1. Health Advantages. Carpet attracts dust mites, allergens, and can trap bacteria in its fibers. All of us living in homes with carpet are exposing ourselves everyday to these health hazards. Hardwood, on the other hand, is organic and does not cause these health hazards, providing a much healthier atmosphere for our homes.
2. Cleaning/Maintenance. For most of us there are already enough things in a day that require our attention, let alone having to vacuum our carpets everyday along with periodic ‘deep’ cleaning. To keep wood floors looking their best all that is required is a daily sweeping and weekly moping which is much less time consuming than taking care of carpet.
3. Longer Life. Carpet doesn’t hold up to daily wear-and-tear like hardwood does. Wood floors will last a lifetime, whereas carpet hardly gets through a decade without needing to be replaced.
4. Increased Value. In today’s economy American’s are finding many ways to add value to their homes, and one of the best methods is replacing carpet with hardwood. Whether its replacing our carpeted stairs with wood stair treads, or our whole home with wood flooring, hardwood can bring much needed value back into our homes.

Blackford & Sons can help you say goodbye to carpet for good! Whether you’re interested in Wide Plank Flooring or Wood Stair Treads for your home, Blackford & Sons has just what you need.

Creating a new wood floor that has a distressed surface isn’t easy, and making it look authentic is even harder. In our custom shop, we have several different techniques that we use to distress wide plank flooring.

The most popular choice for many of our clients has been our unique hand scraped (or hand eased) edges and ends. This process is done completely by hand, giving every plank an authentic handcrafted look. This also helps to define the flooring, making the unique character of each plank stand out.

Along with hand scraped edges and ends, a hand scraped surface will add even more handcrafted flare to any wood floor. This is a great option that can be tailored to any design style from modern to rustic. Deeper scraping will lend to a more rustic interior design, while lighter scraping will compliment more modern interior designs.

A saw kerf surface also give wood flooring a unique distressed look. Saw kerf is a term used to refer to the markings that the saw blade leaves on the wood planks when they are sawn from a log. Before modern milling technology, it was common to see these marks on wood flooring. Our custom shop recreates this historic look in two ways; 1) by lightly surfacing the boards, leaving a hit-or-miss saw kerf surface, and 2) using the original surface retaining the saw kerf marks but giving the planks a smooth foot-worn look.

Finally, wire brushed flooring planks can add varying degrees of definition to a floor. Wire brushing wood removes the softer fibers and opens up the grain bringing enhanced definition and texture to the floor. Wire brushing can be heavy or light, giving any degree of texture desired.

Enjoy the photos of this beautiful Walnut wide plank floor.

We’ve just finished up a plank flooring project in a lovely custom home in Nashville, TN. The wide plank flooring in this Nashville home is 9″ Red Oak wide planks with hand scraped edges and a French bleed look. As you can see from the pictures, this floor suits the European castle-like style of this gorgeous home.

Traditionally a symbol of great strength, Red Oak has a subtle reddish golden patina that is quite unique. Just as with White Oak, Red Oak is cherished for its consistent grain and its traditional appearance – the main reason that it was chosen by the owners of this particular home. Because of its exceptional density and hardness, this Red Oak floor will retain its beauty through decades of use and wear.

Please enjoy the photos of this beautiful wide plank floor.

View more photos of Red Oak wide plank flooring here.

Undesirable Movement

Exposure to high moisture levels will cause wood boards to cup.

Cupping, warping, and bowing in wood boards is natural but there are ways to avoid and/or repair the wood before it is milled into flooring. The reasons wide wood boards will cup have more to do with how the wood was sawn, how it was dried, and the environment the wood is installed/stored in, than the width of the boards themselves. While cupping in a wide board is more noticeable, any size board can and will cup – it’s just a not as noticeable on narrower boards. Generally, any plank floor with 5″ or wider planks will show a considerable degree of cupping if they are not installed correctly, if the environment is not properly controlled, or if the flooring was stored for a considerable amount of time before installation. Essentially, it’s all about controlling the moisture levels the wood is exposed to.

Many manufacturers will mill their flooring and store it as inventory – this is a problem because the wood will take on some degree of moisture while in storage, and once the wood has been milled, cupping or warping is in most cases permanent and cannot be repaired. In our manufacturing facility we never machine the wood until it can be immediately delivered to the site after milling is completed. If the raw material had developed any cupping or warping while in our warehouse, it would be corrected when the wood is milled – producing perfectly flat planks.

The Environment

Proper sub-floor for installation over concrete.

As far as the environment of the home is concerned, the flooring must only be installed after the heating and cooling is operable in the home – this will help control the humidity levels in the home and make the environment suitable for installation. The surface on which the planks will be installed is also a factor in how much moisture the underneath of the floor may be exposed to.  Concrete, for instance, can transfer significant amounts of moisture to the underneath of the wood potentially causing cupping or warping. With the right sub-floor, hardwood planks can be installed on either on-grade, or above-ground slabs. Installation on below-grade slabs is not recommended.

Installation

Once the flooring arrives at the home, installation should begin immediately, unless installing over concrete (in this case most recommend the wood should acclimate for a period of 7-10 days before installation with a relative humidity level of 45%) . However, if short-term storage is absolutely necessary, it must be stored in a humidity controlled environment or it will likely absorb too much moisture which will result in cupping and/or warping. Storing wide plank flooring in a garage or basement is not acceptable.

The planks must be glued down with an approved adhesive, in addition to nailing. An approved adhesive will be able to absorb some movement in the sub-floor due to temperature changes and settling of the home, thereby keeping a good hold on the planks and helping them not cup or warp significantly.

Finishing

The final stage is the finishing. Most wide plank floors are finished with either Tung oil, or polyurethane. These finishes will help to seal the wood so that it does not absorb excessive moisture.

Most Common Reclaimed Woods

Reclaimed antique lumber is quickly becoming one of my favorite types of wood to work with,especially when I get to saw each wood plank from a beam, rather than planks already sawn to size. Beyond the obvious qualities of reclaimed lumber such as its eco-friendliness, it is fascinating to see how antique woods (Heart Pine, in this case) stand up to decades of use. Though there are many different species of antique wood to choose from, the most easily available and prominent are Heart Pine, Chestnut, and Oak.

Heart Pine has a rich history here in America being used in many different applications from plank flooring in homes, to ship building. Unlike the typical evergreen, Heart Pine is extremely hard due to its very slow growth. In fact, it rivals some hardwoods measuring 1225 in the Janka Hardness Test, whereas hardwood White Oak measures 1360. This level of hardness is due to the fact that Heart Pine takes anywhere from 200-400 years to fully mature. In comparison, Southern Yellow Pine measures just 870 on the Janka scale.