At Mcfall Construction, we are involved with many aspects of home improvement. One of these home improvements is wood flooring. Flooring comes in many types, shapes and sizes. It seems in this part of the construction industry, flooring changes and expands faster and more often than most other areas of home improvement.
One of, if not the most popular wood flooring is the distressed look of hardwood flooring. You may already have this in your home, if not, you’ve seen it, you’ve probably simply not noticed it, that it is unique.
A new home, whether it’s a tract style sub-division home or a custom home that you have helped design, these homes usually have brand new hardwood flooring installed in them. It starts out with regular hardwood flooring delivered to the home, and sizes vary in width: 3”, 4”, 5”, 6” and so on. Once delivered, this flooring must stay inside and untouched for a week or two, so the wood can become adjusted to the climate of the home.
True hardwood flooring will expand, detract, change shapes, etc. according to weather, so it important that it actually sits in the home for a week or two. Once this time has passed, the concrete floor must be leveled perfectly. The foundation slab is probably not as level as it may look, so we must ‘float’ the slab to a true level. After this, the floor may be set. Even though the wood has been in the home, the foundation slab leveled, still the hardwood flooring will not be perfect. It then will need to be sanded until all areas are smooth. It is now almost ready to stain. Once all of the above has occurred, we must achieve the distressed look.
So how does this distressed look occur? There are several different methods of distressing the wood, and all will seem strange because there isn’t any special tool manufactured for this look. Pretty much all tools are hand-made by the installers. Some tools will be a length of stell much like a crow bar, with notches cut out. An installer will drag this tool across the wood, impressing semi deep grooves into the wood. Some installers will beat the floor with heavy chains, which is not best for the homeowner to watch since it can be alarming. Sometimes bolts, nuts, and washer will be attached to these chains to create all types of distressed looks.
Once this is accomplished, the hardwood floor is cleaned up of all wood debris, and is now ready to be stained. As you can imagine, this style of hardwood flooring may not be suitable to install in a home that you currently reside. It’s messy, very dusty, and very loud. But there are other options to explore.
