Wide plank flooring is extremely popular. Five to eight inch widths dominate this high demand sector in the current hardwood flooring market, and even wider widths continue to trend. Minimum lengths can be selected, or various specific lengths can be chosen for planks to meet precise dimensions. Board widths and wood species may also be alternated to create striking patterns for floor design.

The variety of widths and lengths provides freedom to install creative hardwood flooring designs in any room. Color and dimension are gained through the species of woods selected, but even further depth and texture are highly sought after. Various characteristics such as reclaimed or character grade woods incorporate an aged, worn, or dynamic surface with plank flooring. Hand-scraped hardwoods and distressed wood options are popular for the texture and patina added to plank flooring.

A tremendous array of domestic and exotic wood species is available to select plank flooring according to color, grain, and hardness you seek. Rift and quarter sawn oak planks are a top selection for stability and durability. Options as diverse as heavily hand-scraped hickory, genuine mahogany, quarter sawn walnut, pecan, Brazilian cherry, ebony, and African wenge are the tip of the iceberg in terms of the variety hardwood varieties available.

These many wood species provide color and grain variety to create just the right look you have in mind for a custom installation of plank flooring. Choose from engineered or solid and prefinished or unfinished planks. Smooth or hand-scraped boards are further options as well.

Hardwood flooring outperforms carpeting to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals. A quick sweep or damp mop easily removes dust from the environment, and hardwood floors don’t absorb and trap dust particles the way carpeting does. If you were looking for one more reason to support a decision to replace the carpets in your home with wood floors, your health is a good one.

According to Heather Stapleton, a Duke University environmental chemist, hazardous chemicals can be detected in most homes, particularly in dust particles. She took the proactive measure of removing the carpet in her living room and installing hardwood flooring to reduce her family’s exposure to chemicals in the home.

Stapleton suggests that children are especially susceptible to contaminants in dust because they spend more time playing on the floor, and as every parent is aware, they put everything in their mouths. Stapleton advises that steps to prevent the accumulation of dust in the home reduce exposure. She also warns everyone to wash their hands after touching dryer lint when doing laundry, as this is an especially chemically contaminated element of our homes.

Many homeowners would like to replace their carpeting with hardwood for aesthetic as well as health reasons, but are concerned about the price. Fortunately, best quality discount hardwood flooring is available for individuals and families on a budget. With options available for a fraction of what you may expect, no need exists to sacrifice quality to achieve the beauty and comfort of hardwood flooring in your home.

UFC fighter Sam Stout at the Roar for the Floor Pep Rally

Each week we celebrate the diversity, beauty, and incomparable performance of hardwood flooring. The demand for hardwood floors continues to grow as homeowners and businesses seek to add the warmth and style of natural wood to interior design projects. One location that is often synonymous with hardwood flooring is the school gymnasium.

Many of us remember school dances, hours of practice, and big games held on this surface. Can you imagine all of these events held on tile? One school in Canada sure can but is doing everything in its power to change all that. This week, an article was written in the London Community News which pretty much describes a pep rally held specifically for a hardwood floor.

Students, noted community members and dignitaries, and sports figures were among those gathered together to kick off fundraising for a new gym floor in London, Ontario, Canada, in this recent news. The Westminster Secondary school is the last remaining in its athletics district to have an out of date tile floor. This public event marked the start of fundraising aimed to raise the necessary money to install a hardwood floor in its place.

The school held a Roar for the Floor Crazy Olympics to raise awareness and community support for the fundraising efforts. Sports figures in attendance included UFC fighter Sam Stout. This new fundraising effort reportedly follows a previous failed attempt on the part of school staff to raise the money necessary to install a new hardwood gymnasium floor. Future plans to continue this effort include a barbecue night fundraiser and golf tournament in the coming months.

The enthusiasm for the hardwood flooring project at the Westminster Secondary School is pretty neat. The fact that so many people turned out to support the project certainly bodes well for their success. Soon the students at this school will begin making memories of their own as school functions and sports activities will gain the warm and durable beauty of hardwood flooring.

Solid hardwood flooring is solid wood, just as it sounds. The advantages of solid flooring include longevity. Solid hardwood floors can last decades and more and the thickness of the boards enables these floors to be refinished several times. Solid hardwood is not recommended for moist environments or areas with drastic climactic changes. Solid hardwood floors are available unfinished or prefinished. Factory finishes can reduce installation time and expense. Hardwood floors must be installed over a sub-floor. It is unsuitable for installation below grade.

Engineered hardwood flooring is solid wood sandwiched on top of layers of plywood to create stability. Engineered hardwood floors are also very long-lived, but cannot be refinished as many times as solid hardwood flooring due to the thinner layer of display wood. Installed, engineered hardwood flooring is equal to solid flooring in terms of function and beauty. Factory finishes or unfinished boards are available as well. Engineered floors are better suited to areas with greater temperature and climate fluctuations and may be installed at, above, or below grade. Engineered floors may also be installed without a sub-floor and can be installed floating over a concrete slab.

Laminate wood flooring creates the appearance and maintenance ease of hardwood flooring. The simulation is effective because pictures of actual hardwood are used to create the floor. Laminate flooring may not last as long as real wood options but is extremely durable and a good alternative for people on a budget. Laminate flooring installs easily and doesn’t require finishing. It stands up to high traffic and pets very well.

Each hardwood flooring option is a good alternative to carpet in the current housing market. If your carpets are looking shabby, instead of replacing the carpet, consider installing hardwood flooring. Wood flooring is currently popular but also time-tested for value and performance.

Laminate flooring is prized for the appearance of wood and is easy to install. Instead of the repeating grain patterns found in laminate flooring, lock and fold provides the appealing variations in grain homeowners look for in natural wood floors. Lock and fold planks snap into place and are installed like laminate flooring. For the best application, care should be taken to ensure a level surface before applying the flooring.

Achieve the comfort and warmth of real wood with lock and fold hardwood flooring. Lock and fold hardwood flooring is available with factory finishes in many colors and wood species. Lock and fold options include, oak, maple, cherry, and walnut flooring. Assorted widths are available to customize applications. Discount lock and fold hardwood flooring options make installing wood floors and affordable home improvement option.

Lock and fold flooring may be installed above, below, or at grade. It is a good option for a do-it-yourself home improvement project, but can be very frustrating if the installation surface is not very flat. As long as this is not an issue, homeowners will appreciate the ease of installation. Lock and fold saves time and money over solid and engineered hardwood flooring installation with beautifully comparable results.

2012 Best Manufacturer Factory Finish

The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) has announced the winners of the annual Floor of the Year Honors. The awards were presented at the 2012 NWFA Expo in Orlando Florida. Oak, walnut, and hickory woods were featured prominently among the winning hardwood flooring installations. The award-winning hardwood floors demonstrated fine detail work and excellent use of contrast and texture.

NWFA Floor of the Year Honors are an annual event showcasing fine quality wood floor installations. This year’s awards highlighted exceptional use of texture and pattern to achieve depth and contrast in design. The awards also showcased fine technical installations which brought out the warmth and beauty of hardwood flooring.

The Best Commercial award went to an installation of riftsawn red oak in an auditorium. The solid oak was finished on location with a water-based, semi-gloss seal. Other honorees to feature red oak included the Designers’ Choice winner, Best Extreme Makeover, and Best Reclaimed award winners. The Designers’ Choice combined sapele and red oak in a sculptured parquet installation. The solid hardwood flooring was finished onsite with a matte, water-based finish. White oak was also utilized in the herringbone design of the Best Reclaimed category’s winning floor.

The Best Manufacturer Factory Finish award honored a floor constructed with solid hand-scraped hickory planks accented with Samoan mahogany in a hand-cut pattern. The deep brown tone of the mahogany highlighted both the lighter color and hand-scraped grain of the hickory. This floor exemplifies the modern aesthetic appeal of texture and pattern to gain depth in hardwood flooring, instead of traditional straight line installations. Factory finished hickory is a time saving option, and this award winning installation demonstrates the high quality and beauty of prefinished hardwood flooring.

The 2012 NWFA Expo Floor of the Year honorees provide inspirational examples of hardwood flooring to homeowners and businesses looking to add style and comfort to home or office. The patterns, colors, and textures on display present many options to consider. Perhaps a floor inspired by this year’s winners will be considered for an award at the next year’s Expo.

The select grade of walnut hardwood flooring is mostly heartwood with little sapwood and is relatively free of character marks. This grade of walnut is sought after for the characteristic open and wavy grain and rich brown tones. Select walnut hardwood flooring will add elegant dimension to any room.

The #1 common grade of walnut hardwood flooring is a very popular choice for many homeowners. The #1 common grade includes a greater degree of walnut’s burls in the wavy grain with sound and infrequent knots that add character to hardwood floors. This grade of walnut flooring is a popular choice for rooms across many architectural styles and design themes. The warm velvety richness of #1 common grade walnut is also popularly used in accent applications.

The #2 common grade of walnut hardwood flooring is appreciated for the greater number of knots, both open and sound. The grain is the familiar wavy open style with more character marks than higher grades. Checking may be present as well. The #2 common grade of walnut hardwood flooring is prized for its rustic character and adds warmth and charm that is right at home in natural settings.

Walnut hardwood flooring is available solid or engineered to suit most home environments. It is also available unfinished or pre-finished to accommodate installation preferences. Walnut flooring comes in various width planks and the increasingly popular hand-scraped texture adds dimension and character to any room.

While earlier rounds of the tourney are all played on maple hardwood, the Final Four court is a new floor installed specifically each year. The fate of this hardwood floor is varied. The school that wins the championship may decide to purchase the court to use in tribute to their victory or cut the court up into souvenir pieces. Sometimes an institution purchases the championship court at a savings for the quality of the floor.

Maple hardwood flooring is long appreciated for its beauty and strength. The hardwood requires extra care while machining and sanding due to the wood’s dense grain and the light amber and cream tones. Maple hardwood flooring is highly regarded and known for its durability and warm luster over time. Installing maple hardwood flooring increases home value and appeal.

Really take a look at the Final Four court as you are watching the drama of March Madness unfold this tournament season, and you will see the strength and beauty of hardwood maple flooring in action. It is very durable and suitable for a wide range of domestic and commercial design applications. Prefinished, engineered maple flooring is a great choice to minimize installation time and add the warmth and strength of maple flooring to your home.

HGTV celebrity carpenter/designer Carter Oosterhouse will be presenting the awards for Wood Floor of the Year. Past recipients include wood flooring designs as intricate as an oriental carpet. Attendees at the 2012 NWFA Wood Floor Expo can watch an entire wood floor installation from start to finish in a demo theater, and educational workshops will be included, designed to improve prospects for industry professionals Numerous vendors will be attending and hardwood flooring discounts will be available in the Expo coupon book..

The 2012 keynote speaker will be Ken Schmidt, former communications director at the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. The turnout for this event is expected to be strong, and industry insiders anticipate a spike in hardwood flooring as the economy prepares to rebound. Hardwood flooring is a renewable resource and provides an economical way to improve home values as home renovation project numbers are forecasted to grow. Hand-scraped hardwood flooring is expected to remain popular, along with wider width planks. The 2012 Expo’s focus on renewal also positions hardwood flooring favorably in the current movement towards green lifestyles.

The NWFA’s awarding of Wood Floor of the Year is an industry spectacle. The most innovative and beautiful designs and installations in wood flooring are judged in numerous categories including, residential, commercial, and manufacturer factory finished. Each entry is considered for designation as Designer’s Choice and Member’s Choice for Wood Floor of the Year as well. To be deemed the best by peers in the wood flooring industry is an honor to both the quality of design and installation. It’ll be exciting to see the winners of this year’s awards.

Fashion icons may gain renown for designing apparel and accessories such as handbags, wedding gowns, shoes, and clothing, but their passion for style is not limited to wardrobe items. Fashionistas can appreciate that all aspects of a fashion designer’s life must be endlessly fabulous. Stylists like Marc Jacobs even offer lines of product for home décor. The real place to get an idea of a fashion star’s personal style is by looking at the places they call home.

If you want to live fabulously like a fashion designer, consider installing hardwood flooring in your home. The unlimited combinations of color and design make it a stylists’ dream. Lauren Conrad, and up and coming young designer, recently purchased a home featuring a sleek modern kitchen with richly textured hardwood floors.

Marc Jacobs is an established fashion designer with legions of fans. His old New York apartment was adorned with rustic walnut colored hardwood floors that had the timeworn appeal of hand-scraped workmanship in a modern city. In his Paris apartment, Jacobs’ paired herringbone hardwood flooring with elegant old world style to create a light and breezy yet highly refined setting.

You don’t need the purse strings of a world-renowned fashion designer to incorporate the classic warmth and style of hardwood flooring into your own home décor. Affordably-priced, quality hardwood flooring is available. Take inspiration from the experts and incorporate your own style with the addition of hardwood flooring to your home. From sleek and modern to classic and refined, you’ll find design options and color choices to inspire any interior design project.