Prefinished floors
Prefinished floors can be either solid or engineered. (Both are described below.) This wood arrives from the mill sanded, stained, finished and ready for installation. Most types come in lengths from 4' to 7'. Solid prefinished floors normally have longer boards than do engineered. Usually, each individual board has a small beveled edge so the pieces will appear level and the floor smooth when installed. Square edged prefinished floors are also available, but at a higher price than beveled because they require extremely precise milling to create a smooth, level finished floor. Some people prefer the way beveling accentuates and outlines a board, while others prefer the more traditional and uniform look of square edged floors. Prefinished flooring makes it easy to have a wood floor installed in an occupied home or office because installation is relatively quick and does not generate as much dust.
Solid flooring
Solid flooring is made from pieces of wood that are one solid piece from top to bottom. The thickness of the wood is generally from ¾", but is occasionally milled to 5/16" or 3/8" thickness for glue down installation. It can come from the mill already stained and finished, or it can be finished at the jobsite after being installed and sanded. Most solid hardwood floors require a nail down installation over a wood subfloor. If your floor is concrete, we can install a plywood subfloor to accommodate ¾" solid flooring. The thinner 3/8" or 5/16" solid flooring is designed for glue down installation over concrete.
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Engineered flooring
Engineered hardwood flooring is constructed of two components – a 'core layer' on the bottom with a 'face veneer' on top. The core layer is constructed of multiple layers of wood of the same or different species, glued together in a cross-hatch pattern. This cross graining provides greater dimensional stability, which minimizes the expansion and contraction of natural wood when exposed to varying moisture levels and temperatures. Engineered wood floors can be produced with as few as 3–9 ply (layers). Many manufacturers use marine plywood backing of 5–8 layers, which has greater stability and resists moisture better than 3–5 ply materials. This feature is definitely an important feature in our Tampa Bay humidity. Once the core layer is produced, the face veneer is added on top. This veneer is sawn in a similar method to solid wood flooring, so that the finished product looks identical to solid flooring once installed.
Beautiful hardwood flooring custom crafted to your specifications!
Frontier Hardwood Flooring is Florida's largest prefinished hardwood flooring contractor. We are locally owned and operated since 1989, with fully licensed and insured employees - No subs! We would appreciate an opportunity to provide you with a free estimate on your next flooring installation.
Janka hardness test
The Janka hardness test measures the force in pound per square inch required to embed a 0.444" steel ball to half its diameter in a 2" x 2" x 6" piece of wood. This test is a good measurement of how a wood product will withstand denting and wear. By the same token, it's also a good indicator of how hard a species is to saw or mill. The table to the right indicates testing results on different hardwood flooring species, including some acrylic impregnated species. The Janka test is also a good indicator of how hard it would be to saw or nail into a species of wood. The higher the Janka measure, the harder and more resistant it is to denting. For example, Brazilian Teak with a Janka rating of 3540, one of the hardest species available, is almost three times as hard as Red Oak, rated at just 1360.
