I am going to tell you some key facts that the parquet floor manufacturers do not tell about, and this could save you thousands of dollars on your next parquet floor.
Being the owner of a family business for the third generation of flooring, I saw floating stores come and go all the time. I saw tricks and stunts from manufacturers, presenting their outdoor products with impressive statistics and new “technologies” to guide people to how “their” product is better than the next one. Sometimes changes in a product are really viable and really work, but others are just nonsense.
Tell us about some things that you may not know when it comes to hardwood floors, both artificial and solid hardwood.
Did you know that the wooden floor also has a level of comfort? Wood floors will work best when the internal environment in which it is to be installed has a relative humidity range of 35 to 55 percent and a temperature range of 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This is about the same range of comfort that we like people.
Let's talk about the first thing you need to do as the installer and the owner of the house. Ready for this ... READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST! Before you go to gun-ho and break the boxes, as most men do, take 10 minutes and read the full instructions on the material provided. There must be a copy that is included in each box of material. Sit back, drink a beer and READ!
Now that we have this clearly understood, you need to CHECK to know what to WAIT!
1. Acclimation: the moisture content in the wood and the subfield should be within 2-4% of each other, and the base should not exceed 12% moisture. The further the percentage of percentage points is from the percentage of moisture, the more problems you will have. For proper acclimatization, the material must reach room temperature (65-80 degrees F) within 24 hours of PRIOR for installation. This means that the heat must work and work before attempting to install the floor. To ensure proper acclimatization, store the material in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. The instructions indicate whether to keep open or unopened and whether they are stored in the center of the room or at the edges. This leads to the next big topic of humidity.
2. Moisture content: What is the ideal moisture content of a hardwood product? Each manufacturer will be very little, but the average approved humidity in the toughest wooden flooring should be between 6 and 9%. For example, if the moisture content in a subfield is 12% and the floorboard is 9%, the difference between two wooden products is 3%, which corresponds to the allowable tolerance for installation. Although some movement can be expected even in this range, sharp expansion and contraction can occur outside of these dimensions. There are several electronic moisture meters on the market for checking the moisture content of hardwood and underground. This is usually a pin probe type meter, and they can give you an immediate reading of the moisture level of your tree. It is very important that it is installed on the wood you are installing and that you take moisture measurements from several boxes of material and from several areas of the subfield through the area that is to be installed.
3. Climate control: Climate control may be the single most common cause of customer dissatisfaction with buying hardwood. It is CRITICAL that the proper level of temperature and humidity will be maintained throughout the life of the hardwood. Improper climate control will lead to material exchange in the summer and reduction or clearance in the winter. Without proper climate control inside the house, rupture and shrinkage will inevitably occur. In the Northwest, we don’t have a big problem with this issue if the house doesn’t use a device that dries the air to as much as a wood-burning stove. This is why a pot of water is ALWAYS stored on a wood-burning stove when used as a heat source. A pot of water retains moisture in the air. Special note. Some products that are designed with HDF cores are more stable and smaller than they expand and contract.
4. Floating floors: the key thing people miss when installing floating floors is to make a difference in the space around the room. Just as the real size of the lumber expands and contracts, so does your floor. There must be enough free space on vertical surfaces, such as walls and pillars, to allow this movement. The larger the area, the more space is required. Rule No. 1 - Always leave the required expansion gap required by the manufacturer. Rule # 2 - If your installer says this is optional, run them and refer to rule number one.
You can cover all expansion gaps with a wooden wall or a round wood finish or a combination of the two.
5. Expansion joint. Between the rooms where the room meets the hall or in large spaces, expansion joints are almost always required. You can use “T” molding in these areas to provide floor expansion and collusion.
6. Humidity control: here is a big one! Moisture in the subfield, called “hydrostatic pressure or steam emissions”, is the main cause of flooring failure. The coating should not exceed 65% relative humidity. There are several moisture meters that can be used on the floor that provide accurate readings or a test for calcium chloride used for “concrete floors”. If your wooden floor is more than 12% with a meter, do not lay the floor. If your wooden base is more than 12%, then you need to figure out why - it could be a new floor and just need to dry. If you have concrete floors, you need to figure out the source of moisture. If you still can not understand why the floor is above 12%, do not use hardwood. Period. I mean ... you will beat yourself. If your floor is in order to install, remember to always float a constructive floor on top of 8 mm of plastic when passing through concrete to eliminate and minimize the amount of water vapor passing through the concrete floor.
7. Bonding floors. In residential areas, most floor coverings that are designed are either clicked together, or tongue and grove. I don’t think that I personally ever stick an engineering floor. This is an acceptable method of installation, but I find it terrible to break years later. Either glue it together, or click it together, but do not stick it to the sub-floor unless you have special reasons. I saw more problems, even stitching it underground. Stitching your engineering floor will just lead to squeaks and streams that will bring you back to normal. Pull out the instructions you put in the trash and look at the installation methods, then run the instruction file with your purchase receipt for future reference.
8. Nail Down Flooring: A very common mistake we see in solid flooring is the correct length of the nail, the nut of the nail and the distance between the nails. Always refer to the manufacturer and double check the thickness of the floor. When using a pneumatic nail, pay attention to the correct PSI settings.
9. Natural product variations. One of the inherent beauty of hardwoods is the difference between the boards and how much or little they accept the stain. No two parts will ever look like each other, and this is one that makes wooden floors so luxurious and realistic compared to laminate flooring. Pay attention to the layout and choose the color and graininess of each board when you work with the product. Develop 4-5 boxes at the same time when doing the layout, it will randomize any options between hardwood boxes.
10. Material to be taken: in every natural product, such as wood, there will be some pieces that, although not defective, and in industry standards, are not what the consumer, you, wants visually. As a rule, take into account 5-10% of the coefficient of waste on the material. This means that you need to buy 5-10% more material than what your work physically measures. Large jobs 1000+ sf can work with 5%, while jobs under this square mark can be 10%.
When buying material from the Big Box stores, you should keep in mind that when they buy materials for a “special stock” they purchase a product that they can sell at the lowest price that can be used in their ads. This means that the hardwood that they take is the “Tavern”, which means that it does not meet the specifications of the usual treadmill material. The product will have more voids, incorrectly filled holes in the face of hardwood, perverted planks both on the side and up and down, as well as broken bows. This product will have much more waste, even up to 20–25% compared to professional flooring inventory. The buyer fears that you might think that you save a 10% difference in price, which may cost you 20-25% more than buying more wood to work in the same place. Oh, and by the way, always keep 1-3 full boxes of material for repair. Do not return them to the store. You can NEVER match the floor if you need to. The paint would fall into the same area of thought. When you need to touch the wall, they can NEVER exactly match the color. In deciduous forests there is not only color, but also wood grain, board width, color and coefficient number one, the level of gloss of hardwoods or "shine."
11. Scratches: All hardwood scratches are a fact of life. You just can not change it. You will scratch, scratch and press into personal wood in the right conditions. Scratches are more common under the feet of the chair, which have a small diameter and in places where there is dirt on the bottom of the shoe. More scratch-resistant surfaces like aluminum oxide have appeared in the industry, they tend to show less scratches, but wood is still a dent under pressure. To help preserve your floors, use seat protection chairs under all vacant chairs. Square mats are great for rolling chairs in the kitchen or replace cheap plastic wheels with rubber rollers. More expensive rollers will more effectively distribute the weight of the chair. The best first line of defense is a zonal mat at the entrance door or a tiled entrance path to catch the dirt and sand “before it” drags along the parquet floors. Good rules, shoes checked at the door.
12. Cleaning: you need to ask a professional on the floor for it! Your hardwood floors are tough, but they are delicate when it comes to moisture and cleaning products. In this article we talked about moisture, now we do not want to destroy the floor, trying to maintain it improperly. Follow the manufacturer's instructions.
DO NOT USE: Use a wet mop system, steamer, bucket and mop, any “wax” finish, without soap, without polishing, and in heaven do not wet your floor with a wet mop.
The best way to clean the floor is to use a microfiber mop and spray professional cleaning detergent on the mop head to loosen the head and then clean the floor. If you see a strip or wet path, you used too much cleaner and immediately wipe off the excess with a terry cloth towel.
If you treat your hardwood floors with love, you will treat your wood table, you will be happy for many years.
