Species
Each species of wood has its own grain, color, and veining. Your choice of species depends on your personal preferences and the effect you want to achieve. The most popular species are oak and maple, followed by birch, ash, beech, cherry, and walnut. Exotic, deluxe woods are also available, such as Brazilian cherry, mahogany, merbau, and sepele, which are very warm in color and extremely hard.

For home use, the hardness is not as much of an issue. It is also important not to choose a species from pictures –– ask to see a sample. Come and see samples of common and exotic wood flooring at our showroom or distribution center.

Grade
Grading is a means of rating strips according to variations in the wood's natural color. For example, "select and better" grade woods are more uniform in color than "#1", "#2" or "rustic" grade which present more pronounced color variations.

Width
Your choice will depend on the effect you want to create. Narrower strips make your room look longer, while wider strips make it appear shorter. Remember, however, that a tight grained wood like maple expands more with humidity, which may make narrower strips preferable for some uses.

Gloss
There are four main glosses on the market. We offer all four:

• Gloss
• Semi Gloss
• Satin
• Super Matte

Floors finished in satin or super matte stay looking new for longer. We strongly recommend satin over high gloss because it hides the inevitable imperfections better.

Positioning
Your wood floor should ideally be installed in opposite direction of your subfloor joists. But, you should also consider the shape and size of the room. For example, installing the strips lengthwise may make a long room look even longer, and it may be even more flattering to lay the strips diagonally. If you like the original but still have more traditional tastes, try a "herringbone" design.

Accessories
Installing a hardwood floor usually requires much more than just prefinsihed hardwood strips. You'll surely need edgings, stair nosing, wood vents, and base. Make sure you can get these basic accessories in the same stain and gloss as your flooring.

Humidity
Unlike other flooring, wood is a living material. That means you have to be particularly careful of the humidity level in your home before, during, and after installation. To avoid stressing your floor, you should always keep the average relative humidity level at about 45%, trying not to have excessive fluctuation within a 24 hour period. 

Maintenance
Your floor's worst enemies are water, soap, and sand. Don't use a wet mop or commercial soaps. All you need is a damp cloth, vacuum regularly, or use the care products recommended by the manufacturer.

Make the Right Choice
Good planning will save you unpleasant and costly surprises. A knowledgeable, expert retailer will provide sound advice and successful results.  Follow these steps and you know you've made a long term investment in the product that will give you the best value for your dollar. Remember, you'll probably purchase a hardwood floor only once in your life.

Types of Wood Flooring
Unfinished Solid Hardwood comes as unfinished strips. The wood comes in a variety of species, grades, and widths. The flooring strips are racked (laid out in an organized, eye-appealing fashion), then nailed down to a wood subfloor, and sanded and finished on the site. Prefinished Solid Hardwood is sold as ready-to-install wood strips that are already sanded, stained, and finished with multiple coats of polyurethane and an aluminum oxide protective finish. The finish is factory applied in an ideal, controlled environment.

Hardwood Facts
A full array of wood species are available in a range of grades, colors, sizes, and sheens, to blend with any décor. Prefinished solid hardwood is quick to install, and the residents don't have to leave home during installation.

Prefinished Engineered Hardwood is sold as strips made up of a hardwood surface (called a wear layer) glued on a plywood base. Development for installation in areas with variable humidity levels, engineered flooring is more stable than solid wood. The strips can be glued directly onto concrete, an acoustic underlay, or even a subfloor with a floor heating system. This is the perfect floor covering for condominiums, basements, and commercial uses.

The quality of an engineered wood floor can be determined by looking at four factors: the thickness of the wear layer, the number of plies that the plywood is made of, the surface cutting procedure used, and the precision of the cut.

The wear layer should be at leas 5/32” thick to offer the same sanding possibilities as solid wood. For greater stability, the plywood should be at least 5 ply. The wood should be dry sawn rather than rotary peeled or slice cut since only dry sawing produces a high quality, natural looking hardwood strip. Also, a tongue and groove that joins perfectly on all four sides indicates high quality manufacturing.

Note: Engineered hardwood should not be confused with laminate flooring which is made up of laminated planks that only look like wood, finished with plastic polymer coating. Often laminate flooring is not fastened to the subfloor, thus the name "floating floor."