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This is simply the finest wide plank colonial style flooring available! |
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Why Buy From Us?
Our solid oak planks are handmade one at a time using modern and old world methods and tools. Each is hand finished using the finest wood stains, oils and polyurethanes money can buy. And yet... our wide plank flooring will cost you less and install far easier than almost any other plank floor!
Here's and email from a customer we shipped recently:
Just wanted to confirm that the floors arrived at my house on schedule on Wednesday and all was in order. I spent all day yesterday installing them and they came out beautiful. Your website does not do them justice. They blend in perfectly with the 1690 portion of my house. I have a few more room renovation projects I'm planning next year and I'll certainly reorder from you when the time comes.
Best Regards, RM, Clinton, Conn.
Value
We use the best materials you can buy, yet we ensure our prices are the best you can find for any similar flooring.
We include many extras that you won’t get elsewhere, like hand distressing and custom thresholds.
Our wood is solid 3/4 inch, select grade, kiln dried oak and our finishes are the best in the world! (Basic Streetshoe XL has won the floor of the year award 15 of the last 17 years! and OSMO Hardwax Oil is an award winning finish from Germany).
Easy Installation NEW! Installation Just Got Easier!
It has taken us several years to perfect a method of producing authentic, pre-finished, wide-plank flooring that can be easily and consistently installed by the homeowner or any contractor.
And... you can replace furniture as soon as you're done! Install it in your dining room on Saturday and serve dinner on Sunday!
To perfect our methods, we’ve installed floors ourselves in every imaginable situation from 275 year old farmhouses to new construction. I doubt that you will encounter an installation challenge that we haven’t dealt with. (The only limitation we suggest is that you do not install our planks below grade or attach them directly to concrete floors.)
We hand cut our planks to make sure they fit together easily.
We employ traditional hand tools to build every floor from scratch. We add just enough distressing and we pay attention to details like matching custom thresholds and authentic 18th century style nails color-matched to the floor.
We then match every plank against a master plank to check for fit, edging and straightness so you can be sure the planks will fit together perfectly.
We are confident that our plank floors are equal or superior to any wide plank floor on the market today.
We also......
....Keep the boards in balance
......Attach them through the surface
........Plan for the inevitable gaps between boards
Solid Oak - Our wood of choice is Red Oak. We use the finest kiln dried, cabinet grade Red Oak lumber available! Red Oak is a great hardwood for stained or painted plank flooring. It is very durable, stable, and provides a terrific finishing surface. Red Oak was commonly used in colonial homes throughout New England.
While other companies call 4" boards wide plank, we use boards 7" and wider!. They use a lot of #2 & #3 grade lumber in 18 inch lengths. Our planks average over 9 ft in length and we custom design the layout to be visually appealing..
All boards are solid 3/4" kiln dried to less than 8% moisture content. We do not use glued up pieces sold as wide planks.
WE FINISH THE BACKS OF EVERY BOARD
This is important! All wood will move with changes in the seasons, especially changes in humidity. The key is to keep the boards in balance through these changes and plan for the movement.
When wood is properly kiln dried, then planed to a finished thickness, it is in balance. If it is straight at this point you can keep it that way only if you keep the stresses (mainly moisture content) in check that want to warp the board to a new shape.
The only way to do that is to allow both sides of the board to gain and lose moisture at roughly the same rate.
Any cabinet maker will tell you that the only way to do that effectively is to finish both sides of the boards.
More people have related this problem about their wood floors than any other.
We apply a commercial polyurethane (or a coat of oil on oil finished planks) to regulate the moisture gain and loss to about the same rate as the top of the planks.
It costs more for us to do it our way, but it works far better at keeping your floor flat and in place.
Attach them Through the Surface
Any boards over 6 inches wide must be attached through the face of the board to keep it firmly in place. Toe nailing on the edge of an 11 inch wide plank is not enough to ensure a solid fix to the sub floor.
We use 18th Century Rosehead Clincher nails in patterns of 2 or 3 across the board to attach our planks:
In addition, we apply two or three thick lines of subfloor adhesive to the bottom of the board. This removes any "springiness" from sub floor imperfection yet allows the board to expand and contract.
This is a far superior method to attach wide planks and, except for the glue, is exactly how they did it 250 years ago.
Plan for the Inevitable Gaps Between Boards
Gaps will appear in any floor with boards over 5 inches wide and even in most floors with boards under 5 inches. Unless you plan for them the results aren't pleasing.
The difference is how you design for them and prepare for them.
Don't believe anyone who says their real wood planks won't expand and contract with the seasons!
How We Design for Gaps
A plank floor should look like matching individual boards laid down in a pleasing pattern, not a sea of wood like a gym floor. If your eye sees individual planks, the gaps between boards will almost become invisible!
How do we do this? We hand sculpt the edges and ends of every board with colonial style English spoke shaves. This enhances the appearance of individual planks, ensures no edges "stick up", and provides a shadow line between planks so gaps are not noticeably different as the wood expands and contracts with the seasons.
In addition, we stain and finish the edges and ends of every plank.. So gaps aren't white but instead match the color of the floor surface. This is something no one else bothers to do yet is the source of many complaints about wide plank floors.
Our experience shows with our methods gaps as large as 1/8" aren't even noticed as people admire the overall beauty of the floor.
copyright 2007 The Line Lexington Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
