Do you know what Wood Flooring is? If you are do not interact with construction industry such as wooden house, villa, hotel, and resort, wood for making floor might sounds not familiar to you. Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Wood is a common choice as a flooring material and can come in various styles, colors, cuts, and species. Even bamboo flooring is often considered a form of wood flooring, although it is made from bamboo instead of timber. Let’s get to know more about wood flooring by reading this article below.

Hardwood Flooring. Solid hardwood floors are made of planks milled from a single piece of timber. Solid hardwood floors were originally used for structural purposes, being installed perpendicular to the wooden support beams of a building known as joists or bearers. With the increased use of concrete as a subfloor in some parts of the world, engineered wood flooring has gained some popularity. However, solid wood floors are still common and popular, but are commonly more expensive and considered higher end.

Solid wood flooring manufacturing. Solid wood flooring is milled from a single piece of timber that is kiln or air dried before sawing. Depending on the desired look of the floor, the timber can be cut in three ways: flat-sawn, quarter-sawn, and rift-sawn. The timber is cut to the desired dimensions and either packed unfinished for a site-finished installation or finished at the factory. The moisture content at time of manufacturing is carefully controlled to ensure the product does not warp during transport and storage. A number of proprietary features for solid wood floors are available. Many solid woods come with grooves cut into the back of the wood that run the length of each plank, often called 'absorption strips,' that are intended to reduce cupping. Solid wood floors are mostly manufactured 0.75 inches (19 mm) thick with a tongue-and-groove for installation.

Wood manufacturing styles. There are many methods of manufacturing wood into various wooden products as described below.

1. Rotary-peel. This process involves treating the wood by boiling the log in water. After preparation, the wood is peeled by a blade starting from the outside of the log and working toward the center, thus creating a wood veneer. The veneer is then pressed flat with high pressure. This style of manufacturing tends to have problems with the wood cupping or curling back to its original shape. Rotary-peeled engineered hardwoods tend to have a plywood appearance in the grain.
2. Sliced-peel. This process begins with the same treatment process that the rotary peel method uses. However, instead of being sliced in a rotary fashion, with this technique the wood is sliced from the log in much the same manner that lumber is sawn from a log – straight through. The veneers do not go through the same manufacturing process as rotary peeled veneers. Engineered hardwood produced this way tends to have fewer problems with "face checking", and also does not have the same plywood appearance in the grain.
3. Dry solid-sawn. Instead of boiling the hardwood logs, in this method they are kept at a low humidity level and dried slowly to draw moisture from the inside of the wood cells. The logs are then sawn in the same manner as for solid hardwood planks. This style of engineered hardwood has the same look as solid hardwood, and does not have any of the potential problems of "face checking" that rotary-peel and slice-peel products have, because the product is not exposed to added moisture.

How to Install Wood Flooring? There are some methods that can be used for installing wood flooring as below detail.

1. Tongue-and-groove. One side and one end of the plank have a groove; the other side and end have a tongue (protruding wood along an edge's center). The tongue and groove fit snugly together, thus joining or aligning the planks, and are not visible once joined. Tongue-and-groove flooring can be installed by glue-down (both engineered and solid), floating (engineered only), or nail-down (both solid and engineered).
2. Click or Woodloc systems. There are a number of patented "click" systems that now exist. These click systems are either "unilin" or "fiboloc" A "click" floor is similar to tongue-and-groove, but instead of fitting directly into the groove, the board must be angled or "tapped" in to make the curved or barbed tongue fit into the modified groove. No adhesive is used when installing a "click" floor, making board replacement easier. This system not only exists for engineered wood floors but also engineered bamboo and a small number of solid floors (such as "parador solido click") and is designed to be used for floating installations. It is beneficial for the Do-It-Yourself market.
3. Floor connection system: There are a wide range of connection systems, as most of them are mill-specific manufacturing techniques. The general principle is to have grooves on all four sides of the plank with a separate, unconnected, piece that is inserted into the grooves of two planks to join them. The piece used for the connection can be made from wood, rubber, or plastic. This installation system allows for different materials (i.e. wood and metal) to be installed together if they have the same connection system.
4. Glue-down method. This is an especially popular method for solid parquet flooring installations on concrete sub-floors. Additionally, engineered wood flooring may use the glue-down method as well. A layer of mastic is placed onto the sub-floor using a trowel similar to those used in laying ceramic tile. The wood pieces are then laid on top of the glue and hammered into place using a rubber mallet and a protected 2x4 to create a level floor. Traditionally, parquet floors will require sanding and re-finishing after the glue-down installation method due to the small size pieces. However, most new Engineered Parquet blocks don't require this extra step.
5. Floating installation: A floating installation is where the flooring is installed on top of a layer of underlayment or moisture barrier. The individual planks are glued together using a tongue and groove adhesive such as PVA wood glue. Space for expansion should be left at the edges of the room. Cabinets and walls should not be installed on top of floating floors. Subfloors should be flat and it is not recommended to install on top of more than one layer of existing flooring.
6. Secret nailing. Offers similar benefits to the glue-down or fully bonded method for boards of at least 18mm. Thinner boards may require a glue-down or floating installation instead.

What type of finishing that can be applied on the wood flooring?

1. Polyurethane. Polyurethane floor finishes were first introduced around 1942. Water-based urethane is harder than oil-modified polyurethane and is much safer for the user. Within both categories there are many variations and other names used to describe the finish. They have very different refinishing and maintenance requirements.
2. Natural shellacs, lacquers, and varnishes were used in the past, as were waxes, often blended with oils.
3. Oil. Oiled floors have existed for several thousand years and is the most common floor finish used globally. Oils used for floor finishing are natural drying oils of vegetable origin that are not to be confused with petroleum-based oils and contain no VOCs. Pre-finished oil floors can be UV cured.
4. Brushed and oiled - Steel brushes are used in the direction of the grain which opens up the surface of the wood and removes splinters. The wood is then oiled.

Why Wood Flooring Need Buffing? Generally, older solid hardwood floors need to be buffed every 3–5 years. The process usually takes about one day. Buffing refers to the process of using a stand-up floor buffer. The floor is abraded with 180 grit screens on the buffer. This allows for the new coat of finish to mechanically adhere to the floor. This process works with great results as long as the floor hasn't had any waxes or synthetic cleaners. Factory finished floors do not require buffing.

How to Refinishing Wooden Floor? Sanding the finish off old wood floors and smoothing them out.

Why for we need sanding the wood flooring? Sanding provides a method for smoothing an installed floor, compensating for unevenness of the subfloor. Additionally, sanding is used to renew the appearance of older floors. Sanding using successively finer grades of sandpaper is required to ensure even stain penetration when stains are used, as well as to eliminate visible scratches from coarser sandpaper grades used initially. Prior to modern polyurethanes, oils and waxes were used in addition to stains to provide finishes. Beeswax and linseed oil, for example, are both natural crosslinking polymers and harden over time.

Is Wood Flooring Need Scraping? Prior to the 20th century, hardwood floors were refinished by scraping. This process revealed undamaged wood but left many shallow gouges in the floor. Scraping may be performed using such tools as chisels, planes, and cabinet scrapers. Modern methods duplicate this using proprietary machinery.

How About Indonesian Wood Flooring? What type of Indonesian hardwood that manufactured for wood flooring? Indonesian forests especially the forest of Kalimantan and Java, has various type of hardwood that usually harvested for manufacturing wooden products. The most often wood for manufacturing flooring are Teak, Merbau, Ulin, Sonokeling, Bengkirai, and Sungkai.

How to import Wood Flooring from Indonesia? If you are new to Indonesian Wood Flooring industry or wish to meet with new Indonesian Wood Flooring Manufacturer to upgrade your wood flooring business volume, there are many Indonesian sourcing agents who will be professionally happy to assist you identify the reliable Wood Flooring Manufacturer. Feel free to contact LUMASA for further assistances. LUMASA 24 hours support available at +62 812 2805 4565 or e-mail to [email protected]. Happy sourcing… Happy shopping!

Reference:

1. Wikipedia (2022, October 14) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_flooring
2. Courtina (n.d.) https://courtina.id/kayu-untuk-lantai/