Mesquite Hardwood Flooring - Will It Survive the Dog, the Cat and the Kids?
By Karen Lacasse

Flooring of any sort, probably takes more abuse then any other decorating feature of your home. The pets race across the floor to attract attention and bond with the family members and the kids respond with all kinds of toys in tow. And your flooring, well it’s expected to endure all and still add beauty and class to any home environment. Can a Mesquite Hardwood Floor meet this challenge?

Well first it might be important to understand how all lumber is tested for durability. Of course durability in itself can imply many different things from impact resiliency expected in a baseball bat to the environment ability of planking on a wood strip canoe to survive weather issues, but in this case we are being very specific.

Durability of a wood used for a hardwood floor is in reference to its compression, or dent resistance. It is a measure of the amount of force required to push a .444 inch diameter steel ball half way into a piece of wood. It is referred to as the Janka Rating.

In layman’s terms it is a way to measure the hardness of a particular wood. It gives the consumer some idea on how easy it will be to scratch any particular floor while moving furniture around, or corralling the children.

Wood Flooring Hardness Rating: Mesquite Hardwood Flooring?

Mesquite lumber is rather unique in that it is the hardest of all typical North American woods. It has a Janka Rating of 2345, putting it well ahead of the normal species of flooring like red oak and hard maple with an under 1500 Janka wood floor hardness rating. Mequite wood then is almost double in dent resistance.

For the consumer this suggests that a mesquite wood floor will certainly handle the abuse without showing signs of wear as quickly as some of the more traditional woods.

If you would like the more basic consumer test without having to rely of a set of lab generated numbers just lift up a box of hardwood flooring. Mesquite will weigh in at more than three pounds per square foot of three-quarter inch thick hardwood flooring. Then lift up an equivalent box of oak or maple hardwood. The weight should give you some idea. The heavier the wood then obviously the more difficult it will be to damage.

Note that when discussing a wood floor hardness rating, Mequite is ranked harder than all North American species but this is not meant to suggest that it is the hardest wood species on the global flooring marketplace. We can find wood floors like IPE that rank well above 3,000 so keep in mind that this scale is relative!

This is only one of the advantages of Mesquite Wood Flooring and you may wish to research it further to get a more complete understanding of what you have in the way of design options and other appealing wood characteristics that make it a great hardwood flooring to survive the dog, the cat and the kids.

Karen Lacasse draws on 25+ years of woodworking experience, both as a woodworking teacher and industrial woodworker/owner of Lacasse Fine Wood Products. She is the author behind woodsthebest.com where you will find articles and resources to help with all your home renovation projects.

She designs woodworking craft patterns and shares her wood crafting knowledge at theWoodBox.com

Staining Hardwood Floors
By Niv Orlian

Between hardwood floors and furniture pieces, the latter tend to be changed much more often. If you've had hardwood floors for a while, you know firsthand the design or aesthetic problems that come up whenever you change your furniture pieces. At one time, your furniture and hardwood floor matched visually. However, when you put in new furniture without really thinking about the color of your hardwood floor, that's when compatibility issues arise.

There is really no need to take out the entire hardwood floor just so it would match new furniture. Doing so is time-consuming and can get rather expensive, particularly if you tend to change or add new furniture pieces often. Staining is the better option. It's less costly to staining hardwood floors than to install completely new hardwood flooring.

Staining is actually one aspect of the hardwood refinishing process. To effectively stain hardwood floors, it should be done between buffing the floor and applying the finish. Staining is usually done not with the intention of changing the color of floors, but with the intention of enforcing their color. In this regard, staining is useful for bringing back a floor's color, which tends to gradually faded over time.

How stains penetrate depends on the type of woods. For instance, staining is much more effective on floors made from open-grained woods like ash, oak, pecan or walnut because stain colors for hardwood flooring of these types tend to penetrate deeper. Hardwood floors made from closed-grain woods like birch or maple tend to not stain as well. Thus, before you start a staining project, make sure you know the wood type of your floor so you can choose the right stain to use.

The right stain is based on the type of wood your floor is made of as well as what you want the floor to look like after the staining process. Do you just want to improve your floor's current color? If so, choose from among the many pigmented penetration sealer stains. These stains won't obscure your floor's natural wood grain. Are you looking to change the color of your hardwood floor? Then go with any of the oil-based pigmented stains available. These stains are known to accentuate the floor's grain patter. However, be aware that oil-based pigmented stains, if applied in excess, tend to shorten the life of wood.

Make sure that the floor is clean and clear before applying stain. It's a good idea to spend more time thoroughly cleaning the floor if you have just sanded and buffed it. Otherwise, you'll end up with different stain colors for hardwood flooring boards in one floor area. Instead of the boards absorbing the stain, the debris in and on the floor will absorb the stain.

When you're ready to stain your hardwood floors, you'll need the following materials: wood stain, clean rags and knee pads. Once you have all the materials you need, follow this 5-step process of:

1. Thoroughly clean the hardwood floor.

2. Ensure that the room you'll be working in is well-ventilated. Open up windows or turn on your vents. Stains emit harmful fumes.

3. Wear your knee pads when you stain your hardwood floor. It would be better to wear work clothes during staining. Wear long sleeve, pants and gloves to prevent the stain from coming in contact with your skin.

4. Apply stain on your hardwood floor section by section. After staining each section, wipe off excess stain with a clean rag. This speeds up the drying process.

5. When you have stained the entire floor area, let the stain dry overnight. The drying process may take longer if you applied too much stain, if the room has poor ventilation or if the temperature is too low.

Niv Orlian is an experienced Home Improvement Adviser who writes articles for his Flooring & Carpet Cleaning online guides.

Visit myflooringhelper.com to learn more about Staining Hardwood Floors

Vintage Hardwood Flooring From Appalachian
By Jenna Laine

Longing for a hardwood floor that has a timeworn look and has been gently smoothed by footsteps? Appalachian Flooring has unveiled two collections to appease your taste - Vineyard and Timeworn. There's something magical about an antique hardwood floor. It bears the markings from generations of supporting a family. It's classically beautiful, and is one commonality in a home that can transcend various periods and trends of time.

Appalachian's Vineyard collection is characterized by a unique staining process to accentuate the rings and grooves of maple, birch, and hickory woods. The result is a polished-looking piece of history. If you want a floor with depth and dimension with dynamic color variations, Pomerol Fumed Birch is truly spectacular hardwood with shades of umber and burnt sienna. Unlike some of the others in this collection, it's available in 4 1/2 inch planks. If you like light floors, the butterscotch-colored Chablis Maple floor is a fine choice, and comes in the 6 ¼ inch planks that are typical with the Vineyard Collection.

The Timeworn Collection from Appalachian is available in Maple, Oak, and Hickory Species, and features a magnificent array of burnished hardwoods. Each plank is hand-sculpted and beveled so the floors have a graceful softness to them. The collection is available in eight different colors.

Timeworn Autumn Vista is made from Maple, and has a smooth, satiny appearance, with a coppery color reminiscent of fallen leaves that accompany the changing seasons. Morning Blush is another show-stopper with a rich red that takes on the slightest hint of burgundy. All boards in this collection come in 4 ½ inch widths with a ½ inch thickness. If you're considering a hardwood flooring purchase, consider contacting an authorized Appalachian retailer and installation specialist. They can help you sort through color choices, discuss warranties, and came ensure your floor is installed perfectly. You already admire floors that have withstood the test of time. Yours should too!

Appalachian Timeworn Hardwood

Timeworn Morning Blush

Maple Flooring
By Nazimabee Woozeer

Flooring is a very important interior design and decoration factor of a building. It shows the taste and likeness of ones. Now a days fashion and decoration almost totally depends on flooring. The flooring should be like something that goes with wide range of furniture of wide range of colors and their arrangement.

There are like a thousand types of flooring that can be found. Those are of different purpose to use in different places like for house, gymnasium, dance room or hospital. Different provider comes with different price and quality. You should consider some prerequisite in order to choose any flooring. Maple flooring is one of the amazing flooring with quality surfaces one can get. The most crucial thing is to choose the right grade of maples you want to get.

Maple flooring has much better qualities. It is very easy to clean because it is very hard and also highly long lasting. It of course will increase the value of ones house. It has a unique design pattern and such natural color that goes with almost all the home interior arrangement and settings and styles from old times to modern. Northern maple can be used because it is inexhaustible, reclaimable and recyclable. The maple used for the northern flooring is produced with careful caring so that the maples are of high quality. The producer gives the guarantee that the flooring will show that exact quality promised by the producer.

There are many grades available. Northern maple is of three grades. First grade, which is the highest possible standard grade. In this grade the ingredient is selected in order to downplay the natural quality fluctuation. Second & better grade is the one commonly used flooring; this type of flooring displays much more fluctuations than the first one. Third Grade is that grade which has the exact same structural wholeness and more natural fluctuation than the first two grades.

In the environment where maple floors will be installed such as homes where the temperature of air will be between 55-75 degrees and also humidity around 35 to 50 percent, the maple flooring will be recommended according to the manufacturers. Because the moisture is absorbed by the maple wood which will cause to swell the wood and also the absence of moisture will cause the wood to shrink. So in order to use the maple flooring one should consider installing the maple flooring where it will last a bit of time like two or more years. The maple floors will response to the climate change and in a periodic cycle it will loose its service time. In order to increase the useful life of maple flooring you should be careful about the temperature and humidity.

For more information on new floors please visit http://www.newfloors.org.

Guide to Mirage Hardwood Flooring
By Justin Holbert

The purpose of this article is to provide a general guide to all of Mirage's current product line and availability. Mirage's product line can be broken down into three main categories: Solid, Engineered, and Mirage Lock. Each of these categories is discussed below in details of what species and widths are available within each collection. Mirage is also a leader in offering different grades and finishes (gloss levels) or their various products.

In the 3/4" solid collection of Mirage hardwood flooring there are several domestic and exotic species. The domestic species include American Cherry, American Walnut, Beech, Maple, Red Oak, White Ash, and Yellow Birch. All of the domestic species are offered in the 2-1/4", 2-1/2" and 3-1/4" wide planks. The maple and red oak species are offered in 4-1/4" wide planks in the exclusive (natural) and stained finishes. Several of the species are offered in a more traditional or classic width of 2", which include the American cherry, American walnut, natural maple. natural red oak, white ash, and yellow birch. Unfortunately the beech is not offered in the 2" wide planks. Mirage also offers a unique variable staining process that recreates a sought-after antique look. The Sweet Memories stains are available on the 3-1/4" solid maple in Toffee and Truffle. Also in the solid collection as two exotic species in Brazilian Cherry and Tigerwood. Both species are only offered in the 3-1/4" wide planks. When looking at the milling and grading processes that Mirage puts their solid hardwood flooring collection through, it is unsurpassed in the industry.

In the engineered collection all of the same species are offered and several exotic species have been added. The new species are Breza, Koubari, Santos Mahogany (Cabrueva), and Sapele. All of the engineered products from Mirage come with a sawn hardwood layer that is 4 mm (5/32") thick. The thicknesses vary according to the width of the product. The 2-9/16" and 3-5/16" products are 3/8" thick, while the 5" wide product is 1/2" thick. All of the engineered products have a four sided micro-V bevel. All of Mirage's engineered can be installed on, above, or below grade and are radiant heat approved except the Brazilian cherry and koubari. With a 4mm sawn wood layer on top one can still enjoy the hardwood floor and have added stability of an engineered product.

The Mirage Lock system is a glueless floating hardwood flooring system. This system was developed to give the DIY consumer a chance to install their own hardwood floor. The Mirage Lock is currently only available in three species maple, red oak, and sapele. The product is 4-5/16" long and is 7/16" thick and is constructed with a 2mm (3/32") top layer. The Mirage lock floor is designed for the end user in mind and gives the consumer to install the product themselves and save a little or installation labor.

Mirage flooring is an industry leader in quality and craftsmanship.

For advice, reviews, or installation questions on Mirage hardwood flooring visit http://www.truehardwoods.com/mirage_hardwood_flooring.html and we'll gladly help you.