Hardwood Flooring Facts

The Highest Quality Prefinished Flooring from Brazil and Paraguay

Our solid prefinished hardwood flooring offers the performance of 3/4” a solid hardwood floor with a durable high quality factory finish. No other product has been able to replace solid hardwood flooring as the most durable and beautiful floor available. Our exotic solid prefinished flooring can be sanded and refinished many times, offering a floor which will last a lifetime. Our flooring is precision milled with the highest quality equipment available. Our full time quality control and technical staff ensure the highest standards of fit and finish.

Superior Kiln Drying of Tropical Woods - Brazilian Cherry, Cumaru, Ipe, Tigerwood, Tarara, Kurupayra, Amendoim, Lapacho, and Curupau

Careful kiln drying is one of the most important factors in producing the best possible tropical hardwood solid prefinished flooring products. Tropical woods generally have a higher density and require kiln drying techniques vastly different than the drying domestic temperate hardwoods, such as Oak, Ash, Maple and Walnut. In northern Brazil, we specialize in Brazilian Cherry, also known as Jatoba, Cumaru, Ipe, Tigerwood and more. From Paraguay, we specialize in Tarara, Canarywood; Kurupayra, Angico; Amendoim; Lapacho; and Curupau, Patagonian Rosewood.

Our rough lumber blanks are air dried for a minimum of three months prior to kiln drying - this process slowly removes moisture from the wood without shocking the material when it enters the kiln. Proper air drying will bring the lumber moisture content down close to fiber saturation point, typically around 25% moisture content. Ideally, when lumber enters the kilns the individual pieces are at approximately the same starting moisture content. The pre-drying or air drying process helps to achieve this ideal.

Our exotic lumber is dried in the highest quality modern dry kilns with variable speed fans, high quality uniform stacking sticks, electonic in-kiln moisture meters and computer controlled scheduling. We do not rush the drying process and the material goes through both equalization and conditioning steps to ensure the material has a uniform moisture content throughout each piece.

Exceptional Kiln Drying Techniques Minimize Movement, Shrinkage, Expansion, and Gapping

At all phases of the manufacturing process after kiln drying, our material is kept in a humidity controlled environment. We pride ourselves in producing a product with a consistent and uniform final moisture content; our high quality kiln drying permits the minimum amount of equalization time on the final job site. We still recommend a minimum of two weeks of equalization on the job site prior to installation.

Because solid hardwood will always move with changes in moisture content, many problems related to exotic hardwood flooring are caused by variations in humidity or moisture content. These changes in the moisture content of the wood can cause movement, shrinkage, expansion, gapping between boards, cracking and checking. Extreme changes in moisture can lift the factory finish right off the wood itself.

State of the art Milling Quality of Exotic Hardwoods

Our milling quality is the very best in the industry. This means our product will fit together perfectly, not too tight and not too loose. This will save time during the installation and help to prevent squeeks and pops during the life of your floor.

We use only the finest moulders imported from Germany and Italy to mill our flooring. These moulders use the latest in computer aided set up including electronic grinding of knives for a precision "jointed" finish - jointing is the process of equalizing all cutting knives in the moulder head so each knife cuts an equal amount. This creates the smoothest possible finish with a minimum of knife marks and eliminates the typical chatter and tear out found in many hardwood flooring products. Having the highest tolerances possible allows for a higher quality factory finish, and a more consistent fit for quicker installation.

8 Coat Bona Aluminum Oxide Finish with 25 year Factory Warranty

Factory finished floors offer some unique advantages over a sand and finish on-site floor. Although our sand and finish on site products are milled to the same exacting tolerances, with our factory finished or prefinished flooring products we can offer an aluminum oxide finish from Bona which is one of the hardest and most durable flooring finishes available. The aluminum oxide is an additive used during coats 3 through 6 out of 8 coats total which gives the floor its finish hardness. As part of our quality control process, we regularly test our prefinished flooring using the Tabor method to ensure that finish quality is as expected.

Installation Advice for Solid Prefinished Hardwood Floors

It is critical that installation conditions are correct prior to beginning the installation of solid wood flooring. The moisture content of the wood sub-floor or concrete slab should be tested upon delivery of the material to the jobsite, especially in new construction. We recommend that the moisture conditions are noted on the delivery paperwork. Material should always be acclimated to the jobsite prior to installation; we recommend a minimum of 10 days, but areas with high humidity or low humidity will require longer equalization times. The jobsite should also be held at a consistent humidity and temperature during acclimation and installation. Never install hardwood flooring prior to installing a fully functional HVAC system and sealing up the building. Wood flooring will move very slightly with variations in temperature and this will often cause popping or cracking sounds.

Features and Benefits

· Superior Kiln Drying for Maximum Stability and Ease of Installation

· Superior Milling Quality for Best Fit and Noise Reduction

· Superior Finishing for Long Life and Wear Resistance

· 25 Year Factory Finish Warranty

· Low Sheen Semi-Gloss (30)

· Aluminum Oxide for Maximum Durability

· 8 Coat System featuring Bona, see www.bona.com

· Environmentally Safe

Brazil Collection Woods

· Jatoba, Brazilian Cherry

· Cumaru, Brazilian Teak