Hand-Scraped Hardwood Flooring: The Dream Floor for your Home

Apart from looking rich and elegant, hand-scraped hardwood is attracting buyers with its manifold features, affordable price tags and versatile designs.

The popularity of hand-scraped hardwood flooring has been flourishing since the past several years. This smart flooring solution has offered a distinctive look to the dream houses of many, and continues to do so. Since there are various manufacturers presenting their unique collections differing in texture, colors, patters, etc., one’s creation of hand-scraped floors would definitely differ from that of others. Here, you get to read more about why should be choosing the look imparted by hardwood for your floors too

Hand-scraped Wood Floorings - How are they created?

The best quality hand-scraped floors are manufactured with three to twelve layers of plywood that are placed in a specialized way, stuck with high-quality adhesives, and compressed together. The core layers on the inner side are constructed with either a hardwood or soft plywood materials that form the tongue and copse system for fastening along the borders. The thick layer on the top is then glued and compressed over the top end of the core. These types of hand-scraped engineered hardwood flooring can be sought in most species of wood.

Due to the growing popularity of engineered hardwood flooring, nowadays, manufacturers have started using innovative methods for recreating “the antique look” in their factory units. Yes, the use of automated machines for creating hand-scraped wood flooring is evolving as a common way for manufacturers, globally. So, if you are also looking for proven means of getting a traditional and warm touch to your contemporary-styled home or office, then hardwood floors are surely the right way to go.

Advantages of using engineered wooden floors

These forms of hand-scraped hardwood floors are more resistance to high levels of moisture than their solid, wood structured counterparts. This feature enhances their demand for damp basements, or in regions where lower levels of humidity prevail all across the year. Another attractive feature of such flooring is that they can be directly glued upon concrete slabs, or nailed upon a wooden subfloor. Additionally, hand-scraped wood flooring possesses the same resale value as ¾” solid wood flooring; this comes in handy if owners decide to sell their home at any given time in future.

Where should you place your concerns?

While choosing luxury hand-scraped vinyl floors for your home, it is a good idea to have a prior understanding of your demands. Also, try to select the best flooring solution that matches your needs to the furthest possible limits. Secondarily, determine the features of the area on which you are planning to lay out the wooden flooring. In terms of durability, quality hand-scrapedengineered hardwood floorings are durable and long-lasting; they are commonly seen in shopping malls and airports, places that experience huge foot traffic.

Measuring for Hardwood Flooring-Engineering

Considering the fact that engineered floorings are sold as per square foot, it becomes essential to measure the square feet area of your floor; believe us, it is quite an easy task. All you need to do is take the length and breadth of the room, and multiply the two figures for arriving at the square footage. Now with the calculated square feet area, 5% area would have to be added for cutting and fitting wastages.

Expectations while Choosing a Hand-Scraped Wood Flooring Style

One important tip before you choose a style relates to gaining as much knowledge about your purchase beforehand. As you look around, you will find a number of grades that possess their own specific price category and visuals. You may also like to keep in mind that prefinished hand-scraped hardwood floorings are available in almost all types of species and colors. Nevertheless, do know that hardwood flooring is completely natural, and no two pieces would look similar. Additionally, as wooden floors are not as perfect as their synthetically produced cousins, it would be a smart move to buy 5% to 10% more than your actual requirements as provision for wastages.

Choose from a hundreds of color and styling

The first image that probably comes to mind when you plan to install hand-scraped hardwood floor is that of the standard red strip oak that is ¾ inches thick and has a width of 2 ¼ inches. But then, hardwood floorings can be obtained in different sizes ranging from 3 to 6 inches, or even more; such large-sized pieces are known as plank floors. The prefinished versions of hardwood flooring are available in various forms, generally of 5/16 to ¾ inches thickness and 12 to 84 inches length. Additionally, if you are seeking for a size that is not generally available in prefinished versions, then you may go for Custom Milled Unfinished flooring solutions that are available in different sizes, as per your requirements.

Avoid Cracks, splits and gaps in hardwood flooring

Going by the structure of their cells, most hardwood species are hygroscopic, which indicates that the level of moisture absorption in them is dependent upon the level of relative humidity present in the atmosphere. If the relative humidity around the atmosphere goes below 30%, which generally happens during the dry season, such wood species may release stored moisture for their sustenance. This loss would cause board contractions that will leave behind gaps in the installed boards.

On the other hand, some boards may buckle up due to excessive humidity during spring, rainy and summer seasons. For avoiding gaps and splits, it is recommended that soon after their delivery, you should allow the planks to get accustomed to the new environment for a period of say 7 days before they are installed. However, try not to store the hand-scraped hardwood floors in places like sheds or garages where the levels of temperatures or moisture may vary to a great extent.

Installing hand-scraped floors- A few tips before you install!

The first thing that you need to do is introduce your newly purchased flooring materials to the relative humidity prevailing in your environment. Factors of moisture and dryness adjustment are also important before you trigger off the installation process. Preparing the subfloor before installation would create the proper ground for the accurate and smooth laying out of these hand-scraped hardwood boards.

Expansion of solid planks and the contraction process along the boards’ edges has to be taken care of while matching up with new floor boards. Now that you have become well acquainted with the art of choosing the wood species, with domestic species such as red oak, white oak or maple being the best possible selections, you will love to add a new touch of glamour to your home.