defects exposed by kiln drying can be removed, and the customer is not paying for waste.
(c) A splintering defect called “diagonal shake” is very common in Antique Heart Pine and other recycled woods. This can cause serious injury if not cut out during processing. Diagonal shake can be very difficult to detect if materials are not processed properly or if the manufacturer is not very skilled. The presence of diagonal shake can produce huge liabilities for the customer.
ALL ENGINEERED FLOORS ARE NOT THE SAME
In today’s modern, complex building industry, there are many projects with concrete subfloors which dictate the use of engineered flooring products rather than solid flooring products. Although there are a few high quality engineered flooring products on the market, there are far more cheap, low quality ones. For this reason, engineered floors are sometimes frowned upon by customers who consider them to be fakes. One of the most common engineered floors in America is made with a picture of a piece
of wood printed on paper and laminated between two very thin pieces of plastic. The majority of other types of engineered floors fall into two categories. The first type is manufactured using a series of short pieces of wood cut from low grade, solid materials into faces and then arranged into one large composite face which looks like bricks laid in a running bond pattern. This
process yields a product generally referred to as “two-strip” or “three -strip”.The many pieces of wood in any given face are usually very narrow and very short. The second type uses thin, “veneered” faces. The vast majority of manufacturers of engineered floors use veneered faces which are “peeled”. This means a log is rotated against a sharp blade and thin pieces of wood are peeled off. (Imagine a roll of paper towels). This method produce “sheets” of veneers with grain patterns which have the look of plywood. Many customers buy this “plywood” floor because (a) they have a concrete subfloor (b) because the plywood look is so prevalent and © because this product has been marketed so hard as “the answer to concrete installation”. The big problem is that most consumers are not aware that they have an alternative. THEY DO!
LOOK FOR ENGINEERED FLOORS WITH WIDE, THICK, ONE-PIECE, SOLID, SAWN FACES
Engineered floors with these characteristics are the best products, and they are the best value in the marketplace. They are equally as good as solid flooring products in every way. In many ways, they are actually superior to solid wood flooring while being less expensive.
THE JOINERY CO. IS THE ONLY COMPANY WITH A COMPLETE LINE OF ANTIQUE AND SPECIALTY HARDWOOD ENGINEERED FLOORS OF THIS QUALITY
Our Mulitlayer is unique. Multilayer is an engineered floor with one piece, thick, solid, sawn faces which are produced in much the same way solid planks are produced. Sawn faces do not look like plywood! Every plank in every floor in the Multilayer line has all of the beautiful characteristics of solid wood flooring.
MULTILAYER IS MORE DIMENSIONALLY STABLE THAN SOLID WOOD FLOORING
Multilayer is constructed of multiple layers of cross bonded wood with a one piece, thick, solid, sawn face layer. This greatly reduces or eliminates any problems associated with the natural tendency of wood to expand or contract as interior humidity changes. The design, construction and dimensional stability of MultiLayer give you tremendous installation flexibility. Multilayer can be nailed down, glued down or floated in, even directly over a concrete subfloor!
MULTILAYER HAS A LONG LIFE BECAUSE IT HAS A THICK FACE WHICH CAN BE SANDED JUST LIKE SOLID WOOD FLOORING
Many customers take for granted that standard, solid flooring always lasts longer because it is 3/4’’ thick. This is not true! Most standard flooring can have only about 1/8’’ sanded off its surface because of the tongue and groove. After more than 1/8’’ is taken off the surface of solid wood, the groove side gets very thin, which can cause it to crack off and fail. In truth, if Multilayer is sanded properly, it’s thick, solid, sawn face can last just as long, if not longer than solid wood.
MULTILAYER HAS A FURNITURE QUALITY FINISH
Two coats of HARDWAX or WACO natural oil give a furniture-quality finish you simply cannot achieve with other finishes. This finish also allows a very simple and clean installation either in new construction or in renovations. There is no dust or mess to deal with. Our prefinished Multilayer eliminates the extra time for messy sanding and finishing, saving the customer up to $3 per square foot on installation labor costs.