Wood & Laminate

Years ago wood flooring was long lasting but hard to maintain, often needing to be sanded, refinished and re-coated with polyurethane every few years. Today however, Mohawk, Shaw and Mannington wood product surfaces, are finished with an aluminum oxide coating which yields far superior wear and scratch resistance when compared to traditional polyurethane. Flooring manufacturers are able to offer 15 to 25 year wear warranties due to the superior wear protection provided by an aluminum oxide finish.

The type of pre-existing sub-floor in your home can greatly influence the type of wood you choose to have installed. Due to the difference in coefficients of expansion, solid wood cannot be glued or nailed directly to a concrete floor. What this means, is that in order to install a solid-wood floor in a home with a concrete floor, a plywood sub-floor must first be installed. The installation costs can then sky-rocket due to the extra materials and man hours needed to create a plywood sub-floor.

It is a common misconception that engineered wood is a faux wood floor. Engineered-wood is a wood product made up of between 2 to 5 inner layers of wood with the top layer consisting of the species wood.  For example; an engineered bamboo plank wood, might have 2 to 5 layers of a wood such as poplar, underneath the top layer of bamboo. The use of woods, such as poplar, in the construction of engineered wood helps to keep the cost of materials to a minimum. The technique of layering the inner woods with the wood grain of each layer running in opposite directions gives an engineered wood greater structural stability; therefore, enabling it to be installed over a concrete sub-floor.

With engineered wood you can sometimes find a great variation in pricing even within products from the same company. The reason for this is usually due to the number of layers, type of edge and species wood used in the plank.

Here at American Flooring Distributors, we offer wood and laminate from only the highest quality, well known, flooring manufacturers.  We do this in order to insure that our customers receive the lowest prices on the highest quality products.