Posted on Mon, May 14, 2012 @ 10:50 AM
The idea of dustless sanding sounds like a fantasy but it is real and has real benefits.
Don't let fear of dust prevent you from reviving a beautiful floor.
Older hardwood floors can reclaim their past glory with a professional sanding treatment. Many homeowners, however, are reluctant to commit to such a project because of the mess and hassle from all the dust generated in the process. Not looking forward to dust in light fixtures, drapes, or inside every cabinet, the dream of reviving those beautiful floors easily becomes abandoned due to the daunting after-project clean up. Keep reading...the solution is here.
Dust can be dangerous.
Even for homeowners who are prepared for the mess, the health risks of breathing in dust should be minimized. OSHA guidelines for wood dust suggest it is “a potential health problem when wood particles from processes such as sanding and cutting become airborne. Breathing these particles may cause allergic respiratory symptoms, mucoul and non-allergic respiratory symptoms, and cancer.”
The answer is simple - eliminate the dust before it gets into the air.
Dustless sanding is a highly beneficial option of which many homeowners are not aware. A state-of-the-art Atomic Dust Containment System is a vacuum that continually extracts dust and stores it outside your home in an self-contained unit. Dust is removed as it is created, helping maintain a healthy, breathable environment during and after the sanding process.
Be proactive, save yourself the frustration and preserve your health, and let the Atomic Dust Containment System work hard so you don’t have to. Your lungs and your sanity will thank you for it.
Photo by Jazz Guy. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
Posted on Wed, May 02, 2012 @ 04:07 PM
When replacing old flooring or installing a new floor, it's important to look for woods that suit the size of rooms and style of furnishings. The right wood can transform a room and when maple doesn't fit the plan, it's easy to find a suitable alternative.
Most consumers are familiar with traditional hardwoods for flooring, but there is a broad variety of alternative woods available, each with their own advantages. Depending on the style and decor of the home, different types of hardwood floors can offer an almost infinite variety of shades, grains, hardness and texture.
Red Oak, with a darker hue than maple, is a beautiful wood that adds class and distinction to any home. A polished oak floor hints at the luxury of an old English country house. It is more stable than maple, resilient, with a lightly textured surface that is great for disguising dents and scratches
Ash floors are also more stable than maple, with a more distinctive grain. It's a tough and very practical choice for floors that get a lot of use. Available in select and rustic grades, ash creates a relaxed and casual look that is attactive in almost any home.
American Cherry floors, though softer than maple, have a soft pleasing grain and an attractive red-brown color that, like fine wine, matures to become rich and mellow. Select boards look very elegant, but even the rustic grade can be a stunning addition to any home.
For something a little more exotic, Brazilian Walnut flooring can deliver show-stopping results. This is a seriously hard wood compared to maple, with a striking color, varying between light to dark olive brown, flecked with hints of golden-brown or gray-brown. The polished boards can give a home a really luxurious feel. The beauty does not come at the expense of practicality. The toughness is reflected in its characteristic smooth finish.
The wide variety of hardwood floors available can offer solutions to every situation. The key is to look at the practical requirements of your home, consider the degree of wear the floor will undergo, and the amount of natural light in the rooms.
A hardwood floor appeals for practical and aesthetic reasons. Nothing looks as stylish and elegant as polished hardwood flooring.
Posted on Fri, Apr 20, 2012 @ 11:28 AM
While driving home the other day, I saw the marquis at Today's Furniture Advantage and was amazed and thrilled to see it was congratulating Jamie Valeri as Mrs. Wisconsin. We are proud to have the Valeri family as customers and I wondered if it could be the same. Sure enough it was and on April 6th Jamie was crowned Mrs. Wisconsin.
The Mrs. Wisconsin United States Pageant recognizes married women for their ability to integrate intellect and beauty.
Picture from Mrs Wisconsin Pageant
I had the pleasure of meeting Jamie in our showroom recently and she is as beautiful in person as she is in her photos. Warmest congratulations goes out to Jamie Valeri and her family and we wish her the best of luck as she heads to Las Vegas in July to compete in the finals!
See Jamie and Her Family Here
Posted on Tue, Apr 10, 2012 @ 10:31 AM
Congratulations to Susan Beaver, winner of our recent iPad promotion. Susan visited our booth at the Green Bay BCHBA Expo in January and received an entry form for our draw. We are so pleased Susan visited our website and entered.
As a hardwood floor company, we meet people everyday who are very excited about getting a hardwood floor but Susan was especially excited. In fact, she was so excited that within minutes of receiving her winner notification email she call us to arrange pick up.
I really enjoy our contests and it always feels great to give someone a great prize. The best part is I am going to do it again. Our next promotion is coming up in May and so be sure to keep your eyes open for it.
If you received an entry form for our Kindle Fire contest, make sure you enter it soon. You won't want to miss the chance to be just like Susan - a winner.
Thanks again to Susan for participating in our contest.
Posted on Thu, Mar 29, 2012 @ 04:24 PM
...in a home in Wisconsin? Ok so maybe it isn't the best start for a joke but the real story is worth hearing.
A few years ago a couple came to our showroom looking for a specific hardwood floor for their new home. They were working with an interior designer who was helping them create a look, that while very unique, was perfectly suited to this couple.
Now in most cases this wouldn't be unusual as many customers come to us looking for a specific or unique floor. In this case however, the couple was looking to create lower level entertaining area that looked and felt like an old English pub. They loved the atmosphere of pubs and their favorite restaurant also had a very authentic “old” feel to it.
Now I have never been to England or in a real English pub and so off I went to do a little research. I visited the the National Wood Flooring Convention and I saw a lot of really cool floors but realized what I really needed to do was visit one of the sources of the original inspiration for the look the homeowners dreamed about.
As I descended the stairs into the restaurant's cellar-like main room, I began to understand the effect the homeowner and designer wanted to re-create - charming, lived in but not worn out and above all else, comfortable. The customer’s vision was starting to implant itself in my mind and I knew how the right hardwood floor would be essential.
We eventually settled on a reclaimed hardwood floor that achieved the level of comfort, hospitality and enjoyment they were seeking. Looking back on the overall experience and seeing the finished product, I realize how we grow as a hardwood floor company each time we get the opportunity to help a homeowner find that perfect look. In the end projects like this are as much a journey for us as they are for the homeowner.
Here is the finished product, let me know what you think. 
Posted on Tue, Mar 20, 2012 @ 11:05 AM
You finally have made the decision to replace that old floor. The thing is the whole reason you are replacing it is because it looks so worn out from all the traffic it gets.
Spills, dirty boots, the dog, the list just goes on and on. Is there any way to get the beauty of hardwood but still be resistant to stains and scratches? The good news is that the answer is yes. Hardwood floors made with dense species and treated with the right finish will resist denting and still make a beautiful floor.
The Janka Scale
When choosing a type of wood for your high traffic floor, it is important to choose one that matches your lifestyle. For some, dents in a floor give it personality. However if you aren't a fan of character marks and have small children or pets, you may want to consider a harder wood. The harder the wood, the less chance of it being damaged from scratches, dents and nicks. The hardness of wood is measured by the Janka Scale. We won't spend too much time explaining it but generally it is a measure of species of wood's resistance to dings and dents.
The higher a species' Janka Hardness rates the more of a beating it can take. White pine for instance is a very soft wood with a Janka Hardness rating of 420 while Brazilian Teak is a very hard wood with a Hardness rating of 3540. Most of the exotic species are harder woods and hickory is the hardest domestic woods. These woods will fit more active lifestyles.
Finish considerations - Durability and Appearance
Finish provides a protective coating against time and wear for your floor. Essentially floor finishes are mixes of different chemicals that affect your floor in various ways. For instance commercial grade finishes have more polymers (plastic) in the them to provide a high gloss. This makes floors very durable but will reduce the natural feel of the hardwood.
In other finishes the chemical make-up may cause your floors color to change. This is great if you are planning for it but less desirable when you don't. Be sure to make sure you (or your professional floor re-finisher) knows how the finish will react with your floor. Some will amber over time and others will bleach the wood.
The bottom line is you don't need to sacrifice the beauty of hardwood just because you have a high traffic floor. Instead you can make a few easy choices that will ensure your new floor is as beautiful all the other floors in your home.
Picture courtesy of Chris Brown. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
Posted on Fri, Mar 02, 2012 @ 02:58 PM
We have had a very busy couple of weeks here at Ralph's. Our crews have been busy with hardwood installation over the past couple of months to be ready for the upcoming Spring Showcase of Homes in Green Bay, as well as the Parade of Remodeled Homes in the Fox Valley. Stopping by these homes is a great way to see for yourself the beautiful custom hardwood sanding and finishing workmanship on display. It is also a great opportunity to meet with area builders and see the quality homes they have to offer.
This weekend, in the Green Bay Spring Showcase of Homes you will find our floors in the Gmack (Kuyper Ln), C & C Custom Builders (Chase Trail), and Smart Custom Homes (Sunshine Road) entries.
Next weekend, in the Valley Parade of Remodeled Homes our workmanship can be viewed at all three PortSide entries (Silentwood Way, Valleywood Lane, and County Road O), and O’Brien Builders (Knollwood Lane). Also, stop by our booth at the Valley Home Builders Home Expo and say “hi.”
Posted on Fri, Mar 02, 2012 @ 11:36 AM
In this article in Hardwood Floors Magazine, internationally renowned ecologist and environmentalist Patrick Moore says we should embrace using wood instead of non-renewable materials such as steel, concrete and plastic.
As wood is a natural product, using it should be a common sense ecological choice but it isn't. Whether it is the reputation of the foresty industry or concerns over clear cutting, we regularly meet people who love the look and quality of hardwood floors but worry it is a non-ecological choice.
We don't want to suggest that all forestry practices are perfect or that using products other than wood is bad. Rather we just want to help educate people to the idea that hardwood is as eco-friendly, and potentially more so, than other floor options.
Solar factories have no carbon footprint
As Moore points out in his article, every substitute for wood products must be produced in factories but wood comes from forests which are effectively 'solar factories' that require no fossil fuels, only time, to produce. When you consider this, installing anything other than a wood floor means using a product that is almost is guaranteed to cause an increase in carbon dioxide emissions.
Trees can and do grow back
We don't support non-sustainable logging practices but as Moore suggests a lot of rhetoric is used to give the impression that logging is somehow different from other forms of forest disturbance such as fire, ice or volcanos. Moore even goes as far as to say, "Forests are just as capable of recovering from destruction by logging as they are from any other form of disturbance."
Natural, beautiful and eco-friendly
Hardwood floors come in a wide array of eco-specific options such as reclaimed timbers or specialty bamboo but all hardwood, whether it is Wisconsin Maple or American Cherry, are eco-friendly by definition. So embrace the natural beauty of hardwood and rest easy you are also being good to the earth.
Posted on Wed, Dec 07, 2011 @ 07:01 PM
In the wood flooring industry, staining means the color of the wood. For all my life, I was told you “can’t” stain maple. I hate the word can’t. It simply meant we didn’t know how to stain maple. Today, we have an exclusive technique that we use to stain and finish maple. We have expanded that to other hard to stain woods such as cherry, birch, hickory, and pine.
One of the other comments that we have is that we have oak but we like don’t like the grain. Combining art and science, we have multiple ways to minimize the grain. We are not going to completely remove the grain, however we can minimize it through specialize pre-treatments and stains.