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Tag Archives: maintaining wood floors

  • How to Refinish a Hardwood Floor

    Posted on April 18, 2013 by Jennifer

    If your hardwood floors seem to have more scratches than shine, you’ve probably been thinking about refinishing them. What many homeowners don’t realize is that refinishing hardwood floors isn’t just about looking pretty--it’s about maintaining the life your floors. A proper stain and finish does more than add color and shine underfoot; it also protects the wood from damage. So take a deep breath, read through our simple tips, and prepare to add new life to your floors. Continue Reading

    This post was posted in Douglas Fir Flooring, Care & Maintenance and was tagged with Douglas-fir, Douglas fir flooring, douglas fir floors, maintaining wood floors, wood flooring, hardwood flooring, refinishing floors, floor refinish, hardwood flooring care, wood flooring care

  • Expansion and Contraction of Hardwood Flooring — and How to Avoid it

    Posted on February 19, 2013 by Jennifer

    It’s every homeowner’s nightmare: you’ve invested in beautiful, natural hardwood flooring, when suddenly you notice that the previously-smooth surface suddenly has cracks between the planks. What’s gone wrong?

    In most cases, the answer is nothing. Expansion and contraction is to be expected in a natural product like hardwood flooring. Here’s a brief primer on what’s normal for a wood floor, as well as how to avoid any true moisture damage.

    When you’ve selected hardwood flooring for your home, you’ve purchased a living product. Even after it has been cut, wood retains its hygroscopic properties. Hygroscopic means that it naturally absorbs and attracts moisture from the air. It’s a bit like a sponge: when moisture is present, your wood flooring will expand, and when it is dry, it will contract.

    According to Hardwood Floors Magazine, it’s normal to see cracks as wide as a dime appear in between planks during dry months. These will disappear when humid weather returns. If you want to reduce this, you can try using a humidifier to add a slight amount of moisture to the air, or even have a humidifier installed in your furnace.

    One way to make sure that your wood doesn’t warp or buckle when it expands is to select a product like clear vertical-grain Douglas fir. This type of wood is known for being extremely dimensionally-stable. Also, because of its tight growth rings and clear vertical grain, when CVG Douglas fir expands and contracts, it does so evenly, at the same rate all the way up and down the length of the wood. It’s also important to select a product that’s been kiln-dried for maximum stability.

    The best way to avoid any expansion-related problems is to stop them before they stop. When you install your hardwood flooring, make sure that the flooring planks are allowed to acclimate, spread out in the room they will be installed in, for several days. Before you go to work installing the flooring, check the moisture content of the subfloor—a moisture meter is a handy tool for this. You also need to lay down a moisture barrier of some kind over the top of the subfloor; this will prevent any moisture from seeping up from the ground beneath during the lifetime of your floor.

    Once your wood flooring is in place, you can keep it in top condition by avoiding any surface moisture. Don’t mop your floor with a wet mop. Clean it instead with a cloth that has been dampened with a wood-recommended cleaning product. If you must use water to clean up a big mess, clean only the part of the floor that needs, and dry it well afterward. Make sure to wipe up any spills promptly.

    If you keep these tips in mind, you can expect your hardwood floors to stay smooth, even and lovely for a lifetime or more. And when you see any small cracks between planks, you can breathe easy: it’s just the normal seasonal expansion and contraction of a natural, living wood product.



    This post was posted in Douglas Fir Flooring, Care & Maintenance and was tagged with Douglas fir flooring, douglas fir floors, flooring stains, maintaining wood floors, maintaining fir floors, removing pet stains, hardwood pet stains, warping floors, floor maintenance, floor care

  • Replacing Douglas Fir Floorboards

    Posted on July 21, 2011 by Ian

    No matter how hard we try to protect our Douglas fir floors, accidents inevitably happen. Over the years, spills, dents, and other types of damage necessitate removing and replacing floorboards. The process involves a few advanced techniques, as well as some power tools. But, if you’re willing to work carefully, you can do it yourself. And on top of saving yourself the price of hiring a carpenter, you’ll find the satisfaction of a working relationship with your home. Follow these steps:

    1) Removing a board. You’ll be using a power saw for this step (preferably a circular saw), so this is the part of the process where you should be most careful so as not to damage your floor. To ensure precision, outline the board accurately with painter’s tape. Next, make a series of long parallel cuts into the board, as well as one diagonal cut in the center. You should set the depth of your cuts to ¾” (or the depth of the wood), to ensure you only cut through the floorboard. If you cut too deep, you could slice up either or both of the protective mat underneath the board and the subfloor. After you’ve made your cuts, use a hammer and chisel to remove the broken pieces of the board. Be careful not to damage neighboring boards, especially the tongue and grooves that meet the board you’re trying to replace.

    replace wood floorboard

    You better replace your wood floorboard if it looks like this!

    2) Finding a replacement board. The hallmark of a good fix is that you can’t tell it was broken in the first place. Therefore you’ll want to replace your broken board with close match, to leave your floor looking like it did the day it was installed. Luckily, Douglas fir, like any wood, is a natural product that has natural color and pattern variation making the search for an exact match unnecessary. For common woods and finishes, bring a piece of the broken board to your lumber supplier and ask them to find a match for you. If you do have Douglas fir, we hope you’ll turn to us to replace those historic 3 ¼” flooring boards. Keep in mind you’ll also have to match the stain, finish, and level of sanding. You may already have wood in your own home that will serve as a good replacement. Find a rarely seen or used part of your floor – in a closet or utility room, for a example – and extract a board to use as a replacement. Then, you can replace the wood you took out of the closet with a less-than-perfect match.

    3) Replacing the board. First, you’ll have to saw off the lower end of the groove so that you can slip the board in on top of its neighbors. Next, the board should be fastened with glue and flooring nails. After face-nailing, use wood putty to fill in the holes. You may need to do some additional sanding, if the replacement board seems out of place with its neighbors.

    These steps should help you to keep your Douglas fir floor, or any wood floor, looking good and built to last.

    - Ian Friedman



    This post was posted in Douglas Fir Flooring, Care & Maintenance and was tagged with Douglas fir flooring, douglas fir floors, fir flooring, maintaining wood floors, replace floor boards, replacing floor boards

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