Fantastic Floor Presents: Bloodwood

Welcome to this month's Fantastic Floor Presents, where we direct our spotlight on the finest hardwoods in the industry! Our last installment focused on the highly versatile Morado, a beautiful hardwood known for its use in everything from guitars to flooring. This month we turn our thoughts to another gorgeous and durable flooring product: Bloodwood!

Ranging from a subdued and grayish red to much darker reds, Bloodwood hardwood contains some of the deepest crimson tones in flooring. With these shades comes a luster that is sure to enhance any setting, as well as compliment to almost any fixture or piece of furniture in the room. To the touch, this South American hardwood is smooth as can be, but it's also one of the most durable. With a Janka hardness rating of 2,900, Bloodwood is nearly 140 percent stronger than Red Oak. This spectacular combination of beauty and invincibility makes it one of the best species of flooring to turn to when you're looking for a long-lasting, attractive new addition to your home.

Want to learn more about this attractive hardwood flooring species? Visit the Bloodwood hardwood flooring page on the Fantastic Floor website, or give us a call at 1-888-448-9663. We can't wait to help you pick your perfect floor!

Fantastic Floor Presents: Ipe

Welcome back to Fantastic Floor Presents, the only hardwood spotlight blog series you'll ever need! Last week we highlighted the ever-popular but often overlooked Birch hardwood flooring. This week we're shining our hardwood spotlight on one of the most alluring of all the exotic hardwood flooring materials: Ipe!

Ipe is one of the most eye-catching and beautiful exotic hardwood flooring materials on the market today. The dark browns and deep reds of Ipe provide an excellent contrast to its slow, wavy grain pattern. The variety of shades of Ipe make it an incredibly visually interesting species of wood, perfect for foyers, dining rooms, kitchens, offices, or anywhere you'd like your floors to make a great first impression. Ipe is also quite versatile, despite its striking appearance. It works equally well in a sleek, modern design scheme as it does a more quaint, traditional home decor.

Beauty is only one amazing aspect of Ipe hardwood flooring; it is also the most durable hardwood you can find. Its dense cell structure makes it nearly impenetrable to insects, molds, and other forms decay. It also has a Class A fire rating, which is the same class of fire-retardant materials as steel. The Janka hardness rating of Ipe is 3,680 pounds, making it the fourth hardest wood species in the world. All these factors add up to a naturally durable and long-lasting flooring material.

If you're looking for beauty, durability, and style, look no further than Ipe hardwood flooring. Contact Fantastic Floor today at 1-888-448-9663 to learn more about this amazing exotic species. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Fantastic Floor Presents: Manchurian Walnut

Welcome back to your favorite hardwood spotlight blog series, Fantastic Floor Presents! This week we're taking a look at one of our newest additions to the Fantastic Floor product line: Manchurian Walnut!

Manchurian Walnut, also known as Chinese Walnut, is one of the most sought after Asian exotic hardwood flooring varieties in the country. The heartwood is a beautiful combination of browns and yellows, while the sapwood is a pale gray. The hallmark of the species is its tight grain pattern and occasional burls, which gives the wood its dramatic, exotic appearance. The species is also commonly used in the construction and manufacturing of high-end furniture and art pieces.

Manchurian Walnut is not only beautiful, it is also has the durability you would expect from an exotic hardwood flooring material. It has a Janka hardness rating of 1,010 pounds, and its density and tight grain makes it naturally resistant to wood rot and boring insects.

Want to learn more about Manchurian Walnut? Contact Fantastic Floor today to speak with one of our experienced hardwood flooring professionals. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

FAQ: Should I Expect Color Variations?

Like any other natural product, hardwood flooring is going to have degrees of color variation. Though they happen with any grade, the lower the grade, the more likely there will be dramatic color variations. Fantastic Floor stocks only the highest quality hardwood flooring materials, so color variations are fewer with our selection than some of our competitors. Still, there are a few varieties and styles of flooring that experience variations more than others. For example:

Certain Exotics
Specific types of exotic hardwood flooring, such as Acacia and Cumaru, are known for their striking color and striping variations. The color of these species can vary greatly from board to board, making it difficult to predict exactly what color board you'll end up with.

Distressed
Distressed hardwood flooring is designed to have dramatic variations in color, texture, and grain patterns. These variations give the wood the eye-catching, rustic look many modern designers and homeowners are looking for. However, it also means you can't be sure the boards will match a specific color scheme.

Reclaimed
Reclaimed hardwood is popular with eco-minded designers and homeowners. However, like distressed flooring, the rustic look reclaimed wood is known for is also hard to match with specific colors and design schemes.

Curious about hardwood flooring color variations? Contact Fantastic Floor today to learn more!

Fantastic Floor Presents: Tarara

Welcome back to Fantastic Floor Presents, the only blog series that shines a spotlight on the most popular hardwood flooring materials available today. This week we're featuring one of our most popular South American products: Tarara!

Tarara hardwood flooring, also known as Canarywood, is a colorful, exciting exotic hardwood from the forests of Brazil and Bolivia. It's heartwood varies in color from bright yellow to deep orange, with long streaks of black, purple, and red throughout. This dramatic contrast gives the wood an especially vibrant, exotic look.

Like most exotic hardwood varieties, Tarara hardwood is a very durable flooring material. It is also, however, very easy to work with, making it popular with woodworkers and furniture makers. The interlocked, irregular grain pattern and uniform texture is dynamic enough to catch the eye of house guests, but versatile enough to complement almost any home design scheme.

Fantastic Floor offers clear prefinished Tarara hardwood flooring in a variety of lengths. View our selection at www.Fantastic-Floor.com, or call us today at 888.448.9663.

2012 Flooring Trends

We often get questions from contractors and homeowners about the hottest flooring trends, and we couldn't be more happy to help! We keep our ear to the ground and our finger on the pulse of the interior design and home building industry. The following are the six top flooring trends, compiled by our knowledgeable sales staff from national search and sales data, and media mentions. Enjoy!

Wide Plank Floors

Wide plank hardwood floors come in many styles, colors, and species, and are a unique take on traditional hardwood flooring. This trend has seen a surge in popularity in the past few months, mainly with designers that have clients looking for a one-of-a-kind flooring material. Many hardwood species are available as wide plank, meaning you can match your new wide plank floor with you current home design scheme.

Distressed

The homey, lived-in look of distressed hardwood flooring is full of depth and character. It is popular with large families and business owners that are going for that down-home aesthetic.

Exotics

Still the most popular of hardwood flooring, exotics feature colors, textures, and striping patterns you can't find in domestic species. There are many different styles to choose from, such as bright and vibrant acacia to eye-catching tigerwood.

Hand-Rubbed Oil Finish

When you install hardwood flooring with a hand-rubbed oil finish, your whole house looks as if it was crafted by an artisan woodworker. This style of hardwood is becoming more and more popular with designers that deal in classic and turn-of-the-century style homes.

Vintage & Weathered

Perfect for homeowners looking for a rustic, antique-looking decor, weathered flooring has character and personality that is unsurpassed by other styles of hardwood flooring. This popular flooring trend is most often used for cabins, cottages, and other woodsy types of homes.

Eco-Friendly

Eco-friendly material like bamboo flooring is the best way to get the look and feel of hardwood flooring while still being good to the environment. This flooring trend is popular with modern and urban designers.

Have questions about our 2012 flooring trend predictions? Give us a call at 1-888.448.9663. We'd love to hear from you!

Fantastic Floor Presents: Bacana/Copaiba Chestnut

Welcome back to Fantastic Floor Presents! If you like deep reds, rich browns, and dark striping, you won't want to miss this week's featured product: Bacana/Copaiba Chesnut!

Bacana hardwood flooring features layers of colors, ranging from rich brown to deep burgundy to light red. It also features dark striping, adding a striking visual element not found in some other hardwood flooring choices. Despite its attention-grabbing details, Bacana is also a very versatile and complementary flooring material. It matches many different design styles, from traditional to modern to rustic.

Bacana is also a very durable flooring material. It has a Janka hardness rating comparable to Red Oak and we only offer it in Select & Better grade, the highest grade available in flooring. The Bacana we ship is 100% heartwood and is free of breaks, splits, and cracks.

Bacana/Copaiba Chestnut hardwood flooring is currently on sale for an amazing $2.19/SF (limited to 3/8" x 3" x 4' S&B 1.6mm wear engineered). Visit us online at www.Fantastic-Floor.com to learn more. Want to talk with a human? Call us direct at 1-888-448-9663!

Bacana/Copaiba Chestnut hardwood flooring, now on sale for $2.19/SF.

Fantastic Floor Presents: Brazilian Cherry

Welcome to the first installment of what we hope will be a very helpful and informative blog series, "Fantastic Floor Presents:" ! Each week we'll provide you with all the information you could ever need on one of our beautiful hardwood flooring products. Have a question? Call one of our knowledgeable customer service reps and ask away!

This week's installment is one of our favorites: Brazilian Cherry. Enjoy!

Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring, otherwise know as Jatoba, is the most popular exotic hardwood flooring in the United States, mainly due to its strength, durability, and beauty. This species features reddish-brown heartwood and a striking black grain pattern, creating amazing contrast and depth. It is one of the most versatile hardwood flooring materials, complementing many different design schemes, from bright and modern to dark and rustic.

Our Brazilian Cherry is sourced from Central America, the West Indies, Northern Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Southern Mexico. We make sure to deal with manufacturers that follow sustainable-harvesting practices.

Our Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring is available in many popular formats, including unfinished, engineered, and prefinished. It is available in four different grades: Clear, Select, No. 1 Common, or Mountain. It has an impressive Janka hardness rating of 2,350 pounds and a density of 800 KG/m3.

Don't worry if the color of your new Brazilian Cherry floor changes over time. Brazilian Cherry tends to darken to a deeper shade of red when exposed to light. This usually happens for the first three months, after which the color will remain constant.

Visit our Brazilian Cherry Hardwood Flooring page for more information on this beautiful hardwood species, or call us direct at 888-448-9663.