Help with Hickory Floors!
Jay Muse
6 years ago
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zealart
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoJay Muse
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Help with flooring/paint to go with hickory cabinets
Comments (4)Gray taupe would be pretty and maybe a green with a gray undertone? I have also taken pics of my house with samples of my cabs and counter to sherwin Williams or Ben Moore and have found their paint experts to be spot on picking the right colors. Sometimes computer monitors can show colors way different than they appear in real life. I really like your cabs by the way!...See MoreAfraid to commit to hickory hardwood floors... Help!
Comments (19)We have solid, site-finished, 5" hickory planks in our house. We like them, but, I'm actually writing this to tell you to be very cautious about hickory floors. We've stained our floors dark and have a hardwax oil finish. Our floors were stained dark because we did not like the strong orange/yellow undertones. Staining dark is, imo, the only way to reduce or eliminate the orange/yellow tones and, from what we experienced, hickory is not easy to stain and also not easy to stain evenly. I know that first floor you posted is blonde/brown and beautiful, but, beware.... Hickory yellows over time, with exposure to light. They call it "ambering." I may be mistaken, but I am not sure if any finish will prevent color change of the wood, itself, over time. Someone else may know more about this. But...be very careful and do your homework before you purchase. So far as humidity fluctuations and hickory, I don't think that there's any way you're going to get away with solid hickory in your state unless you are highly committed to very tightly controlling humidity levels in your home. We live in CA, where we do not experience fluctuations in humidity that are anywhere near what you get, and our floors expand a little in the summer and contact a little in the winters, and so we do see some cracks open up a bit here and there in the winters. We knew hickory was a relatively unstable wood when we installed it and so we knew we'd see a bit of movement, so we were prepared for this. It was one of the factors that led us to use a hardwax oil vs a water or oil based polyurethane. If you are uncertain if hickory is for you, or if you like the blonde/brown look of that first floor you posted and you would be unhappy if you floor had, or developed, yellow/orange undertones like the second floor, I think you need to rethink hickory. Start asking questions about yellowing over time. Some finishes yellow over time and so you will hear about this. But, wood also changes color over time. Will any finish prevent this? I don't know. Finally, know that there is significant variation in color even with select and better hickory. I think that it's possible that one of the things you dislike about the second floor you posted is that you can see where the planks meet up....one plank is dark, the next is light, maybe a solid dark plank meets a plank that's half dark and half light. This phenomenon is not so obvious is the first photo, because that photo covers a much smaller area vs the photo of the second floor, which is of the entire room. But, I'd advise thinking about this. Some planks will be dark, some will be light. Many will have both dark and light areas. One plank may have a 1/2 inch strip of light on the left. Another may have 4 inches of darker wood on the left, etc., etc. Think about how the planks will look when installed, both next to each other and also where they meet on the ends. Plank length matters so far as overall look too. Your first photo looks like it has longer planks than the second floor....See MoreNational Flooring Products hickory floor....good, or look elsewhere?
Comments (6)The link is great in general but doesn't help with your choice. These numbers are great when working with SOLID hardood...but it doesn't do much for engineered hardoods. The info I could find on the product you are looking at is limited. Which means there is no way to make a specific statement on the product you are looking at....because there is no information on it. Just some nice looking 'brochures' that say very little. As for the cores, the top wear layer should be as close to the same 'movement' as the layer it is attached to. This prevents the adhesive from being torn apart due to the shear forces placed on it by the top layer moving and the lower layers not moving (yah...you would think it would be a good thing...but you want the two to work in harmony). And a 'good' engineered hardwood has a bottom layer that is equal in thickness and wood species as the top layer. That is to say if you have a wear layer of 2mm hickory you want to see a 'balancing layer' at the bottom of 2mm hickory. That is often MISSING on the cheapo products. The issues I have with hardwood sitting on some of the cores you mention:: HDF (High Density Fibreboard) = HDF is VERY dynamic in all 6 directions vs. hardwood being more dynamic across the grain (depending on the cut). HDF does VERY well with cork because cork moves in all 6 directions as well...very much in tandem step with HDF. Other wood species do NOT move in that same way. Stone-cores: Wood moves...stone cores (SPC or WPC) do not. Again, the wood is MORE dynamic than the thing it is sitting on therefore putting strain on the adhesive = possibility of delamination. Soft-wood plies: can work very well but can be horribly unstable. It depends on the QUALITY of these plies from the manufacturer. Many of the soft wood plies come from Russia (in violation of International treaties). These soft woods are sourced from Tiger habitat and are sold en masse to China through back-door deals through a leaky boarder system (again they are horribly illegal which makes them SOOOO very lucrative for the foresters AND the Chinese companies purchasing them). These plies have a tendency to have LARGE voids in them. Either there is wood missing OR there is ADHESIVE missing...and often BOTH are missing. There is nothing worse than spending money (not much...but some) on a hardwood floor only to have it show BIG dents simply because the lower layers collapse because of these voids. I would get more information on the product with only 2mm wear layer on it. I would want to see the 2mm bottom 'balancing' layer come up as 2mm Hickory. That's your "Red Flag". If it is there then you can feel confident the product is OK. If it is missing then you know this one can be kicked to the curb....See Morehas anyone used pm flooring grand mesa hickory big sand for flooring?
Comments (3)What are you asking? I do not like hickory it is IMO too busy but that is also decided on many things so I need more info and you need to understand seeing this in someone elses space will not be helpful...See Morerwiegand
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6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoCinar Interiors, Inc.
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