Fantastic Floor Presents: Cumaru

Welcome back to Fantastic Floor Presents, your favorite hardwood spotlight blog series on the web. Our last installment featured a beautiful but somewhat lesser-known hardwood species, Mango Wood. This week we're shining our spotlight on one of our most popular products and one of the best-selling hardwoods in the industry: Cumaru!

Cumaru hardwood flooring from Fantastic Floor is a dense, tough species known as much for its durability as its beauty. Also known as Brazilian Teak or Brazilian Chestnut, Cumaru is sustainably harvest from such regions as Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia and features an irregular, wavy grain pattern with a slightly course texture. The Cumaru heartwood is a medium brown color with complementary tan shades that gives the wood a light, warm appearance. In fact, Cumaru is one of the few exotic imports that has such light tones. The majority of exotic hardwoods tend to come in darker shades of browns, reds, and blacks. Cumaru a great choice for homeowners looking for a lighter, warmer hardwood floor.

In addition to Cumaru's natural beauty, it is also one of the toughest hardwoods on the market. It has a Janka hardness rating of 3,200 lbs., which is nearly three times harder than domestic species such as Red Oak. It is also incredibly dense, which makes it very resistant to water damage, decay, and wood boring insects.

Want to learn more about this one-of-a-kind hardwood flooring species? Visit the Cumaru 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!

Area Rugs and Hardwood Floors: What You Need to Know

Even the nicest hardwood floors can use a little embellishment now and then, and for many homeowners that embellishment comes in the form of a large area rug. A big, beautiful area rug can add visual interest and flair to an otherwise boring room and bring out the color and grain pattern of the surrounding hardwood.

But wait! Laying an area rug isn't a set-it-and-forget-it affair. There are certain precautions you must take if you want your rug to complement your floors instead of harming them. The following are three important things to remember if you're planning on putting down an area rug. Enjoy!

Site-finished hardwood flooring is a bit sensitive for a few weeks after it is installed. If you have newly-installed, site-finished floors you'll want to wait at least 30 days before laying down a large area rug. Talk to your installation contractor to find out if they have any recommendations regarding area rugs.

Many area rugs have backing that can act as a pretty severe abrasive on your floors finish. Make sure to use appropriate padding to prevent the rug from moving and scratching the floor. We recommend using a type of mesh anti-slip pad that will grip the carpet and still allow the floor to breath.

As you may know, hardwood floors change color when exposed to sunlight. Since area rugs block UV rays from reaching your floors the areas underneath the rug often experience color fade much more slowly than the surrounding floor. Rotating the placement of your rugs can help you avoid uneven coloration as your floors experience UV exposure. Don't freak out if you notice color change when you first move your rugs. This is normal and over time the area will catch up and blend in nicely with the rest of the floor.

Have you had any bad experiences with area rugs on your hardwood floors? Leave us a comment and tell us your story!

The 5 Best Things About Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Engineered flooring is one of the most popular types of hardwood flooring products you can find. In fact, consumer interest in engineered has skyrocketed over the past few years, even as consumer interest in plain old solid hardwood seems to be waning. Check out these figures from Google Trends:

And this one:

As you can see, search trends for engineered flooring have been climbing steadily since 2005, while solid hardwood flooring and hardwood flooring searches have remained about constant and sharply declined, respectively. This does not, of course, reflect sales of either product, but when it comes to the initial information-gathering phase of buying new floors it would seem that more and more people are interested in engineered.

So what's so great about engineered hardwood flooring? Why all the buzz? While there are many reasons people choose engineered over solid flooring, we thought we'd list five of our favorite. Enjoy!

(Interested in seeing some of Fantastic Floor's beautiful engineered hardwood flooring products? Visit Fantastic-Floor.com today!)

1. It will hang out in any room.
Engineered flooring has a very high resistance to moisture-related problems like buckling. This means engineered floors can be installed in any room of the house, whether that's below-grade (in the basement), on-grade (on the first floor), or above-grade (second floor, third floor, etc.). They can also be installed over more types of surfaces than solid floors, including plain concrete slabs and wood subfloors.

2. It doesn't mind a little humidity.
The moisture-resistance of engineered flooring also makes it a perfect fit for places with extreme changes in temperature and humidity. As you may know, solid wood has a tendency to expand and contract with temperature and humidity changes. This expansion and contraction can lead to many problems, like warping and gapping. The construction of engineered boards fight this natural tendency to bend and warp.

3. It looks good in almost anything.
It's important to remember that engineered flooring is not laminate. Engineered flooring is real hardwood flooring. This means you can get engineered products in almost any style or species of hardwood you can imagine. Looking for oak? Not a problem. How about ipe? No sweat. Maybe you want Brazilian Cherry. You get the idea.

4. It cares about the environment. While engineered flooring does contain a solid top layer of hardwood, the rest is made of layers of various other materials, mainly plywood. This means that less of the actual hardwood tree can be used to make more of the product. And engineered flooring weighs less than solid, so it requires less energy to pack and transport.

5. It's just as sexy as solid.
While there are some people that swear by solid hardwood floors, we believe that high-quality, well-made engineered flooring is just as beautiful and distinctive. Here, see for yourself. One of these products is a solid acacia hardwood floor, the other is an engineered acacia hardwood floor. Can you tell which is which?

No, didn't think so.

What do you think of engineered hardwood flooring? We'd love to hear your thoughts, so leave us a comment and let us know! If you want to know more about Fantastic Floor's engineered hardwood products you can give us a call at 1-888-448-9663 or email us at customer.service@fantastic-floor.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Fantastic Floor Presents: Mango Wood

Welcome back to Fantastic Floor Presents! As you may recall, the last installment of the series looked at the French Connection line of white oak flooring. This week we're headed to warmer climates to take a look at an up-and-coming sustainable hardwood species: Mango Wood!

If you've got your finger on the pulse of the hardwood industry, you've probably heard that mango wood is giving bamboo and hemp a run for its money as the poster child for fast-growing, sustainable wood. It only takes seven to 15 years for mango trees to reach a height that makes harvesting their fruit difficult, about 90 - 100 feet. Once they reach this height mango farmers can replace the barren trees for newer ones and sell the wood from these trees for extra income. This model of sustainable mango farming makes sure no part of the tree goes to waste.

Mango hardwood flooring is similar in hardness and density to domestic hardwood varieties such as ash and cherry. Its heartwood and sapwood can contain a true variety of colors, including light and dark browns, yellows, and streaks of pink and black. The grain patterns in mango wood flooring are also very diverse, from jagged to curly. The wood tends to have a fine-to-medium texture.

Mango hardwood isn't only used for flooring. Its color variety and differing grain patterns have also made it a popular choice for furniture and turnery applications. It is even used in Hawaii in the production of high-end ukuleles!

Want to learn more about the vibrant and sustainable mango wood flooring products available at Fantastic Floor? Give us a call at 888-448-9663 or send us an email at customer.service@fantastic-floor.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Engineered VS. Solid Flooring: What's the Difference?

There is a lot of information online about the technical differences between engineered flooring and solid hardwood flooring. Heck, we've even got some on our own site! But unless you're a hardwood flooring manufacturer or installer, you probably don't care about cross-directional layers and dimensional stability. You care about how your new floors will look and feel, and probably how much they're going to cost.

With that in mind, we've taken the liberty to break down the engineered vs. solid flooring debate into four categories that are important to you: look, cost, longevity, and installation process. We hope this helps clear up some of the confusion surrounding this common question!

The Look
Since engineered flooring is made with a top layer of real wood there is very little difference in appearance between it and solid hardwood flooring. Both solid and engineered flooring can be purchased prefinished or unfinished, and both come in a wide variety of species. Both varieties are available as planks or strips, but only solid hardwood flooring comes in parquets.

The Cost
Engineered flooring usually costs less than solid hardwood flooring, mainly because it contains less of the actual wood than its solid counterpart. Engineered wood also weighs less than solid wood flooring, so transportation costs are. Finally, engineered wood is generally easier to install, meaning it will cost you less in installation costs.

The Longevity
There are two schools of thought on this subject. The first looks at how likely the wood is to experience buckling or warping over time. Engineered flooring is made using a cross-directional lamination process, which helps counteract the wood's natural tendency to expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity. From this point of view, engineered flooring is the top choice for durability.

On the other hand, because engineered flooring has only a thin layer (about 2mm to 3mm) of natural hardwood, it makes refinishing much more difficult. Solid wood, however, can be refinished many times - as much as one-third of the board in some cases. So from the point of view of repairing scratched or dented floors, solid hardwood is a better choice.

The Installation Process
Solid hardwood flooring can really only be installed one way and in one type of location: stapled (or nailed) down, and at-grade or above-grade. Engineered flooring, on the other hand, is a lot more versatile. It can be installed in almost any part of the house, including the basement and second or third floors. It doesn't need to be stapled or nailed down, either. Engineered flooring can also be glued or, in some cases, "floated" over different subfloors.

The Verdict
By now you're probably thinking, "There's no contest! Engineered flooring is clearly the best!" Well, not exactly. If you have a creative decorating mind and a fairly large budget, solid hardwood flooring should be your first choice. You can combine solid hardwood into beautiful custom floors in a way that can't be done with engineered flooring. Solid flooring tends to raise the value of your home more than engineered flooring as well, mainly because it is a more costly and more permanent addition to the house.

What are your thoughts on the topic of engineered flooring vs. solid hardwood? Leave us a comment and let us know!

5 Post-Holiday Clean-Up Tips

Now that the holiday season is finally over, you can focus your attention on a part of your house that probably saw a lot of wear and tear during the past few weeks: your hardwood flooring.

There are a few messes specific to the holidays that can wreak major havoc on your floors if not dealt with in a timely manner. The following are five post-holiday clean-up tips you can use to make sure your floors stay looking good well into the new year. Enjoy!

1. Wine Stains
In the case of spilled wine, time is your enemy. Try to blot up as much of the spill as soon as you can, and remember not to rub it in. If the wine has started to set, try pouring undiluted bleach on the stain and letting it set for about 45 minutes. (This can take off the floor finish and leave an even more unsightly stain, so make sure to test a small, inconspicuous area of your floor first.) If the bleach doesn't work, mix a simple soda paste out of baking soda and lemon oil or mineral oil. Gently rub it over the stain, let it sit for about a half hour, and remove it with a dry cloth.

2. Foot/Paw Prints
It may sound counterintuitive, but one of the best ways to clean muddy paw or footprints from your hardwood floors is to let them dry. After they're dry, run a vacuum over the prints. This gets rid of a surprising amount of dried mud and dirt, all without water. Once the loose dirt is up, use a high-quality hardwood floor cleaner like DuraSeal to remove what's left.

3. Tree Needles
Cleaning up old tree needles is pretty straightforward - vacuum! Don't forget to use the vacuum's attachments to get into the nooks and crannies where old needles may be hiding.

4. Candle Wax
Piece o' cake:

5. Sticky Tape
Sticky tape on hardwood floors is one of the most common and irritating consequences of holiday gift-giving. Here's how to get rid of it: Start with a washcloth and a bowl of hot water - the hotter the better. Soak the corner of the washcloth in the water and apply it directly to the tape. Let it soak there for about five minutes, then gently roll your finger over the edge of the tape to get it loose. Once the tape is loose, place a drop of dish soap on the washcloth and rub it over the tape residue. Rinse the washcloth and repeat until the residue is gone.

We hope these helped! What are some post-holiday cleaning tricks you use regularly? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Happy New Year!

We had a great 2012, and we hope you did too! Now, bring on the new year!