Castle Carpet Fine Flooring

Hardwoods

When selecting hardwood flooring, you must decide between SOLID or ENGINEERED constructions.

Solid, like it sounds, is milled from a single 3/4" thick piece of hardwood. Because of its thickness, a solid hardwood floor can be sanded and refinished over several generations of use. One of the characteristics of solid wood flooring is that it expands and contracts with changes in your home's relative humidity. Normally, installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall. Base molding or quarter round is traditionally used to hide the extra space.

Engineered is actually produced with three to five layers of hardwood. Each layer is stacked in a cross-grain configuration and bonded together under heat and pressure. As a result, engineered wood flooring is less likely to be affected by changes in humidity and can be installed at all levels of the home. Castle Carpet Hardwood flooring offers two different engineered constructions:

Castle Carpet Engineered with Hardwood Core
Castle Carpet Engineered with High Density Fiberboard Core

Before deciding on Solid or Engineered hardwood flooring, consider these factors:
Location, Location, Location
The location of your hardwood flooring basically falls into three categories:

On Grade - at ground level
Above Grade - any second level or higher
Below Grade - any floor below ground level, including basements or sunken living rooms.
Traditional solid hardwood flooring is not well suited for high moisture areas such as bathrooms or below-grade installations. The construction of an engineered hardwood gives it enhanced structural stability and moisture resistance that allows it to be installed at any grade level.

What type of subfloor do you have?
If you plan to install over concrete, you must use an engineered product to ensure structural integrity. Solid wood flooring or Engineered flooring may be used over plywood, wood, or OSB subfloors.

Will there be moisture in the room?
If so, you'll want to select an Engineered hardwood. The moisture resistance of an engineered hardwood makes it suitable for rooms where moisture is a possibility, such as bathrooms.

The Character of Hardwood Flooring

Many factors define the look of natural hardwood flooring.
Species of the tree, where it grew, rate of growth, part of the tree used--they all determine your flooring's unique "character marks."

The closer a plank is cut to the center of the tree, the darker its overall tone. Lighter boards came from closer to the bark.
Knots indicate that a limb grew from that spot.
Growth rings, determined by climate trends and mineral/nutrient absorption, determine grain pattern.

While all these "character marks" impact the appearance of finished boards, they do not affect their strength.

Formal, classic, or rustic? The choice is yours.
Grain and Color Variations are also a natural characteristic of hardwood flooring, but the degree of variation can be divided into three categories:

	Select Identified by subtle character marks with refined grains and even color tones. These carefully selected inner cuts from the heartwood portions of the tree provide an elegant, flowing visual that will accentuate the beauty of any room.
	Classic Characterized by significant differences in grain size, random mineral marks, and moderate variations in color. Classic wood floors exhibit a traditional beauty and richness that makes them popular from generation to generation.
	Rustic Broad variations in grain and color, distinguishing knots, and mineral streak highlights are unique characteristics of rustic wood floors. Each installation creates a natural charm and warmth that makes a distinctive design statement in any home.