Five Top Reasons why Oak is still the Floor of Choice

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Oak floors stained dark brownMany years ago almost every wood floor installed was either oak or pine, depending on where you lived in the U.S. These days you can choose whatever wood your heart desires from hundreds of wood flooring choices sourced throughout the world. Nonetheless, white oak and red oak floors are still the number one choice for many home owners, designers and architects. Here are the top reasons:

  1. Availability – oak is sourced right here in the U.S. that means that every accessory item needed is in stock. From oak molding to your door trim to stair parts and baseboards. It would be a shame to buy a beautiful wood floor and not be able to have all these accessories available. In some cases, like exotic woods or engineered floors those items are available on special order only, which means a lot of money and long lead times.
  2. Cost – oak has maintained its’ price over decades of ups and downs in the market. Very affordable and as such, attractive to many home owners.
  3. Versatility – between being able to buy oak in vertical grain or flat grain, stain it to whatever color you like, get it in any width or thickness and choose between white or red oak you’re looking at endless design and color options just with one product. This right here is priceless. Let’s say you have an oak floor that is stained dark espresso and after five years you don’t like the color anymore. Well, just sand it and change the stain color. You can’t do this with any other wood.
  4. Value – researches show that you double your investment in value when it comes to putting in oak floors in your home. Homes with oak floors sell faster than homes with other floor coverings. Buyers look for something they can work with. Even if they don’t like the honey color red oak floors in your home, they know that they can hire a professional to refinish the floors and make them look different. That is a much cheaper option than having to replace a floor they can’t work with.
  5. Environment – oak that is harvested here in the U.S is legally and controlled harvested. What does it mean? It means that we don’t clear cut forests here like other parts of the world. Engineers mark trees they allow to be cut and that is sustained harvesting. Where you can keep going back to the forest and cut trees while still maintaining the environment in the long term. Did you know we have more trees in the U.S today than we did a hundred years ago?

Next time you look at wood floors and need to make a choice, don’t dismiss oak so quickly. If you look around long enough you’ll see that white and red oak wood floors had been here for hundreds of years and will still be here for hundreds more, for a lot of good reasons.

Can I Refinish My Engineered Wood Floors?

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Engineered hand scraped floorsWe were recently hired to install an engineered wood floor over a concrete slab in Danville, CA. This job involved a complete tear out of carpets and tile floor coverings, minor leveling and a moisture barrier installation prior to the floors being installed. The product itself was a hand scraped floor with a factory finish. That meant a few things:

  • This product could not be refinished in the future
  • This floor could only be cleaned and recoated
  • You could not change the texture or the color of the floor in the future

Home owners who choose pre finished wood flooring products are usually not aware of the consequences of their decisions. Meaning, some don’t realize that their floors could not be refinished in the future, or even worse could not be recoated. That meant in some cases that the floors would have to be replaced within five to ten years of install.

Solid floors - Can be refinished many times

When we installed this hand scraped engineered floors in Danville we took the time to educate our customer of the future options for the floor. We told them that these floors could not be re scraped or refinished. The only thing that could possibly be done is a buff and recoat.

I recently visited a home in San Anselmo, CA that had the same product installed by another company. The only issue the home owners had with the floor was the color. They were never told at the point of sale that their floors could be recoated because of a unique additive to the finish which was applied in the factory. In that case, they were stuck with a floor that would definitely need to be replaced in a few years.

When investing your money in a new hardwood floor make sure your product is versatile. Talk to the person selling you the hardwood floor about what can be done in the future in regards to refinishing your floors. Engineered floors don’t come cheap and hand scraped engineered floors are even more expensive, so when you invest a good amount of money in a new hardwood floors make sure you can service that product in years to come and not have to completely replace it after the finish started wearing off.

Refinishing Brazilian Cherry Floors

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This time we were called to fix a wood floor someone else refinished badly. The owners got my name from researching online and finding my information on the National Wood Flooring Association website. It has been more than a month since the floor was refinished. The contractor had dust all over the home, the finished floor was streaky, had sanding marks everywhere and did not look good. The contractor told the owner to move the rugs and furniture back onto the floor only a couple of days after he was done. Obviously, it did sound strange to the owners but they figured they should listen to the professional. Long story short, the finish under the rugs was completely ruined from being covered so quickly without having time to cure. The sheen of the floor was uneven and the contractor who came back to fix the final coat just made it worse.

When I met with both the husband and wife I reassured them very quickly that I could fix this to their satisfaction. I explained to them who Avi’s Hardwood Floors was. We discussed my experience, education, training, tools and the high level of craftsmanship both my employees and myself constantly try to improve. To their request I pointed out everything I saw in the floor that I could fix. They were impressed by the number of details my trained eye could see. I also recommended a different finish on this exotic wood – Brazilian Cherry, a conversion varnish. They admitted that they could not see a lot of the things I noticed as I was walking them through the floor.

I sent them the quote the same day. They approved it immediately and we started the work. I assume between meeting me and reading information online about my company they knew we are the best.

With the project approved we scheduled the job. On the agreed upon date we showed up on time, sanded the floor to perfection and finished on schedule. We finished the work in about a week and this is how we did it:

  • We covered all appliances and cabinet surfaces in the kitchen with cardboards
  • We taped off our work areas
  • We vacuumed the floor before we sanded it
  • We sanded all existing imperfections in the wood floor utilizing both technique and the right tools
  • We then applied a conversion varnish over the floor and let it cure properly

There are a lot of guys out there who kind of know what they are doing when it comes to hardwood floor refinishing. I don’t blame them for not knowing what they don’t know. This is exactly the scenario we see at Avi’s Hardwood Floors every week. Make sure your contractor is qualified and capable of providing a quality service. Just because someone has a license and some tools doesn’t make them a professional. In this case the time wasted was two months from the time the first contractor did the floors and the time we completed the refinish/repair work. 

Wood Medallions and Custom Hardwood Floors

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IMG_4874The effect wood medallions have on the final design of a home is huge. Many home owners are not aware of the upgrade options they have with their hardwood floors. In most cases the home already has wood floors, so adding on an inlay or a medallion insert goes a long way. When we discuss our refinishing process with potential clients we take the time to explain and show the different floor upgrades we offer. Something simple as a medallion insert at the entry can transform the entire wood floor. The idea is to add an element to compliment the floor instead of distracting the eye to that element alone.

Wood medallions come in many shapes and colors. From a simple rose compass circular medallion with geometric design to a free form ellipse with curved inlays and marquetry. Much like going to any store, exploring the wood options by yourself can be overwhelming. At Avi’s Hardwood Floors we take the time to inspect and analyze the layout and design of your home before we come up with a few complimenting upgrade options.

In some cases where the wood floors already have a border around the perimeter we offer a darker inlayed feature strip to highlight the design. We can add on decorative wood corner blocks or inlay a pattern into the field of the floor. In other cases we recommend leaving the floor as is and add only one element, like a medallion. Wood medallions are installed at focal points in the home like in front of you fire place or at the entry. In places where you can see them, they will not be covered in furniture and not in high traffic areas.

Our clients usually say this after we do the work: “why in the world didn’t I upgrade my floors before?” it is amazing to see what a single piece of wood marquetry does to the feel of a floor. It becomes a story, a part of your family home, a unique element that reveals different aspects of itself every time you look at it. There is nothing like the warmth of wood especially when it is something that was created just for you.

Ten Tips for Choosing New Hardwood Floors

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HardwoodFloorIstallation_BeforeAfterAlmost every home in the Bay Area, California from the Berkeley Hills to Walnut Creek have hardwood floors. Once perceived as the expensive alternative to carpets and linoleum, is no longer expensive. Scientific data now shows that money is no longer the only consideration for choosing wood floors. Factors like health and effects on our environment play a big role in consumers decision making. Hardwood floors have become the go to floors. They are beautiful, renewable, easy to maintain and more affordable than ever. Here are the best tips for how to choose a hardwood floor for you home:

  1. Not toxic – unlike other floor coverings such as carpets and linoleum, wood floors are not made of synthetics and chemicals. The tree is cut and milled into wood flooring planks. Then in most cases the floor is finished in your house by a professional. Carpets and other floor coverings hide a lot of pollutants underneath them. A lot of people especially young children will develop some sort of health conditions living with those floor coverings over their life time. See this article from the American Lung Association http://www.lung.org/healthy-air/home/resources/carpets.html
  2. Easy to clean – hardwood floors need vacuuming, sweeping or mopping periodically. That is it. Once clean they hold no pollutants in them. Nobody likes hiring and paying professionals to come in and clean their floors. Unlike carpets which need constant shampooing wood floors are easy to maintain.
  3. This 80 year old floor was repaired and refinished by Avi's Hardwood FloorsNot expensive – years ago wood floors were considered a high end choice and very expensive. With today’s growing demand hardwood floors had become the number one growing floor choice by home owners. Whether bamboo floors or exotic Brazilian cherry, wood floors are no longer just for the wealthy.
  4. Durability – nothing compares to the durability of wood floors. Carpets will stain, smell and look just plain bad after a short period of time, especially if you have a busy life with kids and pets in the house. Wood floors are more forgiving, maintain their look much longer and can be refinished multiple times.
  5. Longevity – hardwood floors which were installed a hundred years ago are still being sanded and repairs to date. Carpets and other man made floor coverings never last that long. Nobody wants to spend a lot of money every few years on a new floor. That is why wood is the best choice.
  6. Trends – wood floors never went out of style. Designers and architects still specify wood floors as the go to floor. You can change the look of wood floors by changing the stain color after a while and keep up with the trends in the market.
  7. Easy to repair – if you have damages in your wood floors or need to add on a small section it is easy as easy can get. Many old wood floors have been refinished and repairs to revive their looks. Other floor coverings would have had to be torn up and replaced.
  8. Smart investment – any realtor will tell you that a home with wood floors is worth a lot more than a home without. If you installed hardwood floors at your home and years later wanted to sell it, you are most likely to get your money back and still make a profit on top of that. Homes with wood floors sell faster and receive many more offers.
  9. Better for our planet – we were all taught that cutting trees is wrong. Well, not quite true. With engineers controlling the forest harvesting, we now have more trees in our forests than ever before. The United States is not clear cutting forests and we are now able to manage them instead of eliminating them. With programs for planting trees and protecting wild life we manage to use wood, our most valuable resource of all with the least impact on our environment.
  10. Nothing makes a home more welcoming and warm than wood floors. With just a simple layout or an intricate parquet with inlays and medallions, wood floors make every house a special home to you and your family. 

The latest if wood floor finishing

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Many people still remember the original oak floors they grew up with. The oak wood floors were original to their homes, installed in the early 1900s and probably only had shellac and wax on them. That was the norm for most homes. The oak floors were the standard and probably the only thing available alongside with other domestic species like maple or walnut. Each year the floors had to be cleaned and waxed. Dad would complain about the white water spots in the floors and the kids loved running and sliding on the slick floors.

As years went by the wood flooring products and hardwood floor finishes have changed. We went through an “oil base vs. water base” era, polyurethane as the standard era, low VOC and environmentally friendly finishes era and now we are back to square one. It seems as if now that we have more options than ever when it comes to wood floors. Not only do we have endless species of wood floors to choose from, we also have an array of finishes to choose.

Hardwood floors are available not only in white oak and red oak anymore. They are available in Brazilian cherry, teak, wenge, mahogany, cypress, eucalyptus, ipe and many more. Wood floor finishes are now also available in so many options. Some of the finishes available for wood floors are oil base urethane, water base urethane, conversion varnish, shellac and wax, low VOC finishes, zero VOC finishes, Tung oil, natural oil blends and much more.

What most of us want out of a floor finish is beauty and durability. Most of our clients have kids and/or pets. They have busy lives and work hard for their money. When it comes to spending that money they want to make sure it is invested in the right products. Nobody wants to pay top dollars for a floor to only have to refinish it two years later. Every finish had its pros and cons. Every client is different in their life styles, cleanliness, number of people in the household etc… For example, a family of six with two big dogs would experience more wear and tear on their floor finish than a single person who does not allow shoes in his/her home. There is no one magic perfect finish for all. That is why we as a company spend a decent amount of time discussing the options with our potential clients. We try to match each client with the finish that is right for them. As consumers progressed into the internet search engine world, more information became available to them. Consumers now are much more informed about everything. With that information also comes misinformation. That is when Avi’s Hardwood Floors advice is a great value. There is nothing more valuable than getting advice from a professional who is trained and experienced in their trade.

As it seems now more consumers are realizing that there is really no magic finish. The best way to use a floor is to maintain it in a minimal way. Instead of putting a toxic finish down and refinishing the floor every five years we apply an oil blend and clean it once a year or so. Technology and chemistry have both brought us a better version of the old shellac and wax system. We now have available to us in the hardwood floor finish world, low VOC oil blends. They are easy to apply, easy to maintain and with the right treatment do not get water spots. The wax oil blends are usually a one or two coat system. Our clients move into their homes within days without a harsh toxic smell lingering inside their homes.

We still apply the polyurethanes and the water base finishes on a lot of jobs. The only difference now is that these finishes have to be re formulated each year as VOC legislation changes. The durability of those finishes seem to go downhill each year. That is my opinion. With simplicity in mind our clients seem to enjoy and love these oil blends we recommend. Natural oils have been around for centuries and now with the advantage of more product selection each home owner can enjoy the durability, looks and feel of a properly finished wood floor.

Pros and cons of dark and gray wood floors

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Turning this cherry wood into gray. The painter will later turn the risers and rail into white.

In recent years the hardwood flooring market had been shifting towards darker wood floors. From the medium brown hardwood floors all the way to gray and black. It seems every job we’ve taken on lately calls for a dark walnut stain or gray stain. The design world has really affected our industry. The homes these days are dominated by white and gray paint on walls and cabinetry with dark floors. 

So with change in color comes a change in look and practical use. Here are the pros for dark and gray wood floors:

  • These floors look more modern and contemporary. When most of us look at a honey color wood floor we think of the 70’s floors when everything was finished with a clear urethane. Most homes in our area such as Berkeley, Oakland, Albany and Piedmont have oak floors. We had been refinishing them from a clear honey color to a dark walnut stain on almost every job.
  • If you’re selling your home that is what buyers are looking for these days. Realtors are calling for white light paint on walls and cabinets and dark stained wood floors. This seems to be making a quicker sale coming with a higher price tag.
  • It is much easier fitting modern new furniture with these floors since the furniture industry also turned into colors of the same design group. New furniture come in wire brushed finish, different shades of gray and white and a more rustic but light color spectrum. Staining the wood floors dark adds to a nice contrast. 

That is pretty much what I think are the pros of dark hardwood floors. Let’s look at what the cons might be:

  • It’s a trend. Much like others it might go away in a year or two. Clear color wood floors might turn into the new trend again. That means you will be stuck with furniture that go very well with your floors.
  • Dark shows everything. Talk to anyone who has a dark hardwood floor and you’ll soon find out that maintenance is a little more involved. Sweeping and vacuuming more regularly is a must. A small price to pay if you love the dark floor.
  • The dark stain color is only pigments on top of a lighter most likely oak floor. Scratching through the color might show a lighter more visible scratch than other floors.
  • Achieving the dark color on wood takes more skill, more labor and in turn more money. You’ll pay a little more to get that dark out of your floors than if you were to ask for a clear coat. 

It depends on your reasons and goals moving forward with your decision making. I don’t think any of the pros or cons are so harsh to drive you away from either option. Wood floors are beautiful and certainly more valuable than any other floor options. Light or dark – I don’t think you can go wrong. 

Pre Finished Floors Glued Down To Concrete

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When you hire Avi’s Hardwood Floors we make sure the installation will be successful. We spend a lot of time preparing the slab and mitigating moisture so that when the floor is done, it is there to stay. We take care of all details from the plank choice to the radius corner for your baseboards. 

Call us today for more information 510-275-3780

Refinishing Hardwood Floors

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10 reasons to pay the right price for a professional service

IMG_4960

When it comes to refinishing your hardwood floors you want to make the right decision of who you’re hiring. If you hire the wrong person to refinish your hardwood floors you will have more problems than just a badly sanded floor:

  1. Every time you refinish your hardwood floor you take away from the life of the floor. There’s only so much material that can be sanded. If you’re refinishing your hardwood floors more than once or twice, it is most likely you’re have to replace the floor next time.
  2. The wrong person might try to fix the floor by sanding it again and now you’re risking another bad sanding.
  3. Every time you refinish your hardwood floors you have to be away from home.
  4. As much as we all love vacations, staying at friends, family or a cheap hotel for a few days in your home town while your floors are being done, is not a dream vacation.
  5. The furniture moving costs are higher if you have to do this more than once.
  6. If you have kids or pets it might turn into a great challenge.
  7. Being away from your home and your routine interrupts your personal and your professional life.
  8. Unqualified contractors usually have bad equipment, this means dust, dust and more dust on all of your belongings from the walls to inside your closets.
  9. Refinishing your wood floors, if done improperly will turn into a minimum of several weeks ordeal.
  10. In a lot of cases the home owner or the contractor want to go to court. That means you have to gather your evidence, facts, hire a lawyer and now you’re in for a longer process and more money out of pocket.

As a hardwood flooring expert I have seen many badly sanded floors. The home owners were dealing with the problem usually for more than a month or two by the time they found me. Once hired, each and every one of them were shocked and thrilled to see my company in action:

  • We are on time.
  • We are on schedule.
  • We do it once.
  • We refinish the floors with complete dustless systems.
  • We deliver what we promise.
  • Most jobs are done in less than a week.

A lot of us like saving money and there’s nothing wrong with buy one get one free deals at the grocery store. When it comes to refinishing hardwood floors, you literally get what you pay for. I should really be saying you get what you don’t pay for.

 

Bamboo Flooring

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Bamboo floors after refinish

When it comes to bamboo flooring you really can go wrong. Quality and durability vary greatly and it all depends on the two things:

  1. The quality of the raw material

  2. The process of manufacturing

We divide bamboo flooring into the following categories:

  • solid bamboo: vertical or horizontal grain

  • engineered bamboo: plywood core or bamboo core

  • strand woven bamboo

Strand woven bamboo

Unlike trees which grow wide as well as tall, bamboo doesn’t grow wide. That’s why it has to be laminated (glued together) from narrow strips.

Solid bamboo flooring can show the vertical or horizontal side of the lamination. These floors come in different colors, in natural form or carbonized. Refinishing these floors is just like refinishing any other floors.

The engineered products are made of a bamboo veneer glued to a core plywood or a core made of bamboo. These products can usually be floated, nailed or glued down to concrete. Being able to refinish these products depends on the thickness of the veneer.

Strand woven bamboo is shredded bamboo which is then pressed to a big block with resins and glues. Then the block is sliced to make the floor planks. It is a true composite material. The strand products are very dense, heavy and hard. Note that these products need to acclimate for weeks before installation. A lot of installers face many challenges trying to install these floors. The installation of strand woven products require high level of trade education and specialty tools. I don’t know of anyone who refinished a strand woven product yet, since these floors are still fairly new to the market. Since these products have so much epoxy, resin, glue and other chemicals in them, I would certainly not attempt to refinish them.

With each type of bamboo flooring make sure it comes from a reliable source. Just because the original raw material is considered fast growing and environmentally friendly doesn’t mean that the process of making the finished product is. I have heard good and bad things from people over the years about bamboo. I can tell you this: If you buy a quality product and maintain it properly the bamboo floor should last a long time. Whether or not you’ll be able to refinish, repair, match or stain your bamboo is another issue by itself.

Strand woven bamboo solid bamboo before refinish commercial space