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. 

The expensive cost of refinishing wood floors for less

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Floor refinishHome services can be cheap or expansive. Some services that come to mind are plumbing, heating, painting, kitchen remodeling and of course wood floors. We all know the saying you get what you pay for. In most cases it is true and I have seen too many floors that failed because of a price point decision made by the consumer. The most common mistake consumers make is hiring flooring contractors based on price or letting the price be the first deciding factor on their list.  

As we all are consumers at one point or another we should look out for a few things when hiring a hardwood specialist:

  1. Reputation
  2. Experience
  3. Technical education
  4. Equipment
  5. Intuition 

As you can see money is not on this list. The bottom line is that if you look out for these five factors you’ll end up with very compatible quotes as far as price goes. In other words, most chances are that if you interview three flooring contractors that have the same level of 1-4 elements, they would all be within the same price range. So, going back to “you get what you pay for”. Done right, the interview process is very critical to making a wise and educated decision. I speak for myself when I say that when I interview contractors to work in my home it all comes down to intuition. I can very easily find two or three contractors that hold the same experience, education and reputation. In the end I will hire the one I feel most comfortable with. 

So how in the world a small decision like hiring the wrong flooring contractor can flip your life upside down, cost you a lot more money than you planned and ruin your schedule? Let’s start with the decision making of one John Doe. John hired contractor X to refinish his floors. X was not the most educated or experienced but the price was right, which made his quote very attractive. He did offer three coats of oil base urethane like the other guys, though he could also move furniture and work on the weekend. 

Here is what happened next: contractor x was late every day, used no dust control, his guys were not insured, he used cheap finish from the local box store and in the end the floors looked horrible. The owner paid 50% cash up front for a job that didn’t deserve even that amount. 

The owners came back after a weekend out of town to discover the following:

  • Their entire house including the walls was covered with dust.
  • The floors looked dirty, blotchy and felt rough to the touch.
  • There was garbage everywhere they looked; outside, on the window cells and in their bathrooms.
  • The sinks were filthy.
  • The walls and their cabinets were all scratched up.
  • The baseboards were gauged and had black marks all over them.

John Doe much like any of us was unhappy to say the least. He called the contractor asking for the floors to get fixed up and pointed out all the damages in the house. The contractor said the floors were fine and wanted his money. Since John refused to pay the contractor decided to sue John. Two months later:

  • They were in court
  • The floors were not fixed
  • John had to hire a pro to fix the floors for more money, a lot more
  • The family and the pets had to have arrangements made for them for all this time
  • John spent endless hours talking to experts, researching his problem online and dealing with the issue.

In the end, all this could have been avoided had John decided to pay a little more to a more qualified professional. I see this stuff happen every month. We get called out to fix jobs like that. By the time I show up to look at the floors, it is usually a couple of months after the problems started. In not so many words: we quote the job, schedule it, show up on time, complete it to customer’s satisfaction on schedule and move on. This is how it should be for everyone. Remember that saving money on your wood floors can cost a lot more very shortly after. 

As the old saying: cheap labor is expansive. 

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.

How Moisture Affects Wood Floors Part 2

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Proper installation of wood floors requires a certain time for acclimation of the product prior to installation. It means that the wood needs to be stored inside the home under living conditions until it is in equilibrium with its surroundings. What does it mean? It means that the wood no longer gains or loses moisture. It is in balance with the home conditions, if you will. Let’s say that Avi’s Hardwood Floors is delivering solid white oak floors to Berkeley, CA. The white oak floor usually comes at around 7% moisture content. We know this from years of testing wood floors with our moisture meters. We also know that the average sub floors in the Bay Area range at 9%-12% in most places. That means that a wood floors needs to gain moisture before they are installed. An average oak floor in our area gains about one percentage point a week, so the white oak floors would need to be acclimated for about two to three weeks in total. What happens if you don’t acclimate your wood floor? The floor will gain that moisture after the installation and at that time, it has nowhere to go but up. That is when you see hardwood floors cup and buckle. How in the world do you add so many weeks to your remodeling project just for the floor and without delaying other trades at work? Avi’s Hardwood Floors has the answer.

  • We typically deliver the floor to the home a week or two before the installation and store it out of the way. For example, along a wall or behind a big couch. That way you can still maintain your life without interruption.
  • We recommend acclimating the floor to the house after it is installed and before it is sanded and finished. We coordinate with other trades like painters to come in during that acclimation time to finish up their work. This way the owner doesn’t “lose” precious time just waiting for the floor to acclimate with no other work taking place. 

By the time we get to finish the floors, they already reached the moisture content required. Acclimation is subjective to each home, each wood specie and each installation application. A home without air conditioning up in the Berkeley Hills has different conditions than a home in Lafayette. A red oak floor 3/4” thick will require different acclimation time than a solid Brazilian Cherry floor. A glue down of engineered wood floor will require different acclimation than a wood floor to be nailed down onto the second floor of the home.

In the end it is up to the wood flooring expert to determine the schedule of acclimation. Ensuring a successful installation is a must. If things go wrong and they do, the consequences are dire and expensive. In a failed floor installation like buckling, the floor needs to be replaced. That means additional costs:

  1. Moving out of your home
  2. Moving the furniture
  3. Removing trim and floors
  4. Identifying and fixing the moisture source
  5. New floors
  6. New trim
  7. Moving furniture back 

This is nothing compared to the trouble in time and mental energy wasted with having to deal with what happened, who would take responsibility for it and doing it all over again. When hiring a wood floor professional care to weigh your options carefully. Paying a qualified professional more money now is better than paying them a LOT more money later to fix a problem. 

Why Hire Avi’s Hardwood Floors for All Your Hardwood Flooring Needs

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It is not that complicated. We all have busy lives with no time to spare. The last thing we need in our home where we care for our families is a remodel project gone wrong. A hardwood flooring project is probably the most intruding to some people because they have to vacate the house form furniture, themselves and their loved ones. Sometimes for a few days and sometimes for a week. Here, at Avi’s Hardwood Floors we take the time to plan out your project and help you cover all bases so you can get back to your life with minimum interruption. Where are the pitfalls along the way? What should we look for when hiring a contractor? If we need to hire a floor contractor we want to make sure that he or she meet the following criteria:

  • Licensed in the state of California
  • Bonded and insured
  • Has workers comp insurance for their employees
  • Has great reviews, a website and is able to provide references
  • Years of experience
  • Trade education and technical training certificates
  • Trade references (not just consumers)
  • Reliable
  • Provide quality work
  • On time
  • Trust worthy, meaning you can give them a key to your house and leave town for the duration of the project
  • Fair prices
  • No hidden costs
  • Honest

By covering all points mentioned above you can insure the success of your project. At Avi’s Hardwood Floor we serve the counties of Contra Costa and Alameda. We also serve other areas based on distance from our location. We will show up on time, meet the deadline, provide you with a quality service and product and have no hidden costs once started the work. 

How moisture affects your hardwood floors Part 1

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Floor glued down to a concrete slab. Knowing that we applied epoxy moisture barrier first ensured our client a piece of mind. This floor will last a life time. Hardwood floors are a living product. They move when relative humidity changes, they change color over time and they present more character as time goes by. Hardwood floors is the top choice when it comes to floors. No matter where you go in the Bay Area, California you will find wood floors in almost every home. It is in homes in Pinole, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Albany, Orinda, Lafayette and the list goes on. The wood floors vary from red oak to white oak in most cases. Some are maple, walnut and hickory. Some wood floors are top nailed and some are tongue and groove thicker floors. The one thing that is common to all homes is the presence of moisture. It doesn’t matter if you live closer to the bay, or farther out into the Walnut Creek and Clayton areas. Moisture affects wood floors every day. It can get inside your home in many different ways. The most common ways moisture affects your hardwood floors are:

  • Air
  • Ground below in the crawl space
  • Concrete slab
  • Water leaks

We have all seen our wood floors exhibit movement between summer and winter. Lately with the drought in California; floors, sub floors and wood material in homes have shrunk more than the usual. As a wood flooring contractor I’ve been called many times to fix buckled and cupped floors. As a wood flooring inspector I have seen too many installation related failures as a result of excess moisture. The moisture from below like the soil in your crawl space and the concrete slab is there at all times. During the rainy season that moisture level is elevated. You don’t need to see water to determine a moisture problem. Wood flooring professionals measure moisture and relative humidity in different ways. Most tests are being done with moisture meters and relative humidity test kits. When hardwood floors are installed they must be acclimated first. Acclimation has nothing to do with time. It can last as long as weeks or as little as days. Wood floors are kiln dried to an average of 6%-9% moisture content. Our conditions in the Bay Area average between 9%-12%. Usually wood floors will need to gain moisture and expand before they are installed. When the floors are in nested bundles acclimating inside the house, it is easy for each board to move. If the floors are installed and then have to gain moisture and expand the result is cupping. Cupping will usually occur when there is a moisture imbalance in each board. When a floor board has no place to expand sideways, it is pushed upwards. That is why the edges are higher in each board and it looks like cupping. So, it is crucial that the wood floors are acclimated before installation. Every home is different. Some home owners have heat only, some have heat and air conditioning, some like it cold, some hot, some open the windows all day and some don’t. That is why professionals use moisture meters to determine the time needed for the wood to acclimate. Once acclimated the floors can be installed.

It is important to understand that the acclimation process is different for each wood specie and for each different product. For example, a 3/4” x 7” wide solid white oak floor would need different acclimation than a 1/2” x 3” engineered floor. It is up to the flooring professional to determine the appropriate acclimation time.

In most homes with crawl space the soil is damp year round. Some homes even get standing water during the winter months. A common solution to this problem is covering the soil with a moisture barrier. In other cases a sump pump is installed to remove the water from underneath the house, or I should say from underneath the wood floors. All that dampness and vapor go up into the sub floor and then into the wood floors. That is when the floors start to cup. I’ve heard many stories from home owners who had their wood floors installed during the summer, but it only until winter came that their wood floors started cupping (not floors that we installed, just to be clear).

Ensuring moisture barriers are in place is part of the job. It costs more money upfront but the alternative, which is a floor replacement costs a lot more. Nobody likes spending the holiday season dealing with a construction problem in their home like a failing wood floor.

Common Questions About Hardwood Floors

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  1. Hardwood Floor RefinishHow long will the finish on my wood floors last?This is probably the most asked question when it comes to wood floors. Most urethane finishes would last you years to come. The question is how many years. If you hired a professional to do your floors, they used a commercial grade finish and applied the correct amount of coats on your hardwood floor. Nobody wants to pay for a refinish service, move out of the house and then have to do it all over again after three years. I did see this happen before. Usually when someone applied very thin coats of finish and used a cheap product. In most cases, with proper wood floor maintenance a floor finish should last anywhere between five and ten years. That is not to say that it would look as new after years. Finish gradually loses sheen and using the wood floors gradually wears the resin off the floor. I recommend that before you lose too much finish call a professional to apply one more coat of urethane on your hardwood floors.
  2. What is the best hardwood floor? We often get calls from home owners who have busy lives. They have families, pets, work and they don’t have much time to maintain their wood floors. Some of them want the hardest wood floor or the hardest finish. Some want wood floors that never scratch or dent. There is no such thing. With the explosion of exotic and composite products into the flooring market, consumers have started questioning the durability of our domestic products like Oak and Maple floors. Consumers were now familiar with the Janka Hardness scale, which is there to give you a reference as to how hard and dense a wood is. Numbers from a lab test are great for reference but when you drop a pot on your wood floors, it doesn’t matter if it white oak or Brazilian cherry – the two would dent. If your child drags a chair or a toy across the floor, the wood would scratch no matter what finish you have on the hardwood. Most importantly one needs to understand that it is the combination of wood type and floor finish that makes a good product. Top this with proper maintenance and you have the best wood floor. For example, having a really hard wood like Ipe’ is great, but if your contractor applied two coats of cheap urethane over it then your floor would look pretty bad and worn out in no time.

     

  3. How much should I pay for new hardwood floors?We all know that we want the most for the least amount of money. We also know that you get what you pay for. Interviewing several reputable licensed contractors can help you understand the scope of work. The right professionals can shed light on what they do to assure a successful installation. The most common problem people have with wood floors is cupping. A new floors is put in, the home owners move in and shortly after the floor is cupped. Now that the entire family is moved in, including furniture the solution is a big head ach. In our trade we say that there is never time to do thing right in the first place, but there is always time to do it again. Fixing a wood floor costs five times more than doing right the first time. So how much should you pay? In the Bay Area, California expect the prices per square foot to be a minimum of $4 for refinish and a minimum of $5 for installation services.

Tips for getting the best out of your hardwood flooring contractor

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They say it’s the little things in life. Well, it is. Especially when hiring a flooring professional to redo your hardwood floors. Now that you’ve gone through interviewing and finally hiring your flooring contractor, it’s time to let them do the work. Let’s face it, it is pretty awkward when strangers like contractors work inside your home. No matter how qualified and professional they are, it still feels a little like someone is in your private space. We are located in the Bay Area, California so what I write here is from working in my immediate area for more than a decade and a half. We refinish, install and repair hardwood floors mainly in the East Bay but what I write probably applies to many other trades.

  • Try to be on time or a few minutes early to your estimate appointment. We usually travel an average of 20-30 minutes to get to your home on time. We don’t want to be late and if we are a few minutes early (especially in the morning) please let us in and not wait outside.
  • Contractors have a bad reputation for a lot of reasons. Home owners try to protect themselves by doing due diligence. We always welcome questions and questioning us but don’t compare what we say to what you read on Google search in a manner that implies Google knows better than us. You don’t do it with your doctor or dentist so please don’t do it with us. We are professionals in our trade for a lot of good reasons.
  • Be ready when you say you will. It is frustrating to a hardwood flooring contractor showing up to work and the site is not ready. Don’t still be making breakfast in your kitchen while your couch is in the middle of the living room and you need “just a little more time to finish up getting ready”.
  • Don’t micro manage your contractor. You will get the least our of a contractor by watching them all the time which leads me to
  • Thank you goes a long way. A small snack to the professionals crawling every inch of your floor to make sure it is perfect wouldn’t hurt either. I noticed that when my guys hear a thank you or get some water (me too) it makes the moral on the job much higher.
  • Handling a construction remodel can be stressful. By the time you get to the finishing touches like hardwood floors you are probably coming to a close on the planned schedule. Allow your contractor enough time to complete his/her work to the standard expected.

I am sure there are many more dos and don’ts on this list which could go on forever. Remember that making life easier on the people you hire makes life easier on you. 

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.