In this two-part blog we explain how a beautiful tree in the forest becomes a beautiful floor in your home. Part one focused on turning a tree into floor boards and this part starts once the floor boards are sent to us. The process of turning milled planks into an amazing floor in your home starts unsurprisingly with you.
1. Style Selection
Selecting a hardwood floor often starts with either a species or a color. While this seems straightforward enough, it is important to remember that it’s not easy to look at piece of raw oak or maple and see the beautiful floor you want. Raw hardwood often doesn’t showcase the grain or highlight the texture you have in your mind. Color can be tough to visualize too. We are color specialists and proud of it and as such we can create thousands (literally!) of custom shades.
So to make the selection process easier and to help you really understand how amazing your floor could look we spend some time together to understand your style, functional needs and preferences and create a sample.
2. Samples
Samples are exactly what they sound like. We take a small piece of hardwood flooring and sand it, stain it, etc. to create an example of the floor you think you want. We create a couple of different samples for you to look at, for instance using a slightly darker finish or a more rugged finish, so you can see how some of your decisions play out.
Once the samples are ready, we bring them to you and review to see what you like. The sample process can go through a few rounds but the outcome is always the same - you find your dream floor.
3. Laying the floor
On the day of an install, we come to your home, inspect the job site, measure the flooring area and set up our dust containment equipment outside. If there is an old floor which is pretty much every job except new construction or a large renovation, we tear it out and make sure the sub-floor is level. Then we lay the raw flooring you selected.
4. Sanding the floor
The sanding stage is where your floor really starts to come to life. As we sand, the wood’s true beauty beings to come through. The size of your floor will dictate how long this takes but for a typical floor we sand for 1 or 2 days. We sand the floor to ensure it is flat and smooth, removing the bevels and getting that superb flat modern look.
To help control mess, we use dust free sanding equipment with charcoal and Hepa filters. We have the capability to accommodate several pieces of sanding equipment at a time, leaving very little dust behind.
5. Staining and Finishing
The final step of the hardwood floor installation process is stain and finish. The process causes fumes and takes some time to cure so we recommend you leave home and spend with friends, enjoy a hotel getaway or head up to the lake. As a very last step we apply a clear finish to protect, preserve, and enhance the natural beauty of your wood.
At this point all that is left is for you to move back in and enjoy your hardwood. From beginning to end the process takes about 5 days.
When we break it down like this, the journey from a tree in the forest to a stunning floor in your home is truly an amazing one. Don’t just take our word for it though. Come and visit us in our showroom and we would be pleased to take you through the whole process for yourself.
Photo courtesy of Oyvind Hope
