Site Finished Hardwood Flooring VS Prefinished Hardwood Flooring

Pre-finished Hardwood vs Site Finished Hardwood

This week we'll discuss some differences between a site finished hardwood floor and a pre-finished hardwood floor. In general we will be talking about solid 3/4" thick hardwood flooring. This can be of any species because the finish will generally be the same whether it's an oak floor or maple floor or any other species of hardwood.

Pre-finished hardwood flooring in most cases (not all) will have aluminum oxide injected into the finish. Why is that important? Well, aluminum oxide is the second hardest mineral. Only diamonds are harder than aluminum oxide. Putting aluminum oxide into the finish on a hard wood floor will make the finish extremely hard. It's so hard that it is also hard to sand down and refinish the hardwood floor at a later date! Now, ideally, with these new floors with aluminum oxide in the finish, you will not want to sand them down and refinish in the future. If your finish starts to look scratched and worn down (which will be a lot harder to do with these new wood floors) you will want to screen the top layer and apply a new finish. Sanding down through the finish won't be necessary in most cases if you catch it before you have wear through.

Aluminum Oxide is what they use in sand paper!

Aluminum Oxide

Aluminum oxide is added to the urethane in the finishing process and then the wood floors are UV cured. There is no harder finish out there at this time.

Site finished hardwood is the process of sanding down an unfinished hardwood floor, then applying a sealer and a couple coats (or more) of urethane. The urethane is what constitutes the wear layer on a wood floor. This process is the only way to spruce up an existing floor but not near the best way for a new hardwood floor. You don't have aluminum oxide infused into the urethane wear layer and it's not UV cured. You can use some of the best site finishes out there (such as Mega Traffic) but it still will fall far short of the hardness and wearability of a prefinished hardwood floor.

So, when buying a new hardwood floor, the best way to go is to buy and install a pre-finished hardwood floor that has aluminum oxide in the finish.




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Best Carpet Yarn Revisited 3.....

Solution Dyed Carpet Yarn. Simply The Best....

We finish up our discussion on best carpet yarns this week with this blog on solution dyed nylon. The solution dying process is mainly used in commercial grade carpet. You don't see this process used very often in the manufacture of residential carpet but one of the big three carpet mills, Beaulieu, has a new line of carpet using this dying process.

Simply put, solution dying is the process of injecting the dye into the carpet yarn while it is still in liquid (solution) form. When the yarn is extruded the color (dye) is all the way through the yarn. Most carpets are made with greige goods and then dyed to a specific color. In this process the carpet is made with greyish/white colored yarn and then run through a dyer where the yarn is dyed. If you were to cut a carpet yarn in half that is dyed in the conventional method, the inside of the yarn would still be the greyish/white color. If you were to cut  a solution dyed nylon carpet yarn in half, you would see that the yarn is colored completely through. Inside and out.

Because of the way solution dyed yarn is dyed, it is very stain resistant, extremely fade resistant and still wears like a nylon yarn (because it is a nylon yarn). So you get all of the benefits of nylon yarn (wear resistance, resiliency and softness) along with the fantastic stain resistance that you would normally see in olefin yarns or polyester carpet yarns.

Some of the best warranties in the business are attached to this style of carpet (and I mean actual warranties, unlike some of the warranties that mills put on their carpets that have so many restrictions and limits that they will almost never pay off on any of their warranties!!).

You can even clean some of the toughest stains using a mixture of half water and half bleach! Try that with any other type of carpet yarn and see what happens........large whiteish blotches will form on your carpet if you were to try this cleaning solution with just about any other type of carpet.

So in our humble opinion, solution dyed nylon is the best carpet yarn to use for residential carpet. Really no need to say anything else....







Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Best Carpet Yarn Re-visited 2

So now that we've discussed the value of wear and resilience in carpet yarn, this week we will touch on stain resistance.

Stain resistance has taken on added importance these days as family's lifestyles are getting busier and more hectic. There was a time that most family's wouldn't let you eat in the family room much less the living room. Do you remember as a kid how if you tried to take some food into the family room to watch TV while you ate, your mother would let you know about it. Food and drink just weren't allowed in carpeted rooms. Because of this, wear and resiliency were more important than stain resistance.

These days, everybody eats in the family room. They eat in the living room. And in our bedrooms. And the basement (which are mostly carpeted these days). We pretty much eat everywhere in the house. Because of this (and the resultant spillage. Yikes) carpet has to be stain resistant. What good is carpet that will wear forever if it stains up like crazy.

Scotchgard was one of the first stain protections developed. It was a topical treatment that provided a barrier between dirt, stains etc and the carpet yarn. This barrier stopped stains from penetrating into the carpet as long as you cleaned up the spill relatively fast. Dirt also cleaned off of the carpet. One of the drawbacks to this topical treatment was that after a couple of cleanings, most of the topical treatment was gone leaving the carpet yarn exposed to future spills.

Along came the built in stain protection. Stainmaster, Anso, Weardated and Scotchgard Stain Release were the top brands in built in stain protection applied to mostly nylon carpet yarns. Basically how this worked was that the yarns were treated with a fluorocarbon system. Most carpet yarns when they are extruded will have very fine pores. These pores will absorb spills and are hard to clean out. This is the idea behind hot steam extraction. Hot steam penetrates the yarn and cleans as the steam is extracted out of the yarn. The built in stain protection basically filled these tiny pores thereby creating essentially a solid yarn. This solid yarn won't absorb spills. The stain will stay on the surface of the yarn and is easily cleaned off with a good carpet cleaning solution. Most nylon yarns are treated for stain resistance in this way.

Polyester on the other hand is inherently stain resistant. PET polyester is made with recycled pop bottles. A form of plastic. This yarn is extremely hard to stain. Because of polyesters superior stain resistant properties, this yarn is starting to take market share away from nylon (the fact that polyester costs less than nylon doesn't hurt either).

Olefin yarn (used mainly in Berbers and commercial grade carpet) is also extremely stain resistant because of it's hydrophobic properties (it doesn't absorb water so it won't absorb stains). This is why olefin carpet is solution dyed (the yarns are dyed while they are still in liquid form so the color goes throughout the yarn). Not only does olefin not absorb water or stains but it also doesn't absorb the dye very well during the dying process. So the carpet mills will dye the carpet before extruding the yarn. More on solution dying later (hint: solution dyed nylon, probably the best yarn period as it combines wear ability, resilience and stain resistance in one yarn......)

Wool, since it's a natural yarn and hence porous, will absorb stains and is probably the worst yarn for stain resistance.

Rankings of carpet yarn for stain resistance

1.  Solution dyed nylon
2.  Olefin
3.  Polyester
4.  Nylon
5.  Wool

The top three are considered extremely stain resistant and will suffice for most carpet installations where stain resistance is the top priority. Next week more on solution dyed nylon.........the best carpet yarn period (in our humble opinion).

Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering

http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Best Carpet Yarn Re-visited

Best carpet yarn??

Today we explore the heat set in carpet yarn!

With the proliferation of polyester carpet yarns we want to set the record straight today about which carpet yarn is best (in our humble opinion).

While every carpet yarn has pros and cons, there is still a yarn system that we feel outperforms all others. The mainstream carpet yarns are nylon, wool, polyester, triexta (a form of polyester, more on this later) and olefin.

Nylon is still the best wearing yarn out there. It is almost impossible to wear out with normal residential wear and it has great resilience. Most carpets never wear out but they will "ugly" out. The carpet mills consider wear out as carpet fiber worn away. This can only happen with abrasive wear and is the main reason why you should clean your carpets every 12 to 18 months. To get rid of all of the dirt particles which can act like sandpaper to your carpet.

Even though nylon yarn is the hardest to wear out, it's nylon's resiliency that is it's greatest feature. Most carpet yarns are heat set. What is this? When you separate the carpet yarns in your carpet you will see that each individual yarn has been twisted. Kind of like a rope. The carpet mills have determined that the yarns are so much stronger when they are twisted together. This is great as long as they stay twisted together and this is wear nylon yarn shines and heat set comes into play.

To keep the yarns tightly twisted together, the mills have heat set the yarns. As you know, if you cut a rope that is intertwined, it will fray at the ends. The more it frays the more it starts to unwind and pretty soon your rope isn't worth anything. The same with carpet yarns. In a cut pile carpet, each yarn end (like in the rope example) is cut. So the yarn wants to unwind and fray with normal foot traffic. As they unwind and fray, the carpet starts to ugly out. It will look worn and just plain ugly. No way to fix this. You will have to replace the carpet.

Now, with heat set, the mills have "set" the twist in the yarn with heat. The higher the heat, the longer the yarn wants to stay twisted. So the higher the heat, the longer the yarn stays twisted, the longer a carpet holds up to foot traffic, the longer the carpet will look good and longer the carpet will last for you.

As you may have guessed by now, nylon yarn can withstand the highest heat levels and so will keep it's twist level longer than other yarns. If you were to set the heat level the same for a polyester carpet, the yarn would melt. So even though polyester carpet yarns are heat set, they are heat set at a lower heat level than the nylon yarns and hence will not stand up to higher foot traffic when it comes to maintaining it's look. And because nylon carpet yarn stands up better to higher wear (keeps it's look longer, doesn't ugly out as fast) it will last longer than other types of carpet. The longer a carpet wears, the longer it will last for you and the less often you will have to replace it, thus saving you money in the long haul.

So when it comes to longevity and what type of carpet will stand up best to wear and look good the longest, nylon yarn is still king of the heap.

Carpet yarn wear and resiliency rankings:
1. Nylon
2. Wool
3. Triexta
4. Polyester
5. Olefin

So if wear and resiliency are the most important factors for you when buying a new carpet then nylon should be your choice!

Next week we discuss stain resistance as another important factor in determining the best carpet yarn.




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Hardwood Flooring and Humidity Levels

Okay, as we head deep into winter (yuck) I think it may be time to give you some tips for your hardwood flooring. Winter can be trying for your solid hardwood flooring because the humidity levels in your home tend to dip below what is optimal for hardwood flooring. As the humidity level drops your hardwood flooring will shrink as moisture is wicked out of the pores of the floor. That's when you will start seeing gaps forming in your hard wood. This is not a defect but a natural response to low humidity levels.

Keeping your home humidified is critical for the health of all the wood furnishings in your home. Items such as flooring, furniture, casings and just about anything in your home that is made with wood will benefit from correct humidity levels.

Keeping your home between 45% and 55% humidity is optimal for all wood flooring. If your home stays above 45% humidity it will prevent the wood from drying out to the extent that gaps will form. Constant changes in humidity is very hard on the wood itself.

It is a good idea to have a humidistat installed in your home if you don't have one already. You can purchase one online for about $20 to $25. Your home centers will have them also (even though I don't recommend ever going to a home center for anything. :)

Okay, nuff said about humidity levels and hard wood flooring!

Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
www.doverfloorcovering.com

Getting New Flooring Before Christmas

Well, the holidays are in full swing. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Black Friday. (Is Black Friday a National Holiday???  lol.  Probably...). Along with cooler days and nights, Christmas lights going up and mad dashes to the mall to shop, people will be trying to spruce up their homes in anticipation of visiting family members.

You may not realize this but you really only have about 2 weeks left to shop for new flooring for your home. The lead time for most new flooring is about 7 to 10 days. By the time you pick out and order the flooring, have it shipped from the manufacturer or distributor and get an appointment date for installation, it could take easily up to 2 weeks or more during the holiday season.

With this being the busiest time of year for carpet and hardwood flooring sales and installation it is not uncommon for flooring retailers to be booked out for 3 or more weeks. Let alone the fact that a lot of the most popular styles and colors that are in high demand will be out of stock which will just about insure the fact that you won't be able to have your new flooring in time for Christmas.
So, there is no time like the present if you are planning on updating your old flooring.

We've actually installed new carpet on Christmas Eve before but I wouldn't recommend it. If anything were to go wrong then there would be no time to rectify the situation before Christmas and that room would be unavailable through the holiday.

So, here's hoping everybody has a great holiday season and remembers the reason for the season...

Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://doverfloorcovering.com

A Little Something About Vinyl Flooring...

Okay, Lets talk Vinyl Flooring.....

Vinyl flooring. Is this flooring the ugly sister of all other flooring? Why would consumers buy vinyl flooring?

For the last bunch of years vinyl flooring has been losing market share to all other hard surface flooring options. Hardwood, ceramic tile and even laminate has been taking market share from the vinyl flooring segment. Until recently.....

Vinyl flooring is making a comeback! With new lifelike stunning visuals in the vinyl flooring space, vinyl flooring is not your grandmas linoleum.......far from it.  New improvements in the finish has made vinyl flooring durable, soft and very resistant to tearing, scratching and gouging.

No longer do you see the old white and black squares with the shiny finish. Now you will see realistic wood grain patterns, lifelike stone looks with matte finishes. New fiberglass backings allow vinyl to be laid without full spread adhesive so installation is becoming much easier. Less muss and fuss.

Another advantage to vinyl is the fact that overall it costs less than most all other hard surface choices. Vinyl flooring is said to have the best value in the business when it comes to hard surface flooring. Plus it is impervious to water. Vinyl flooring comes in 12 ft wide sheets and hence has less issues with seaming. You can cover a relatively large area with one sheet of vinyl flooring without having a seam. No seams means no water gets through to the subfloor underneath.

Vinyl flooring great for laundry rooms, kitchens, foyers, entry ways and mud rooms and will cost a fraction of what hard wood flooring would cost or ceramic tile.

So, to sum up, vinyl flooring has price advantages, resistance to water advantages and softness of flooring advantages. All reasons why vinyl flooring is starting to make a comeback.




Jeff Dean
Owner of Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com