As 2015 draws to close, we’ve been reflecting on the many exciting jobs Ralph’s has done during this year. As with any year, we’ve eagerly taken on work that requires us to be on top of the latest products and styles in hardwood flooring.
Preverco Edge
Prefinished flooring has come a long way from the day when it couldn’t come close to comparing with site-finished flooring. This year, we’ve been proudly installing Preverco’s new Edge series of prefinished Maple and Red Oak hardwood floors, currently available in seven colors. In keeping with the trend toward rustic looks, the texture of this flooring looks like a floor with a long history. It purposely has irregularities, such as sawblade marks.
Preverco PreOil
Preverco’s PreOil floors have also been popular with our customers this year. Rather than being prefinished with a urethane finish, these floors are finished with natural oil, which is an increasingly fashionable finishing option.
Natural oil finishes fit with the trend toward naturalness in hardwood flooring because they highlight the innate beauty of wood. They are also easily maintained. Unlike urethane finishes, which require professional refinishing, homeowners can easily maintain natural oil floors themselves to repair any damage.
Site-finished Pre-Oiled Flooring
We love Preverco’s PreOil product, but many of our customers want us to bring Ralph’s expertise to applying natural oil finishes. All year long, we’ve been applying natural oil finishes to beautiful flooring, giving homeowners who want natural-oil finishes the benefit of our skilled craftsmanship.
11-Inch Wide Hickory
One of our favorite jobs this year was installing 11-inch Hickory floor planks for a customer. Wide boards are now fashionable, and they have great stability, resisting cupping and gapping better than narrower boards.
Hardwood walls
Another project that sticks in our mind involved hardwood flooring on the wall. We installed DuChateau hardwood flooring, and then the builder installed a very rough-textured type of DuChateau flooring on the walls. It really looked cool!
Reactive stains
We’ve been doing a lot of jobs this year using reactive stains, which work to give the hardwood flooring a worn, weathered look. The grey tones that reactive stains create give the wood a very natural appearance.
What a year it’s been. Just like all of our 50 years of serving the northeast Wisconsin area, we’ve been on the cutting edge of hardwood flooring trends. That’s where we plan to stay!
