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.

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. 

How long will the finish last on my hardwood floors?

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Hardwood FloorPaying a professional to refinish your hardwood floors could be a small fortune. A lot of consumers are concerned with one question: how long before I need to pay again to refinish my wood floors? Or in other words, how long will my finish last?

How long is determined by a lot of variables:

  1. What type of wood you have and what type of finish was applied

If you have oak floors with polyurethane finish you’re most likely to have a long lasting finish. If you have very soft wood with only two coats of a one part water base finish (designed for low traffic residential use) the finish would not last as long.

  1. How long did you let your finish cure before occupying the home

Most people want to move into their home as soon as the finish is dry on their wood floors. That is a big mistake. The finish needs time (a good week or two) before it cures. Curing means that the finish is pretty much done off gassing and it is hard all the way through.

  1. Did your wood flooring contractor apply the finish correctly

The finish would behave as good as how it was applied. Meaning, your contractor applied the finish to the floor using the right applicator and right spread rate. Some guys like applying the finish really thin and that means less resin is left on the floor to protect it.

  1. How big is your family

Are you a single mom with three kids or two parents with no kids? Do you have dogs? Is so, are they small or big? The more people and pets walk on the floor and use it, the more wear and tear the floor finish will show.

  1. What is your life style

Do you let people wear shoes inside your house? Do you clean once a week? A month? Two months? Are you a crazy cook like me? Drips and drops all over the kitchen floor? Do you have a lot of parties at your place with women walking with high hill shoes?

As you can see everything counts and adds up. Everyone is different so it is best to hire the best pro you can find and let them provide you with the product that matches you and your needs.

How to maintain my hard-wax oil wood floors

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Walnut floor finished with Rubio MonocoatWhen it comes to maintenance of wood floors most of us are used to the traditional oak floors finished with oil base polyurethane. This finish sits on top of the wood so wiping the floor with pretty much any cleaner works fine.

With hard-wax oil it’s a little different. We recently finished a floor with Rubio Monocoat Pure and topped it with their Universal Maintenance oil.

To give it more water resistance properties. I am mentioning this because there is a big difference in how the hard-wax oil behaves in whether or not you have one coat or two coats. Here are some tips as to how to clean and maintain your wood floors that have hard-wax oil on them:

  • Vacuum regularly to keep particles and grit off the floor.
  • Very lightly damp mop would do the trick to pick up any dust and dirt sitting on top of the surface.
  • Use the manufacturer recommended cleaner. Most hard-wax oil products follow the same idea which is that the oil is being burnished into the wood at the time of application. Once cured you don’t want to just use any cleaner out there. Some cleaners sitting on the shelf at the big box stores could damage your finish.
  • Call a wood floor professional to clean and maintain your floor with a fresh coat of hard wax oil.
  • As with any other finish make sure you have the manufacturer maintenance instructions and that you follow them. The most common mistake people make is misusing cleaner products and damaging the wax-oil.

Maintaining your hard-wax oil hardwood floors is easy and fast. Repairing and touching up these floors is easy and unlike other finishes does not require a professional to redo the whole floors just to eliminate one worn area. Following these simple steps would ensure the longevity of your wood floors for years to come. 

Refinishing Hardwood Floors

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10 reasons to pay the right price for a professional service

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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.

 

Which finish should I use on my wood floors

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Water-base-on-Brazilian-cherry

Water base on Brazilian cherry

When you get estimates to refinish your hardwood floors you get different opinions from contractors. I often hear from customers things like “the other contractor told me oil base is better than water base”. Each contractor will tell you a different story about which finish you should put on your floors. Which finish or contractor should you choose? It is crucial that you understand a major principal: It is never just the finish you put down that counts.

A good finish is a result of not only a good product but a few more factors:

  • How the wood surface was prepared; what sanding sequence and which machines were used.
  • The person applying the finish – was he/she following the instructions like spread rate and drying conditions.
  • The finish itself – you can never get a good finished floor with a cheap inferior product.
  • The right finish for the right floor.
  • The right finish for the right customer (future use). I will recommend one finish for a young family with kids and a different one for an older couple without kids or pets.

When you debate whether or not you should put oil base, water base, wax or oil on the floor make sure you get the facts, not just opinions. The contractor you are about to hire should have the experience, education, credentials and most importantly the same standards as you.

How to maintain my hand scraped floors

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Buffed-tung-oil-floor-300x224Hand scraped floors are beautiful and full of interesting elements; peaks and valleys, pronounced color variation, knots, mineral streaks and more. Much like any other wood floor it requires regular cleaning and maintenance. Here are a few things you should do to preserve the beauty of your hand scraped floors:

  • Vacuum or sweep as needed.
  • Wipe off spills or stains using a rag soaked with the recommended cleaner.
  • Use a colorant like Sharpie or matching stain to hide any scratches or dents.
  • Most importantly when your floor starts losing its luster call a professional to apply a coat of clear urethane.

Hand scraped floors are admired for their textured look. This look creates a challenging reality: these floors cannot be refinished with the use of sanding machines. The only way to refinish a hand scraped floor is to re scrape it. That is a task very few professionals are capable of and honestly, not many people can afford.

Even though these floors are unique and different maintaining them is a very simple task. If you follow maintenance guidelines your hand scraped floors could last a lifetime.

How to work with “hard to work with” woods?

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Tigerwood-install-225x300They have weird names that are hard to pronounce. They come from countries you didn’t know existed (let’s face it – you didn’t). Everyone hates working with them: you, your nailers, your saw blades, even your finish! Yes, I’m talking about exotic woods. In our trade we are familiar with names like Brazilian Cherry, I’pe, and Padauk which are more readily available. Some woods are so rare and expensive they are sold by weight like Cocobolo (see it in my last video about wood anatomy) and Lignum Vitae. You can find those at your local hardwood lumber store.

My first experience with Ipe was not good. My fasteners kept bending or breaking, my carbide blade on my miter saw was dull after a day and one of my employees had an allergic reaction to the dust. Exotic woods have become a part of every installer’s life. When I say exotics I refer to woods that are extremely dense, hard and rich in oils, silica or resins.

So, how working with exotics is different from working with let’s say Oak? Well, first thing is first right? I mean after safety. Acclimation and preparation: Your average oak will gain or lose a moisture point in a week. Not your average exotic. One of the former technical directors with the Nwfa told me a story about a museum installation of Ipe he had to do. He had acclimated the wood on site for two months before he was “forced” to install it. And still the wood was not where he wanted it to be. My point is that exotics (or any other hard and dense wood or strand woven grass) will need to be on site under estimated future living conditions for weeks at a minimum.

Next – installing: Cutting and nailing that exotic wood. You should use a cleat nailer to fasten exotic floors because your average ½” (1.3 cm) crown staple will split the tongue. This will create movement related issues with the floor. Some manufacturers make an 18 gauge cleat nailers (instead of 16) which are specifically designed for fastening hard and dense woods. If you are not used to spending $60 to $80 on a miter saw blade now is the time. The resins and silica in those woods will dull your blade quickly anyway, you might as well start with a quality blade (if you are a craftsman in my book you already have at least $600 worth of blades anyway, at least).

All of your power tools should be professional grade (and I don’t mean it looks professional, I mean professional). Trying to rip an Ipe’ board on a $100 table saw will be unsafe, slow and maybe impossible.

If you need to face or hand nail in some places pre drill your floor boards. You will find that pushing the drill through the wood is going to heat up your drill bit and break it. I learnt the hard way to let the bit do its’ job slowly, much like drilling into metal. If you attempt to face nail without pre drilling your nail will bend. Either way, trying to get a bent fastener out of a Cumaru board for example is an impossible task.

assembling-hardware-on-the-crib-300x225Sanding and finishing: here is a dilemma = I should start with a 36 grit because this is a really hard wood but, because it is such a hard wood how in the world am going to take those scratches out? Well, you are right. Better to start with 50 or 60 and change your abrasive frequently instead of starting with 36 or 40. Trying to get scratches out of Ipe’ is like trying to…well…let’s not even go there.

Finishing – First rule – no oil modified finishes. Second rule – seal it the day you are done sanding.

There’s much more to be said about exotics. I will probably dedicate some blog posts in the future about specific woods. Thank you for reading and as usual,  I hope I helped someone, somewhere somehow.

Dark Wood Floors

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Dark-Floors1I get more calls every week to refinish wood floors in order to make them darker. We no longer talk medium colors but dark, rich browns and blacks. A lot of home owners don’t realize that the labor involved in achieving those dark looking floors is pretty intense. The amount of work to produce a dark floor is greater than producing a natural floor. That is why the price tag is higher.

When we add color to the wood we apply pigments to the top surface of the wood cells. That highlights every imperfection in the sanding process if there is any. That is why it is so important that the sanding is done right. Not every contractor can tackle a black floor. I hear stories from frustrated home owners who had hired someone they thought was capable of making their floors pretty. Then, when the stain was applied the color was uneven and blotchy, and they had scratches showing in multiple areas on the floor. It gets even worse when some of those contractors sand the floors again and come up with the same poor results. This why it is so important to hire someone who has the experience, the education, the right equipment and the skill level to produce a great floor.

Through maintaining a dust free job site, using the right sanding sequence with the right machines we produce a scratch free and flat floors. Then, we literally crawl the floor to check for imperfections and then, and only then is the floor ready to be stained.

So, next time you hire someone to refinish your floors to a dark color make sure they are skilled in doing so before the stain hits the floor.