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Choosing a Custom-made Wood Floor
Lancaster, PA (Fall 2006) – The idea of creating your own custom wood floor is an unusual new way of adding uniqueness and personality to your home. Like custom kitchens and baths, you can now specify your own custom wood floor including the wood species, the finish it will have, its surface texture, whether the boards will be wide or thin, random or consistent lengths and even whether the wood is reclaimed or antique.
T. Morton & Co. Custom Wood Flooring is one of the few wood flooring makers that offers truly custom created wood flooring. And, like anything that is made especially for you, this is an opportunity to be completely involved in the decision making process. Keep in mind, makers of custom products keep no finished inventory on hand, so you can specify virtually anything you’d like. But it is a process.
When beginning to think about custom wood flooring, be sure to do your homework. Ask yourself what you want out of your wood floor. Be sure to visit web sites and home furnishings magazines to research custom flooring options. Talk to people (especially interior designers and custom builders) who have gone through the process of choosing custom wood floors.
Once you’ve checked resources, it’s time to get to connect with a flooring design specialist – someone who will guide you through the entire process from inspiring your initial ideas to installing your new floor. T. Morton certified wood flooring specialists can answer your questions and give you guidance on how to select the best options. Tell them about how your home lives, whether it’s an active or quiet space, and especially whether you have pets. The flooring design specialist will be able to refer woods and finishes that are more or less durable. As well as help you order samples to compare various finishes and textures.
A wide variety of choices is the primary advantage and largest benefit of investing in a custom wood floor. But, carefully navigating the steps of choosing a custom wood floor is almost important as the finished product.
Solid or Engineered – wood profile or platform
The first consideration should be the wood profile or platform, solid or engineered. Solid boards are the wood’s natural cut and can be laid into any floor. Made of 100% solid wood, traditional floors feature a 3/4" thick construction designed for nail-down installation to wood subfloors in rooms on the first floor or above. Engineered boards, however, feature a 100% wood construction assembled in multiple layers. The wood layers are permanently bonded together in a cross-ply construction for superior strength and dimensional stability. This makes them suitable for installation in any room, including basements. They can be glued directly to concrete, or stapled to wood subfloors. Your subfloor, as well as the wear and tear your hardwood floor may sustain, needs to be considered when making your decision.
The floor platform decision will impact your next decisions, specifically wood species and color. Some species are more suited to solid platforms rather than engineered platforms, and vice versa.
Wood Species and Color
Choosing wood species and color is the next step when selecting your custom wood floor. From T. Morton, for example, there are domestic and exotic species of wood from which you may choose. They offer various domestic species from the forests of Canada, New England and Pennsylvania including Maple, Oak, Cherry, Walnut and many more. Exotics, from around the world, including Bubinga: a beautiful pink-red hardwood, also known as African Rosewood that has a mix of straight and interlocking grains and matures to a deep burgundy red, and many more.
When selecting your wood species you will be making decisions about durability, texture, and color. Some species may dictate what your color options are. The wonderful advantage of custom flooring is the ability to decide to stain, paint or “go natural” when deciding on color. Many choose a custom color to match existing furniture or cabinetry.
Widths and Lengths
Another benefit of purchasing custom flooring is the selection of widths and sometimes depending on the species, you may be able to choose longer lengths, or customize your floor with random widths and/or lengths. T. Morton & Co. Custom Wood Flooring has always prided itself on the fact that its milling is among the most precise in the world. A selection of wood widths is offered ranging from 3" to 12" with boards available up to 10 feet in length. “Larger spaces with wide width planks have been the hip wood floor look as of late,” state Joe Guarino of T. Morton & Co. Custom Wood Flooring. “There are always a few trends that garner a lot of attention in wood flooring at any given time. We are seeing a lot of custom coloring and custom sculpting going hand in hand with the attraction to the wider wood planks,” Guarino has noticed. “Board width is only one of the many choices you have when it comes to creating your very own custom wood floor.”
Surface treatments and textures
The next important decision is how you would like to custom appoint your custom wood floor. The appointment or treatment can change the look and feel of each wood to better match a unique style. There are numerous appointments to consider – handsculpted, wirebrushed, or French Bleed to name a few, or you might choose not to treat the floor at all. Surface treatments are visual and tactile options that can be important to setting your wood floor apart from all others.
Finishes
Last but certainly not least, finishing your custom wood floor is important to completing a distinct look. T. Morton will coat the wood with a top of the line urethane finish in matte, medium or higher gloss, to give it a rich look and protect it for the many years. Or you might choose other finishing methods including hand-rubbed oil or classic hand wax finishes; and the face grain can be filled or unfilled. You decide.
Once you’ve decided on each of these custom wood floor options, samples are made, and you can adjust your decisions as appropriate.With custom wood flooring nothing is made before you give the ok. Certainly this process – from ideas to installation – does take more time, and is slightly more costly than traditional pre-built wood flooring. The drawback of traditional stock flooring, however, is that you are purchasing something that was built to generic specifications and lacks a perfect fit with both your home and your style.With custom wood flooring you are the one in control. stock products, custom wood flooring eliminates the frustration of not getting exactly what you want. The result is a gorgeous hard wood floor, designed by you and is yours alone.
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