At Solu Flooring, 4 North American wood species stand out particularly for hardwood flooring projects and for wall hardwood projects. Maple, white oak, black walnut and hickory are the main trends and generally meet customer needs.

MAPLE

Maple is very uniform in appearance and has a closed grain. We see a rather soft veining and a marked variation in color. This is our quintessential Quebec essence, the background of its color is rather rosy if we compare with the other species. Exceptionally, some boards can take on a quilted or striped appearance, giving it even more charm and movement. We always offer a hard (sugar) maple, watch out for the silver maple which can be offered to you in a more or less clear way, it is much softer.

Fun fact: Maple charcoal is needed in the Tennessee Whiskey making process
WHITE OAK

White oak is one of the best-selling species in North America due to its versatility and its rather stable and uniform coloring. Its cathedral-like veining allows us to brush more or less pronounced and has the advantage of well camouflaging the signs of aging. Its rather golden and brown hue makes it different from red oak which will be more rosy. White oak gives us a lot of latitude in bleached colors. It is also possible to make 2-tone finishes. The process is roughly the following: we brush the wood and apply a first shade. Sanding is done leaving the color in the veining only. A second color is then applied allowing a very surprising contrast. Also white oak works well in special rift and quarter cuts.

Fun fact: The barrels in which red wine, white wine, scotch and the like are aged are oak barrels. In addition, white oak chips are also used to smoke some foods.
BLACK WALNUT

Black walnut has a unique very silky appearance. Naturally dark brown, this essence is rather tender. It is less suitable for a very active home where the impacts are numerous (children’s toys, animals). The natural coloring of the wood can be very different from one lot to another, sometimes orange, sometimes black its appearance can hardly be imitated with another species. We find the dark brown coming from the heart of the wooden block and the pale beige part called sapwood.

Fun fact: the use of black walnut is very popular in the manufacture of furniture, counters and cabinets of prestige.

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HICKORY

Hickory is the hardest North American gasoline available, making it a popular choice for animal lovers. A hickory hardwood floor with an oiled finish is the best choice to withstand a healthy dog for many years. A pronounced color variation definitely characterizes the floor surface although a dark stain can lighten it. Unlike other species, walnut tends to fade on exposure to light rather than darken.

Fun fact: This wood species is often used for making percussion sticks and tool handles due to its hardness and impact resistance.

Other North American hardwood species are available such as ash, cherry and red oak. We work with all the wood species mentioned above, both in solid and in engineering. It will be our pleasure to advise you on the most suitable wood species for your lifestyle.

We often dream of finding an ideal home with a theme that reflects various aspects of our own personality. Some prefer a stylish home with floor-to-ceiling windows and a minimalist theme, while others want their home to be bursting with color and warmth. Whatever theme they wish to have to set the mood, it is widely believed that hardwood floors can make any home look extremely chic. Whether you want a home dotted with stylish furnishings with a myriad of intricate patterns or plush comfy furniture for the whole family, hardwood floors would add warmth and class to any theme possible. Shades of neutral brown also contrast well with light colors while also highlighting dark colors. This ensures that they are suitable regardless of the colors or patterns laid on them.

What sets hardwood floors apart?

The wood has been used not only to build houses, but also for all floor plans for quite some time now. It is safe to say that it has retained its elegance over the countless years it has been used to decorate homes. That’s why it’s widely known to be a fairly classic choice, although classic in this case, it certainly doesn’t mean boring. This is also reiterated by the fact that new items and types keep being added to bring more variety to meet all kinds of preferences. It’s no wonder that it remains one of the most popular and beloved choices to this day.

One of the biggest advantages of hardwood floors is their ability to be fresh and available for use for an extended period of time. Sanding can just do it, even a few years after it’s installed, that’s where the real magic lies. Since hardwood floors are generally around 0.75 inches thick, it is quite normal and practical to sand them. You can do this about 5 times at most before it’s time to start thinking about your new floor options. It’s a clear clue that longevity just won’t be a burden on your shoulders when it comes to this.

Flat sawn hardwood flooring:

While hardwood floors themselves have several types of alignment, flat-sawn hardwood flooring is one of the most popular. It is also known as regular sawn hardwood flooring and differs mainly in the way its wood planks are cut. If you are on a budget and want your home decorated with hardwood flooring, this would be an ideal choice. This is because it is a very common way to cut a log and shape it into regular planks. Often it is cut at a 30 degree to 45 degree angle, tangent to the actual log growth rings. Not only does it shape the log the way it is intended, but you can also observe exquisite but unusual patterns that trail along their smooth surfaces.

If you want to revel in the benefits of this specific type of parquet, luckily there are several to think about. The first and most obvious is clearly the aesthetic aspect that is sure to provide once the addition is made to your home. An important quality among these soils is to check whether or not they are affected by knots of any kind. A lot of floors seem to have this problem because it can weaken them or even make them unsuitable for use, but this doesn’t seem to extend much to flat-sawn hardwood floors. This is because they have regular round or oval knots which aren’t much of a problem. For a lower price, you can get wide planks which are all the rage these days. You also won’t find many shakes, which are long slits or even pitch pockets, which is an opening between the rings of the tree, which just adds to its ideal image. There is no need to fear that the ground will collapse as it dries because it holds well.

Quarter-sawn hardwood flooring:

Another addition to the popular and aesthetic hardwood floors simply requires the addition of quarter-sawn hardwood flooring to the list. Not only is it popular for the beautiful image it creates in homes, but its quality is also unmatched. Whether you want to limit this type of room to just one room or extend it throughout the house, it will certainly provide a charming touch in either case. However, its real benefits can be seen beyond its surface. According to its name, the log is first cut into quarters at an angle of 60 degrees to 90 degrees. If you have extensive knowledge of floors, you certainly know that small spaces can start to occur after a while creating an uneven look. This happens because of the shrinkage of the grain. This is also not a problem you need to worry about in this type of parquet.

Most of the time you will find these boards in a fairly narrow model, but that doesn’t completely cut off the possibility of acquiring it in a wide model instead. To give you more variety, you can get this type of parquet in a wide range of types belonging to the hardwood itself. This can include white oak, walnut, red oak, and even black cherry wood, giving you whatever vibe you want it to give off.

In sum:

Every home needs all of its essentials to look and feel complete. It goes without saying that the flooring is definitely one of those elements. Known for having a solid wood interior and an impressive selection of various types of woods and cuts to use, people wouldn’t even have to look anywhere else when they have everything they need here. 5

Material check It is of paramount importance to check your equipment as soon as it arrives. The points to check are: species, width, grade, color and luster. Your installer should be able to do this with you. If you suspect a problem, please notify the distributor or manufacturer immediately. Unless there is a defect not visible to the eye, the general rule is that an installed floor is an accepted floor. Humidity Ambient The installation of the wood floor is usually just after the joint pulling and painting steps. The next step is probably the installation of the kitchen. During the previous 2 steps, your floor generates a lot of humidity in your house, which often increases the ambient percentage. A floor installation should ideally be between 40 and 55% to ensure good performance throughout the year. Sub-floor A plywood sub-floor has its own moisture level which can be transmitted to the floor when the 2 materials come into contact. The percentage must not exceed 12%. Floor The wood floor should have an internal humidity between 6 and 9%. The gap between the sub-floor and the wood planks must not exceed 4%. Acclimatization Wood flooring is a living material that will continue to move throughout its life. It is important to let it rest in the rooms where it will be installed for a minimum of 72 hours so that it takes on the general atmosphere of the house. Arrange the floor boxes raised off the ground, away from exterior walls and please do not store the boxes in the garage or basement while awaiting installation, better to delay delivery. Visual sorting In regular wood grades, the slats you will receive will have been sorted for quality. The fact remains that it is possible that to your eye, some boards do not please you. There are as many kinds of patterns and colors as there are trees in the forest. We recommend that the home owner be on site during installation and visually sort the boards. The undersides of cabinets and in wardrobes are strategic places to put the boards you like less. Accessories You will need several accessories to install your flooring. The reversal strips (key, tongue) are used to join two grooves in order to reverse the direction of installation of the floor and thus allow the use of the equipment. The need is when entering a new room in the house. Wax paper is placed between the subfloor and the floor to help decrease moisture transfer between the 2 materials. It comes in a 400 sq. Ft. Roll. The ventilation grids (register, hatch) are an interesting element to consider for a very integrated look. The ones we suggest are recessed and removable. The essence and finish will be the same as the floor for a very subtle look. Regular dimensions are 4 “x 10” which represents the size of the duct. The contours of the wooden grill are larger. Landing noses are very often required with your floor whenever there is a stairwell or a change in level in the house. Remember to order it at the same time as your flooring and longer than required in order to make the cuts on site. We offer the square or round nose. The bearing nose is often essential to start the installation because it is on this that the first row will be supported. All these accessories are available with your order.