Moisture Barriers: What They Are and Why You Need Them

If you're planning on having new hardwood flooring installed and you've done your homework, you probably know that most installation jobs require some sort of moisture barrier between the new boards and the existing subfloor. But what are moisture barriers, exactly? And why are they so important? Good questions. Check out the info below to find out all you need to know about moisture barriers!

What are moisture barriers?
Moisture barriers, also called vapor barriers or vapor retarders, are layers of material that help prevent moisture-related problems in your floors by protecting the wood from ground moisture and condensation. They also help reduce the amount of noise floors make and prevent damaging wood-on-wood contact.

Why do I need moisture barriers?
Ground moisture and condensation are a few of the biggest threats to hardwood floors. Dramatic changes in humidity and ground moisture can cause wood boards to shrink and expand more than they should, which can lead to gapping, warping, and buckling. Moisture barriers help prevent the wood from absorbing excess moisture, preserving their stability and helping reduce the amounts of moisture-related problems.

What kind of moisture barriers are out there?
There are three main types of moisture barriers: impermeable, semi-permeable, and permeable. These different levels of permeability allow you to install wood floors over different types of subfloors. Wood subfloors, for instance, do better with an impermeable barrier with a permeability rating greater than 0.7; anything less can cause moisture to be trapped below or on the subfloor. Concrete subfloors, on the other hand, require a very high level of impermeability; usually .15 perms or lower. This allows for little to no moisture movement.

Does the installation method change the type of moisture barrier I'll need?
Yes, insomuch as different installation methods are required for different types of subfloors. Moisture barriers offer protection in one of three ways:
The first kind of protection is for nail down install jobs. This involves placing a layer of 6 mil poly sheeting plastic over the dirt in the crawl spaces beneath the subfloor, then placing a 15-pound felt paper between the subfloor and the hardwood.
The second kind of protection is for glue down installations and usually requires using a trowel-applied moisture barrier (such as Bostik) since plastic barriers can prevent the glue on the floors from sticking to the subfloor.
The third kind of protection is for floating floor installations and also involves a 6 mil poly sheeting plastic barrier under the boards. Unlike nail down installations, however, plastic barriers shouldn't be used if the floating floors are covering wood subfloors as they prevent the subfloor from breathing.

What if the floor is above grade? Do I still need a moisture barrier?
Yes. For above grade floors, a 15-pound felt paper works wonders. This moisture barrier should be laid between the hardwood and the wood subfloor; this is the best way to reduce the amount of moisture that can get to the new flooring.

Confused? Don't worry. It's not your job to understand all the technicalities of moisture barriers and hardwood flooring installation. However, knowing the basics about this important flooring component can help you better understand the installation process in general and allow you to make sure your flooring installer is doing the job right. Visit Fantastic-Floor.com to learn more about moisture barriers and solid hardwood flooring installation, or give us a call at 1-888-448-9663.

Fantastic Floor Presents: African Cedar

Welcome back to your favorite hardwood species spotlight series, Fantastic Floor Presents! In the last installment we took a look at the ever-popular Cumaru. This week we're shining our spotlight on another lesser known (but equally beautiful) hardwood species: African Cedar!

African Cedar hardwood flooring from Fantastic Floor is slightly heavier and harder than American Cedar and features white sapwood and a yellowish-brown heartwood that darkens to a warm red upon exposure. The African Cedar tree is fast-growing and the largest cedar species in Africa, reaching as high as 100 to 120 feet when fully grown. The grain pattern of African Cedar is usually straight, though some trees have spiral grain, which can make for a visually interesting and attractive figure on quartersawn surfaces.

African Cedar is not only beautiful, it is also rivals similar domestic species in durability. It has a Janka hardness equal to American Cherry and a density similar to Western Red Cedar. The wood is relatively easy to work with while still being able to stand up to day-to-day foot traffic and outdoor elements. African Cedar is not only used for indoor flooring, it is also often used to build fences, as a home siding material, as roof shingles, and even in pencils.

Want to learn more about this beautiful hardwood species? Visit the African Cedar 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 the perfect floor!

Is DIY Hardwood Flooring Installation a Good Idea?

Installing hardwood flooring yourself can be a very satisfying, money-saving venture. But if done wrong, it can also be a nightmare and end up costing you more than you ever would have paid a professional. Many people think of attempting a DIY flooring installation project without considering the pros and cons of the project. What are the risks of installing hardwood floors yourself? What are the benefits? If you are thinking about starting such a project you should definitely consider the following arguments for and against it:

Pros
Here are a few of the main reasons you might want to install your new hardwood flooring yourself:

Cost
Hiring a contractor to install your new hardwood floors can end up costing you a pretty penny, especially if you have a lot of space to cover. If you have the know-how and the time, installing floors yourself can save you a lot of money in contractor fees.

Time
When you choose to install hardwood flooring yourself you get to decide how much work will go into the project every day. Most contractors will work a respectable eight-hour day, but if you want your floors installed quickly that might not be enough time. If you do the installation yourself you can work all day and all night if you like, which can help get the project done faster.

Convenience
Let's face it - no matter how polite they are, having a group of contractors in your house all day can be pretty annoying. When you install hardwood floors yourself you don't have to worry about a crew coming in and disrupting your day-to-day.

Cons
As it turns out, the cons of DIY hardwood flooring installation are the same as the pros, but for different reasons. Here are a few of the main reasons you would want to call a professional to handle your installation:

Cost
While a successful DIY installation can save you a lot of money, a failed attempt can end up costing you a lot more. If you can't finish your installation, or you do it incorrectly, you will have not only have to pay a contractor for a new install job, but also to fix any mistakes you made. Also, if you make a mistake in the DIY installation you might be setting yourself up for a costly repair or replacement project in the not-too-distant future.

Time
Just like cost, a botched DIY installation job can take a lot more time than a professional install. If you don't have a lot of experience with installing floors you may find yourself working on the project much longer than you had anticipated.

Convenience
DIY projects can be just as inconvenient to the busy or inexperienced homeowner as hiring a contractor. In fact, finding time in your busy work and social life can be sometimes much harder than just paying a professional to do the work while you're at work or out running errands.

Do you have any experience with DIY flooring installation projects? Was it a good or bad experience? Leave us a comment and tell us your story!

Square Edge vs. Beveled Edge: Which Is Best?

We get this question a lot, though sometimes more in the form of, "What kind of edge do your floors have?", or "What's the difference between a square edge and a beveled edge floor?". Well, we thought we'd settle this long-standing debate once and for all. Enjoy!

What Is Square Edge?
As the name suggests, the sides of each plank of a square edge hardwood floorboard meet squarely. A square edge floor looks something like this:

When the flooring is laid absolutely flat and the installation is superb, a square edge floor can feel practically seamless. This creates a very formal, contemporary look and is favored in high-end flooring applications. However, if there are subfloor imperfections, or if the installation isn't done properly, a square edge floor can show gaps more noticeably than a beveled edge floor.

A square edge floor is a tell tale sign that the floors have been sanded and finished on-site. Square edges are found almost exclusively on unfinished hardwood flooring products. Micro-bevels are needed on prefinished boards to give the illusion of a flat floor.

What is Beveled Edge?
A beveled edge floor, also known as a micro-beveled edge, has strips or planks with a 1mm to 2mm 45 degree angle on the top edges of the board. Beveled edge hardwood strips look something like this:

A beveled edge is necessary to help mask any slight imperfections in the subfloor and reduce the obvious highs and lows that are present in all subfloors. Micro-bevels give the optical illusion of a flat floor. Most prefinished floors have a tight micro-beveled edge treated with a high-quality finish, making it easy to sweep or vacuum dirt and debris out of the floor grooves. The downside of a beveled edge floor is that sometimes the grooves can be felt when walking on the floor in bare feet or thin socks.

The Verdict
So, which edge type should you choose? Well, that all depends on your personal preference and your budget. Square edge unfinished flooring material costs less to purchase, but the labor needed to site sand and finish the material can cost you a pretty penny. Prefinished flooring's strong factory finish makes it a pricier material option, but it installation costs far less. When it comes to aesthetics, some people absolutely hate beveled edge floors. Some people don't mind. It's really a matter of personal preference, and there is no wrong answer to the square versus beveled edge debate.

All of the solid prefinished hardwood flooring products available at Fantastic Floor have a slight micro-beveled edge to eliminate those pesky uneven joints that can pop up between boards sometimes. Do you prefer the flat, smooth look of square edge unfinished floors? Good news - we have a extensive selection of those varieties as well! Call us today to learn more about the different square and beveled edge flooring products we carry.

What type of board edge do you prefer? Leave us a comment and let us know!

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!