Installing Mirage Lock Hardwood Flooring

The Mirage Lock video is a great example of some of the new prefinished wood floors that are available that do not require any glue, staples or nails during installation. (You will still need some wood cutting tools, etc.) Glueless wood floors (like Mirage Lock) are installed by floating the wood floor over the top of a wood sub-floor or fully-cured concrete slab.



The only thing I noticed when visiting their web site is the Mirage Lock has a "High-density fiberboard (HDF) core". The HDF core is what is used with laminate flooring. So this is really a laminate core construction with a real wood top layer. In other words, this is not a true engineered wood floor. None the less, it is an easy-to-install flooring option for someone who desires a wood floor appearance. Note: Mirage also manufactures real engineered wood floors as well.

Transitioning Wood Flooring Between 2 Rooms

Often homeowners want to have wood flooring installed in adjoining rooms. The question arises how to transition the wood planks in the doorway. HardwoodFlooringGuide.com has a good article covering your options. Click here to view the article on adjoining wood flooring between 2 rooms.

A Chance To Win Free Flooring!

The World Floor Covering Association (WFCA.ORG) launched a fabulous SPRING SWEEPS valued at over $20,000. What a great way to do your Spring decorating.

The WFCA online Spring Sweeps rules state:

Contest entries begin February 4, 2008 and ends at 11:59 PM June 23, 2008(PST). Limit one entry pre household and no purchase neccessary.

Prize Awards:

• 1 Grand Prize of Floor Coverings and Installation Services of an approximate retail value of $10,000


• 5 First Prizes of an approximate retail value of $11,200 will be awarded (About $2,250 each)

Winners will go to a selected WFCA retail member to pick out the flooring and have it installed up to the retail dollar value of prize.

Click here to go to the WFCA web site and sign up.

Glueless floating hardwood floors

I recently published a page on FloorFacts.com discussing the new hardwood floors with glueless locking systems that you can float over different subfloors, such as wood, concrete slabs and some types of existing hard surfaces materials. The photo I show on the left is a Mannington wood plank with the specially designed tongue for glueless installation that I took it with my Canon Rebel digital camera. Although it's okay I don't feel it really helps consumers understand this terrific new glueless installation system.

While working on a web site development project today I came across a great Quicktime demonstration on RobinaFloors.com that really does a nice job of demonstrating how wood planks are interlocked together with this glueless installation system. Once you see this video I think you will have a better idea how wood planks are interlocked without gluing or nailing. (Just be patient, the Quicktime video takes about a minute to download before viewing.)

Click here for the Robina Floors VR-Loc Glueless wood Plank Quicktime Video.

Benjamin Moore Virtual Fan Deck a great tool

Many times when we are going to buy new flooring the decorating project also includes freshening up the room with a new coat of paint. As homeowners we often make trips back and forth to the local paint store trying to discover the right colors for our decorating project. Well now you can explore your paint color options online with Benjamin Moore's Virtual Fan Deck. This is a fun and terrific way to explore various colors hues. (As a web developer for many floor covering web sites, I also use tools like this to explore new color combinations for showing off the latest flooring fashions online.)

So the next time you want to choose a new paint color for your latest decorating project, just sit back, relax and go to Benjamin Moore's Virtual Fan Deck web page.

Armstrong Premier Performance Hardwood Flooring

I recently read where Armstrong Hardwood Flooring was named a winner in the Home Magazine 2008 American Building Product Awards for its Premier Performance Hardwood Flooring style. This Armstrong 3/8" thick, engineered hardwood floor has a feature they call: "thru-color construction". What this really means is the top wood ply of each plank has been totally impregnated with acrylic and stain. We saw this same thing years ago with Hartco's Pattern Plus product line (was discontinued a long time ago).

The advantage is when a plank is scratched the color doesn't change because the stain and acrylic go all the way through the top finish ply. Also, since the top ply is totally saturated in acrylic it is harder than normal. The disadvantages are you can never refinish or re-stain your wood floor and the appearance looks a little less natural.

Armstrong states on their web site that Premier Performance Hardwood Flooring can be glued-down or floated over most wood sub-floors as well as fully-cured concrete slabs. You can also install these floors on, above or below grade. So if you are looking for a really tough, durable hardwood floor this may be worth seeing at your local specialty flooring store.

Wide Plank Hardwood Floors by Carlisle

Another choice for homeowners today are wide plank wood floors. A site I ran across recently really caught my eye. The site is wideplankflooring.com and it is the home of Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. Looking around their web site it appears they manufacture a wide range of wood species and colors all in wide planks flooring. They definitely have some great looking wide plank floors, including hand scraped wide plank floors as well. They also appear to have a blog as well... see www.hardwoodsurface.com.

Wide plank wood flooring can really give a room an elegant an old charm appeal and with today's finishes are much easier to maintain than the old wax floors Grandma use to have.

FloorFacts.com new flooring articles review

Below are some new flooring articles recently added to FloorFacts.com. These may be of great interest to those looking to buying flooring and want to learn more before deciding on a particular floor.

• Buying A Laminate Floor - helpful information for consumers shopping for a laminate floor.
• Floating Floors - some helpful insights in floating floors.
• Ceramic Tile or Hardwood Floors - advice about the different characteristics and usages for selecting hardwood floor or ceramic tiles.
• Glueless Floating Wood Floors - glueless installation systems are no finding their way into wood floors, read the short article to learn more.
  

Use glass tile for a shimmering touch to your tile

Glass tiles are becoming more popular than ever before. Glass allow brilliant colors that shimmer in light and not achievable with other types of tiles. They are generally used as accents, trims or as mosiac glass tiles. Many tile manufacturers, such as Dal Tile, are adding glass styles to their offerings in a variety of colors , sizes and designs. Glass tiles can be often mixed with other tiles to give a truly unique and a stunning visual appearance.

Todays Premium Laminate Floors Are Amazing

I can remember back when laminate floors first came to the USA. We are all wondering if this new flooring category would catch on with consumers. The designs and realism back then were okay but did look some what fake and had a plastic appearance. It didn't take long for laminate floors, such as Pergo, to took off and become a popular floor covering choice with many homeowners.

Today, we see laminate floors that have really become much more sophisticated and realistic looking with textured surfaces and better tongue and groove locking systems. For homeowners with pets or who want a floor that is extremely durable but looks like real wood or stone laminate floors can be a great option. These floors are very stain and scratch resistant and the premium quality laminate floors offer better warranties and better styling.

By far the most realistic looking laminate floor I have seen to date is Armstrong Laminate Floors Grand Illusions. They have done a marvelous job of adding realistic texture and design to the finish of these 5" planks. Armstrong's Grand Illusions is available at many specialty flooring stores across the country. You can also purchase Grand Illusions online. Click here for Grand Illusions at HoskingHardwood's web site.