The Flooring Expert

Q: I have Bruce Hardwood Oak prefinished flooring in my kitchen. I use Pledge Hardwood Floor Cleaner and a large terry mop and all seems fine. My husband and I recently saw a steam cleaner and we were wondering if that would be better. Our floor installer said water was the floors worst enemy - which made me wonder about the long term effect of steam cleaning. By the way we love our Bruce Flooring.

Thanks advance for your help.

A: I would avoid using any form of steam cleaner on a hardwood floor. Your installer is right on, water can be the worst enemy of any wood floor, but so can shifts in temperature. With a steam cleaner, you would be very quickly applying both heat and moisture to your floor, which means for a brief moment as the floor is heated, it will expand, then contract as it returns to its normal temperature. This expansion and contraction, albeit minor, can cause gapping to occur over time.

The current method you are using is good and suggested. Using an approved cleaner (no wax or oil-base cleaners), spray a light mist over the floor then follow up with a microfiber or terrycloth mop head to clean and dry the floor. The easiest way to think here is akin to a swiffer, a small amount of cleaner goes a long way with wood floors. You can also lightly damn your mop, but make sure it is very little moisture as you don't want excessive moisture or standing moisture on the floor. Its sometimes advisable to follow up with a dry terrycloth towel to ensure any and all remaining moisture is removed from the floor.

This is just a quick post to celebrate the 500th blog post here on the Ask the Expert blog at iFLOOR. Although we have helped answer questions for more people than just the 500 posted here thus far, even helping 500 people is something of an honor.

As a special bonus beyond today's question, I wanted to shed a bit of light onto the team here whom we refer to as "the think tank," beyond yours truly.

Tad A., Director of Install for iFLOOR, has been in the flooring industry for 25 years. Tad has installed more floors than most folks can fathom and his insights come from raw experience.

Gene D., iFLOOR's Commercial Contract Manager, who has been an installer and project manager and commercial finisher for nearly 40 years. Gene does some amazing commercial work, ranging from high-end homes to hospitals, resorts and even a Buddhist temple.

Beyond these two we also get occasional feedback and even ideas for our editorials from members of iFLOOR's customer service team and sales team members. On behalf of the iFLOOR team, we are proud to help each and every person who has a question and thank you to all the readers of the Ask the Expert blog!

Q: We have a client using konecto and want to know what transition should we use going to a sealed concrete floor?

Eva

A: Since you will be going down to a lower height surface, your best bet here is to use a reducer strip. You might want to look into a rubber or metal reducer such as those made by Schluter or Johnsonite. If you want something with a wood grain, you can look into a unfinished wood mold and stain it to match the Konecto coloring.

I personally would prefer to go the route of a rubber transition, as this allows for some flexibility and no worries with moisture, much like Konecto's water proof benefits.

Q: Hello; my question is this, we are putting new floor in our living room and very much want Bamboo, but we have read horror stories that bamboo scratches quite easily. Is this true and do you recommend Hardwood over Bamboo? Also can you give me a recommendation for a good Bamboo Manufacturer?

Thank you for your assistance,
Bobbi

A: Much as any other flooring product, although they are many bamboo floors out there, they are not all created equal. Each bamboo floor has a different finish - some can be easily scratched, others are just ill-cared for. Preventative maintenance is very important with any wood floor, whether its bamboo, oak, or even laminate.

This means regular cleaning, using entry mats at exterior doorways, keeping your pet's nails clipped. This type of maintenance prevents a majority of scratches that floors receive. This being said, it also becomes important to choose a floor which is higher quality in both construction and finish. Keep in mind that scratches are almost purely dependent on the finish applied to the floor, where as denting is a matter of the material of the floor. If you are worried about potential denting, do not look into carbonized bamboo as it is far softer or look into a handscraped product as denting will be masked and blend into the natural appearance of the floor. You could also look into strand woven bamboo for a bit more durability.

For handscraped or strand woven floors, look into Ming Dynasty. For a more traditional looking bamboo, look into Westhollow or Teragren's solid bamboo floors or the engineered bamboo floors from Springwood. These brands all carry aluminum oxide modified finishes for greater abrasion resistance, much like many of the finishes applied to solid wood flooring.

In the end its a matter of opinion, many hardwood floors are just as easy to damage as bamboo if improper care is taken of the floor, so as long as you install a floor which you like after doing some research and take good care of it, you should not be one of those horror stories you hear about.

Q: I am in the process of opening a retail ice cream and chocolates store and wanted to know what the best synthetic wood flooring is. Mannington? Amtico? Spacia? Spatica? etc.

Thank you,
Bill

A: To be honest there is no singular "best" floor out there. Many manufacturers create varying levels of flooring, each with its own benefits from more economical lines, to their top tier products.

Amtico makes a fairly nice vinyl series, Spacia, but so does Konecto, Mannington, and many others out there. The benefit of a wood appearing vinyl is that you now have a flooring which is water proof, unlike laminate flooring. Although laminate is a bit better at getting the wood look, your run into potential damage should excessive moisture get on the floor.

Your best bet would be to look into a wood appearing vinyl. Konecto is a good choice here as it's unique construction allows for replacement of planks rather easily should unfortunate damage occur. Other vinyl choices can be good as well, but make sure you are finding one which is commercially rated. Other resilient floor types such as Amtico's Stratica or VCT are also very good choices.

For vinyl, Spacia and Konecto would be two of the better choices out there. Otherwise look into products like VCT or Stratica.

Q: We were looking at installing hardwood floors and like the way we could change the width of the board. Is this possible in the laminate floors? We have particle board as a subfloor. Is there anyway we can have plank hardwood with this subfloor?

Thanks
Bobbi

A: I can only think of one multiple width laminate collection out there, which would be Armstrong's American Duet collection which features a wide and narrow plank of each pattern. This being said, its hard to get the random width plank look from laminate floors, but far easier with engineered wood floors.

If you were to get an engineered wood floor which was approved for floating installations you could get a random width looking floor which is able to be installed over a particle board subfloor. Keep in mind with particle board its best to stick to a floating floor, although some can take glue down, its best to avoid glue down when possible.

Q: We are planning to put a wood-look laminate floor in our kitchen and
foyer. This is a high traffic area. We were told it has a 25- year guarantee. At $9.60 per square foot (including installation) we want to be sure we are getting good value for quite a bit of money. Any suggestions you can give will be appreciated. Also, what would be the advantage, if any, to putting in porcelain tile? We already have ceramic tile with cracks, chips and crumbling grout.

Thank you.
Ann

A: I can't think of very many floors which would cost this much, even installed, which would run in the upper $9 range. One thing to keep in mind is that not all laminate is created equal and warranties often matter very little. What is important is to determine who makes the floor and what collection it is, then determine the laminate's AC rating as this will give you a better idea of how it compares to other floors.

As a couple comparisons. If you were to install Westhollow's South Pacific, which is their premiere line, plus 6mm cork underlayment and the gold package installation you would be spending just under $7/sf and the South Pacific has a 50 year warranty. Another quick comparison QuickStep Perspective, another premiere line, with 6mm cork underlayment and gold installation would be right around $8/sf on a product which features a lifetime residential warranty. Now keep in mind, there is some small variance here as labor costs differ from place to place, but generally speaking this is fairly accurate for some of the best laminate floors on the market with AC ratings in a commercial level.

If we take the comparisons here, the important part is the abrasion ratings. A warranty will generally tell you how much a company believes in that product, but beyond that, the important ratings are how they perform in lab tests such as taber testing. Generally AC ratings will tell you how well a floor will weather traffic - so compare these before comparing warranties as the damage caused to your average floor is never covered by a warranty.

In the end here, the floor you are looking at seems a bit spendy for laminate and I would make sure you get a bit more background on it - who makes it, what collection is it, where is it manufactured and what's its AC ratings or how did it perform in taber testing when compared to floors like Pergo Select, QuickStep Perspective and similar top tier laminate floors.

Q: I have just install a engineered hardwood floor and I suspect the floor did not adhere to the substrate (e.g. popping noise after I walk over the area in question). I have heard about a kit that might help which involves a syringe and adhesive. I guess you drill a 1/16 inch hole then shoot the adhesive into the affected area.

Thanks in Advance,
Chris

A: Typically the noise you are encountering with a glue-down floor occurs when the glue cures and air pockets are under the wood. Since these air pockets exist, the flooring itself can flex ever so slightly, making the popping noises. The method suggested to you is a pretty common fix for both glued down wood floors and rolled out vinyl or linoleum. The 1/16" size is also common, as this allows for a smaller hole that is large enough to fit an injector, think like a caulking gun, filled with the adhesive used to lay the floor to fit into place to force more adhesive down into the air pocket to fill it and finish anchoring the floor to the subfloor.

To fill the hole, just take a floor putty, colored matches as close as you can and just fill the holes with putty. You could also mix a bit of dust from the holes into the putty to help make sure it color matches closely. Do your best to let the injected adhesive cure before filling with putty to help make sure you can keep it nice and level.

Q: My husband and I want to put cork in our bedroom/business areas on the second floor. We are looking at Granville Grey or Rainforest Green Eurocork and a few others with reddish or green swirling effects versus the cork or particle board look. We were hoping to spend about $3.99/floating plank. So here are my questions:

1. How do I choose the seal? Some say they are sealed with lacquer and others with acrylic while some aren't finished at all, it appears.


2. Do we need the underlying cushion? We have an installer but I don't think he's familiar with cork. He just laid our wood laminate flooring and did a lovely job.


3. What would last the longest and remain nice looking in our situation?


4. Are there companies you recommend over others?


5. A friend of mine told me to be careful with cork- it's recently gotten negative press. What is that about?

Thanks so much!
Barbara
Parker, Colorado, USA

A: There are several very nice color choices amongst cork floors out there both from Eurocork and APC and choosing the best cork for your price range and taste can be tricky. Let's dig in on your questions:

As far as finish is concerned, both lacquer and acrylics perform fairly well with cork so it becomes a matter of opinion. If you prefer a more environmentally friendly finish, look into the water-based acrylic finishes. Keep in mind that both of this finishes are built to flex a bit more so that they do not crack when the cork flexes, which means they are not as abrasion resistant as some of the other finishes out there, but their flexibility helps to prevent damage as well. If the environmental aspect does not matter to you, acrylics tend to be a bit easier to screen for future applications of new finish layers over time.

With floating cork floors, some will require an underlayment and others will recommend it, but in the end if you want to ensure you get a quieter floor, use some underlayment and stick with cork. using 3mm or 6mm cork under a floating cork floor keeps the same density, which means the floor will have a consistent feel under foot, just enough cushion to be comfortable, but dense enough to sound and feel more like a solid wood floor. Floating cork floors feature locking systems very similar to laminate - so your installer should be able to easily install a floating cork floor.

For cork manufacturer's there are several very good ones out there, with APC, Eurocork and Westhollow being my preferences. This ties into the press question you have as well as most of the better manufacturers are made in Europe. All corks are not equal! Typically the cork flooring getting a bad rep is the stuff made in China where manufacturing processes are less stringent and the final flooring produced rarely meets E1 or lower emission standards. European made cork floors on the other hand, especially those made in Portugal, go under very stringent processes and are some of the most environmentally friendly floors available today.

Overall you are on a pretty good track with Eurocork, though you might also want to check out APC's plank collections as these are another great color choice for floating cork. Choose a finish that fits your taste and you should be all set.

Q: It seems we have inadvertently turned one of our bedrooms into a cat box. As our cute little feline would have it, the carpet is now destroyed. Under the carpet was once beautiful hardwood. I had bought a nice Berber to replace the carpet, but have since thought twice about installing it towards its certain doom.

Your help and advice is greatly appreciated.
Jeff

A: With wood floors, pet urine can do some pretty nasty things. Unlike normal spills of other moisture, pet urine tend to causes a blackening when absorbed into wood as well as any other warping issues. Assuming the floor is still in good shape once you remove the current carpet, you will want to have the wood flooring sanded down to prepare for a finish. Before applying any finish, if you wish to stain the floor, make sure you apply your stain.

As far as a finish is concerned, this will act as a seal to prevent moisture from getting through to the wood, but it is not fool proof. Even with multiple layers of site applied finish, there is still a chance that some moisture can get past the finish layer to the wood beneath. Now if messes are attended to fairly quickly, within a couple of minutes or so, then you should have a slim chance of any problems happening to the flooring, but if its likely some messes will be left for several hours, while at work for instance, then you might be better off looking into a product which is waterproof such as vinyl or linoleum.

Unfortunately, despite what is applied to the top of the wood surface, there is no way to make a floor truly prevent any chance of moisture damage despite sealing products and finishes - so if you will be having to keep up with your feline friend, your best bet is to look into a flooring option which is built to take this type of abuse.