Why does Hardwood Dent? an informal chat with the floor man

Hardwood Flooring is a Natural product and Naturally dents when heavy object are dropped or if a large amount of pressure is put on it at once.  Stones, High heels, and heavy objects can cause large dents or gouges in hardwood floors, so what can we do about that?

You can hide dents or cover them up, Or ask some questions before purchasing the floor

WHAT TO LOOK FOR TO HIDE DENTS

1 Buy a natural hardwood floor, Unstained

2 3/4 Solid hardwood floors dont dent as easily

3 Hardness matters greatly but grain and charactre can hide what hardness lacks.

4 Distressed wood If you drop a hammer on a handscraped hardwood you wont be sorry

5 Brazilian Hardwoods are on average a lot harder and normally oiler so they dont loose their color and water doesnt ruin the wood as quick.

6 get something you like.  You wont be as upset if you love your floor as you will be if you already hate the floor.

How to cover a dent up

1 Filler sometimes works if you have a grainy floor or a small dent

2 stain rags can hide scratches and stain putty pens can cover up scrapes

3 Clean your floor, you can not lose your floor will be clean and there wont be a build up attracting attention towards your dent.

4 Rugs, these work great if you can put one there, if no rugs availabe try furniture.

What I did when I bought my hardwood floor?  The first floor I picked out the second one my wife did.  The first one was Macaranduba a very hard floor,  It would dent with my dogs would chew their butcher bones on the couch and drop them from a couple feet up but the dents were very minor.  The second floor was a #1 common Red oak Natural my wife picked out.  This floor dents easily however its natual the same color all the way through and the grain in the wood really hides the wear.   Remember darker floors show dings and dents easily when the light comes in lighter ones dont.  So thats my advice,  Comment please on your experience I love to hear your side of the story.

What is DustLess and is it actually Dust Less

When you sand and finish a hardwood floor you create dust.  This is a major head ache for the consumer who may be dusting thier home endlessly as a result of re doing their hardwood floors.  The floor covering industry has address this in a number of ways trying to "contain the dust"  There is no such thing as DUST LESS sand and finishing.  The most common way is with vacuum bags on the sanders that suck most of the dust out of the air and put them in the bag just like a vacuum cleaner would.  However this doesnt get ALL of the dust just MOST of the dust.  The other way is to put a trailer outside the home the runs a pretty cool reverse air suction system that attaches to the sanders and sucks the saw dust out of the home.  There are grades of suction systems and some are better than others, its all about how many particles you can move and the more you can move the more expensive and noisy the system.  I am posting this in as always a response that I have gotten from consumers asking what is the difference in "Dustless" vs non Dustless.  I have a joke that if it was really Dustless my guys would run their equipment gurgling thier lips like motormouth in "Police Academy" and the process would take all but a couple moments and be almost free.  Please do post let me know what you think about Dustless sanders because we always love to hear from the consumers how products and systems perform.

Ways to avoid the dust are; Buy prefinished hardwood floors, Pay a little extra for a trailer dust containment system, or put up a lot of visquene to try and trap the dust in the area then wipe down the ways for dust.  There is always going to be dust involved but you are still way better off with hardwood than carpet if you have allergies if you ask me.

What should I use to clean my hardwood floors?

I sweep my hardwood floors everyday with a broom. But periodically I will use a swifter with some water and vinegar solution VERY lightly on your floor. This post is an answer to a question my customer asked the other day "should I buy a steam cleaner for my new hardwood floors" Please NO. Three things can hurt your hardwood floor 1) waxy build ups-murphys oil soap, orange glo mop and glo please dont use these products 2) Water 3) Heat. If you would like to clean your floor occasionally with something stronger we like the Bona X cleaner it is stronger but doesnt harm your finish or cause a build up. We want people to enjoy their beautiful hardwood floors if you have any questions please do ask them.

Lebanon Job

The farthest east we have travelled for a job is Lebanon TN approximately an hour from Fairview TN. We installed this floor and steps in 3 days its about 1000 sq ft of wood. We moved the furniture and ripped up the carpet. Here is what the customers email said after the job was completed.

Kevin,

Thank you so much! Flooring (especially hardwood) is always a difficult decision when so many factors play a role. Deciding to have your company install our floors was incredibly easy though. Your unbelievable pricing and quality of wood brought us in...although your craftsmanship, quality, and quickness put you well over the top of the competitors. You have truly changed our home. IT FEELS LIKE A DIFFERENT HOUSE!!! ONLY A BETTER ONE !! We hope to do business again.

This is our goal on every job, to make our customers our best salespeople.

Forest Floor Mix

This is a mans floor, Its Cheap, Its solid, Its a Deal, and I Can do It Myself. But really you can get the look of an exotic with the variation for a very cheap price. I think it looks very good in certain style of rooms like the one pictured. I was talking to a local interior designer and she was saying what an awesome floor she did in Brentwood a little while back and I said that is "Forest Mix I have thousands of Feet of that" That is 1.99 sq ft plus delivery and tax.

Faye and Karen

Karen had her living room installed with some utility grade hardwood before I moved down to Nashville. Country Flooring Direct was called to do 3 bedrooms full of furniture take up the existing carpet and dispose of it. She asked me how long it would take to do her 3 rooms and if I planned on putting any holes in her walls, also how did I plan on addressing where the wood met wood and where the vinly met the wood. I assured her that we would not be putting any holes in her walls, and the job would take between 1-2 days, there would be no molding were the wood met wood but Mario would customize one for her vinly so that it would all flow perfectly. I do not sell utility grade wood so we went with some #1 and finished in one day. Here are the pictures. Oh NO Holes in the walls either and Karen wanted Mario to come back and do some side work on her patio when he had the time.

Wayne's purple wood

Wayne came into Country Flooring Direct because the business we share our space with does Home Audio and Wayne wanted a system. However he did mention that he and his wife had an issue with his carpet and wanted me to examin it and give my opinion. The issue with his carpet was that it was totally coming apart at the seam and had gradually gotten worse over time, in my 16 years in this business I have never seen such an issue. I told him I could set him up with an installer to fix it or I had Naturally Purple wood that would match his expensive Purple Carpet. Wayne had told me he would replace the carpet in a year anyways so, he choose the wood. We did the living room hall way and a set of steps in three days. Wayne wanted to know what we were going to do about the rounded wall, Rubber shoe molding addresses your round walls perfectly. What I like about what my installers do on every job is they border things like fireplaces and where the wood meets up with tile, instead of putting in a t-mold.