There are wood floors to go into any application in the home and to fit any decorating style you choose. Because of their versatility, wood floors can be installed to complement a room and achieve the effect you are looking for. Unlike other floor coverings, wood floors can be re-sanded and refinished to give a totally new look should your decor change. Best of all, wood floors never go out of style.

Wood Flooring Design has the most wood flooring options in New England. we stock both traditional and exotic species of wood flooring products such as oak, the traditional New England favorite, maple, ash, cherry, and Australian Jarrah. The wide selection of inlays and custom borders available allow the creation of a wood floor design that is uniquely suited to the character of your home. And, if you can't find what you are looking for, simply ask and we'll locate it for you.

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Pre-Finished Solid Wood Flooring UnFinished Solid Wood Flooring

Pre-Finished Solid Wood Flooring
Solid Wood flooring comes in three basic types:

Solid wood floors can be installed on a concrete slab as long as the floor is on or above ground level. They can be sanded and refinished over several generations of use. Solid wood flooring expands and contracts with changes in your home's relative humidity. Normally, installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall. Base moulding is the traditional "cover-up" for this gap.

Figuring Out Hardwood Floor Finishes
Finishes protect and enhance the beauty of your hardwood floors. They can be applied before delivery (pre-finished) or upon installation in your home (site-finished). Surface finishes shield floors from harm by forming a protective layer on top of the wood. Penetrating Finishes, oils and waxes penetrate the surface of the floor protecting the wood from within.

With pre-finished flooring, the manufacturer applies a finish at the factory -- typically at least four coats of ultraviolet-cured urethane resin. Manufacturers say these finishes are more consistent and durable because they are applied under strict controls. Factory-finished floors can be installed straight out of the box, which can make the job easier when you are replacing floors in a house you live in. Manufacturers offer a wide variety of stain colors and finishes. Several finish options are available in prefinished products, including water- and oil-based urethane and wax.

Hardwood Species
Hardwoods are the botanical group of trees that have broad leaves, produce a fruit or nut, and generally go dormant in the winter.

America's temperate climates produce forests with hundreds of hardwood species -- trees that share certain biological characteristics. Although oak, maple and cherry all are types of hardwood trees, for example, they are different species. Together, all the hardwood species represent 40 percent of the trees in the United States.

On the other hand, softwoods, or conifers, from the Latin word meaning "cone-bearing," have needles. Widely available US softwoods include cedar, fir, hemlock, pine, redwood, spruce and cypress. In a home, the softwoods are used primarily as structural lumber such as 2x4s and 2x6s, with some limited decorative applications.
Any of the commercially available hardwoods listed here can be used -- it's simply a question of taste, preference and availability. Certain hardwood species are not recommended for flooring because their physical properties don't lend themselves to withstanding heavy wear and tear.

Red Oak - Quercus spp
The Latin name for oak, Quercus, means "a fine tree." The oaks have been key in America's industrial transformation: Railroad ties, wheels, plows, looms, barrels and, of course, furniture and floors. The oak is the state tree of New Jersey.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood of red oak is white to light brown and the heartwood is a pinkish reddish brown. The wood is similar in general appearance to white oak, but with a slightly less pronounced figure due to the smaller rays. The wood is mostly straight-grained, with a coarse texture.
Ash - Fraxinus spp
Norse mythology refers to ash as "the mighty tree that supports the heavens" and "below earth its roots went down to hell." Ash belongs to the olive family, although its only fruit is a dart-like winged seed. Ash is a popular species for food containers because the wood has no taste. Admiral Richard Byrd wore snowshoes made from ash during his polar expeditions and early windmills were made from this species.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood is light-colored to nearly white and the heartwood varies from greyish or light brown, to pale yellow streaked with brown. The wood is generally straight-grained with a coarse uniform texture. The degree and availability of light-colored sapwood, and other properties, will vary according to the growing regions.
Cherry - Prunus serotina
Like all fruit trees, cherry belongs to the rose family and was used as early as 400 B.C. by the Greeks and Romans for furniture making. American Colonists used the cherry tree for its fruit, medicinal properties and home furnishings. They mixed cherry juice with rum to create Cherry Bounce, a bitter but highly favored cordial. The bark was used in the production of drugs to treat bronchitis, and cherry stalks were used to make tonics.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The heartwood of cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and on exposure to light. In contrast, the sapwood is creamy white. The wood has a fine uniform, straight grain, satiny, smooth texture, and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets.
Hard Maple - Acer saccharum, Acer nigrum
The hard maple is the state tree of Wisconsin, Vermont, New York and West Virginia. In the North, during the cold nights and warm days of late winter, the sugar maple is tapped for its sucrose-containing sap, the source of maple syrup. It may take up to 30 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Early American settlers used maple ashes to make soap and Native Americans crafted their spears from hard maple. Until the turn of the century, the heels of women's shoes were made from maple. Maple has been a favorite of American furniture makers since early Colonial days. Hard maple is the standard wood for cutting boards because it imparts no taste to food and holds up well.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood is creamy white with a slight reddish brown tinge and the heartwood varies from light to dark reddish brown. The amount of darker brown heartwood can vary significantly according to growing region. Both sapwood and heartwood can contain pith fleck. The wood has a close fine, uniform texture and is generally straight-grained, but it can also occur as "curly," "fiddleback," and "birds-eye" figure.
White Oak - Quercus spp
White oak is impervious to liquids, and has been used extensively for ship timbers, barrels and casks. White oak is the state tree of Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood is light-colored and the heartwood is light to dark brown. White oak is mostly straight-grained with a medium to coarse texture, with longer rays than red oak. White oak therefore has more figure.
Hickory and Pecan - Carya spp
Its name is an English contraction of the Native American "powcohicora." Whereas various parts of the world had supported hickory during the countless geologic ages, practically nowhere but in Eastern North America did it survive the catastrophic changes of the Glacial Epoch, some 50 million years ago. Thus, it is the first strictly American hardwood species. Westward trekking pioneers made hickory a prerequisite for their wagon wheels. Later, the Wright Brothers whittled hickory for their "flying contraption." Hickory sawdust and chips are used to flavor meat by smoking. Commercially, the pecan is the most important native North American nut tree and it is the state tree of Texas. Pecan was a Native American name given to any nut hard enough to require cracking with a stone. Native Americans, particularly in the Northeast, used hickory for their bows.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The hickories are an important group within the Eastern hardwood forests. Botanically they are split into two groups; the true hickories, and the pecan hickories (fruit bearing). The wood is virtually the same for both and is usually sold together. Hickory is the hardest, heaviest and strongest American wood in the common use. The sapwood of hickory is white, tinged with inconspicuous fine brown lines while the heartwood is pale to reddish brown. Both are coarse-textured and the grain is fine, usually straight but can be wavy or irregular.
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UnFinished Solid Wood Flooring
Solid Wood flooring comes in three basic types:

STRIP flooring accounts for the majority of installations. Strips usually 2-1/4 inches wide, but also come in widths ranging from 1-1/2 inches to 3-1/4 inches. They are installed by nailing to the subfloor.
PLANK flooring boards are at least 3 inches wide. They may be screwed to the subfloor as well as nailed. Screw holes can be covered with wooden plugs.
PARQUET flooring comes in standard patterns of 6" x 6" blocks. Specialty patterns may range up to 36" square units. Parquet often achieves dramatic geometric effects of special design patterns.

Solid wood floors can be installed on a concrete slab as long as the floor is on or above ground level. They can be sanded and refinished over several generations of use. Solid wood flooring expands and contracts with changes in your home's relative humidity. Normally, installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall. Base moulding is the traditional "cover-up" for this gap.

Figuring Out Hardwood Floor Finishes
Finishes protect and enhance the beauty of your hardwood floors. Surface finishes shield floors from harm by forming a protective layer on top of the wood. Penetrating Finishes, oils and waxes penetrate the surface of the floor protecting the wood from within.

If you are building a new home or trying to match a new floor with an old one, you might prefer to finish your floor on site. You'll have more color choices, but you'll also have to live with the sanding process and wait for each coat to dry. The principal choices are surface or penetrating finishes.

Hardwood Species
Hardwoods are the botanical group of trees that have broad leaves, produce a fruit or nut, and generally go dormant in the winter.

America's temperate climates produce forests with hundreds of hardwood species -- trees that share certain biological characteristics. Although oak, maple and cherry all are types of hardwood trees, for example, they are different species. Together, all the hardwood species represent 40 percent of the trees in the United States.

On the other hand, softwoods, or conifers, from the Latin word meaning "cone-bearing," have needles. Widely available US softwoods include cedar, fir, hemlock, pine, redwood, spruce and cypress. In a home, the softwoods are used primarily as structural lumber such as 2x4s and 2x6s, with some limited decorative applications.
Any of the commercially available hardwoods listed here can be used -- it's simply a question of taste, preference and availability. Certain hardwood species are not recommended for flooring because their physical properties don't lend themselves to withstanding heavy wear and tear.

Red Oak - Quercus spp
The Latin name for oak, Quercus, means "a fine tree." The oaks have been key in America's industrial transformation: Railroad ties, wheels, plows, looms, barrels and, of course, furniture and floors. The oak is the state tree of New Jersey.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood of red oak is white to light brown and the heartwood is a pinkish reddish brown. The wood is similar in general appearance to white oak, but with a slightly less pronounced figure due to the smaller rays. The wood is mostly straight-grained, with a coarse texture.
Ash - Fraxinus spp
Norse mythology refers to ash as "the mighty tree that supports the heavens" and "below earth its roots went down to hell." Ash belongs to the olive family, although its only fruit is a dart-like winged seed. Ash is a popular species for food containers because the wood has no taste. Admiral Richard Byrd wore snowshoes made from ash during his polar expeditions and early windmills were made from this species.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood is light-colored to nearly white and the heartwood varies from greyish or light brown, to pale yellow streaked with brown. The wood is generally straight-grained with a coarse uniform texture. The degree and availability of light-colored sapwood, and other properties, will vary according to the growing regions.
Cherry - Prunus serotina
Like all fruit trees, cherry belongs to the rose family and was used as early as 400 B.C. by the Greeks and Romans for furniture making. American Colonists used the cherry tree for its fruit, medicinal properties and home furnishings. They mixed cherry juice with rum to create Cherry Bounce, a bitter but highly favored cordial. The bark was used in the production of drugs to treat bronchitis, and cherry stalks were used to make tonics.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The heartwood of cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and on exposure to light. In contrast, the sapwood is creamy white. The wood has a fine uniform, straight grain, satiny, smooth texture, and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets.
Hard Maple - Acer saccharum, Acer nigrum
The hard maple is the state tree of Wisconsin, Vermont, New York and West Virginia. In the North, during the cold nights and warm days of late winter, the sugar maple is tapped for its sucrose-containing sap, the source of maple syrup. It may take up to 30 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Early American settlers used maple ashes to make soap and Native Americans crafted their spears from hard maple. Until the turn of the century, the heels of women's shoes were made from maple. Maple has been a favorite of American furniture makers since early Colonial days. Hard maple is the standard wood for cutting boards because it imparts no taste to food and holds up well.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood is creamy white with a slight reddish brown tinge and the heartwood varies from light to dark reddish brown. The amount of darker brown heartwood can vary significantly according to growing region. Both sapwood and heartwood can contain pith fleck. The wood has a close fine, uniform texture and is generally straight-grained, but it can also occur as "curly," "fiddleback," and "birds-eye" figure.
White Oak - Quercus spp
White oak is impervious to liquids, and has been used extensively for ship timbers, barrels and casks. White oak is the state tree of Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The sapwood is light-colored and the heartwood is light to dark brown. White oak is mostly straight-grained with a medium to coarse texture, with longer rays than red oak. White oak therefore has more figure.
Hickory and Pecan - Carya spp
Its name is an English contraction of the Native American "powcohicora." Whereas various parts of the world had supported hickory during the countless geologic ages, practically nowhere but in Eastern North America did it survive the catastrophic changes of the Glacial Epoch, some 50 million years ago. Thus, it is the first strictly American hardwood species. Westward trekking pioneers made hickory a prerequisite for their wagon wheels. Later, the Wright Brothers whittled hickory for their "flying contraption." Hickory sawdust and chips are used to flavor meat by smoking. Commercially, the pecan is the most important native North American nut tree and it is the state tree of Texas. Pecan was a Native American name given to any nut hard enough to require cracking with a stone. Native Americans, particularly in the Northeast, used hickory for their bows.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
The hickories are an important group within the Eastern hardwood forests. Botanically they are split into two groups; the true hickories, and the pecan hickories (fruit bearing). The wood is virtually the same for both and is usually sold together. Hickory is the hardest, heaviest and strongest American wood in the common use. The sapwood of hickory is white, tinged with inconspicuous fine brown lines while the heartwood is pale to reddish brown. Both are coarse-textured and the grain is fine, usually straight but can be wavy or irregular.
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