Solid floor board and its characteristics, types of material by type of wood and sorting criteria, the choice of products depending on the loads on the floor, surface protective coating, appearance and manufacturers. In addition to the above types of massive boards, there are samples made from cherry, beech, birch, pear and many exotic species: sucupira, tiger wood and others. All of them have individual characteristics, but some exotic products may not meet the requirements of the European climate.
Sawing and sorting solid boards
In addition to dividing by the type of wood, solid boards are sorted by color, texture, presence of stains, knots, etc. All these signs appear with different options for longitudinal cutting of logs:
- Radial cut … It is performed in the middle of the trunk. At the same time, the board has a uniform color, longitudinal lines of the wood pattern and is absolutely free of knots. It is the most resistant to various deformations, durable and expensive.
- Tangential cut … This is cutting the trunk at some distance from its middle. The resulting board has different shades in the middle and around the edges, rich texture and few knots. Despite the lower characteristics, such a material is appreciated for the wavy, beautiful pattern of wood.
Sorting criteria have their own names. Here are the most common ones:
- Radial This is the perfect board. In this case, the presence of knots and sapwood in the product is not permissible. Boards are selected in a single color scheme with the same wood pattern - longitudinal lines.
- Select … Scatter in shades is allowed in the boards, knots and sapwood are not acceptable. The wood fibers run along the board.
- Natur … The presence of white sapwood, knots and a slight variation in the color of the cut are allowed.
- Rustic … Any color variation, any number of knots up to 6 mm and the presence of light sapwood up to 20% of the board width are admissible.
This selection of material affects its cost. Radial board will be the most expensive, and the cheapest - rustic.
Decorative processing of solid boards
Most of today's assortment of solid floorboards comes in various decorative finishes or a combination of the two:
- Brushing … It consists in the selection of soft fibers of dark annual rings from the surface of the wood with a metal brush. As a result of this process, a relief is created on a massive board that follows their pattern. With this decorative treatment, the naturalness of the board is emphasized, and the prerequisites for creating contrasting interesting decors are created.
- Tinting … Its purpose is to give the product a new color, and in combination with brushing, to emphasize the natural pattern of the wood. When tinting, several layers of painting material are applied to the board, but they are quite thin and therefore perfectly preserve its texture pattern.
- Planing … After this treatment, the board acquires a characteristic wavy surface, similar to the traces of a plane when carelessly working with it. Visually, this manifests itself in an attractive play of shadow and light.
- Sawing … In this case, the surface of the board is formed by transverse shallow cuts, this is a very rare treatment.
- Sandblasting … It is carried out using special devices that blow out sand particles at high speed. The result of the procedure resembles brushing, but in this case, in addition to the large relief, the surface of the board also receives grinding.
- Aging … This is the application of various serifs to the chamfers and the surface of products, which give the coating a visual effect of wear.
Criteria for choosing a solid board
When choosing a board for flooring, you need to take into account the amount of load on it and, in accordance with this parameter, determine one or another type of wood for your floor.
Durable boards made of larch, ash, oak and wenge can be installed in rooms with heavy traffic or other increased stress on the floor. In this case, thin heels and heavy furniture will not leave noticeable marks on the massive floor material. In the worst case, the protective coating can be pressed through, but the wood of the floor will not be damaged.
Softer boards made from cherry, birch and other similar wood species can be laid on the floor with minimal stress, for example, in a children's room. Its light furniture and a highchair on casters will surely not leave squeezed marks on the surface.
Another question is the choice of a finished board, coated with varnish, oil or wax mixture. In the factory, the lacquer coating lays on the material more beautifully and evenly than at home. Such a product does not need to be sanded by raising wood dust in the room. But there is one drawback here. Unlike home varnishing, when all the gaps between the boards are filled with finishing material, small gaps can remain in the coating of finished elements, through which water often penetrates under the floor during wet cleaning.
Solid boards coated with oil or wax mixture can be laid safely. After installation, the coating can be treated to close gaps again with any of these materials. Moreover, such floor maintenance still has to be done at least once every six months.
When choosing a suitable massive material for your floor, you should pay attention to its appearance:
- The surface and ends of the boards should not have cracks, if any, this indicates improper drying of the products.
- In the set, the thickness of the solid board must be the same, its dimensions in the plan must correspond to the standard.
- You should not buy a board that has a propeller-like surface. To check, connect 2-3 products with planes to each other and check for gaps - they are unacceptable.
- The burnt ends of the boards indicate poor-quality sharpening of the processing tool, this is also worth paying attention to.
- An important point when choosing is the moisture content of the material. Its maximum allowable level is 12%, optimal in our conditions - up to 9%. This indicator is checked using a moisture meter. In addition, it will not be superfluous to inquire about the conditions for drying solid boards.
- Material packaging is also an important indicator when choosing products. Any conscientious manufacturer puts boards in rigid cardboard and then wraps it with a special film. This service protects the material from temperature and humidity changes during storage and transportation.
Solid floor board manufacturers
When buying a solid board, the correct choice of its manufacturer is equally important. All of them can use different technologies in the production of such products and import raw materials from many countries. Therefore, some companies sometimes sin with the broken shape of the boards, and others - with insufficient drying, especially for exotic wood.
Let's consider in detail the material of the most famous manufacturers:
- COSWICK … This company specializes in the production of solid boards only from ash and oak wood, but differing in quality and color solutions. The COSWICK company is Canadian, its production facilities are located in Belarus. Their modern equipment and European wood processing technologies guarantee the high quality of the floorboards, and due to the geographical location of production, the cost of the material is quite affordable for our consumers.
- AMIGO … The solid boards of this company are made from oak and exotic wood species. AMIGO is a German company with production facilities in Germany, China and Malaysia. It is worth paying attention to the fact that boards made of exotic bamboo, merbau, town, chempaki, avuara, sucupira and others are produced in the places where raw materials are grown, which reduces the cost of expensive material. But at the same time, it will not work to dry it in place to 9% humidity, acceptable for our climatic zone. But solid oak board made in Germany has excellent performance.
- MAGESTIK FLOOR … Despite the fact that the office of this company is located in the Netherlands, its factories are scattered in all countries where you can get inexpensive raw materials for the manufacture of floorboards: these are Laos and Burma, Indonesia and Cameroon, Thailand and Brazil, China, Peru and Panama. In China alone, solid oak boards are produced in all the variety of design solutions. However, most of the material MAGESTIK FLOOR is made from exotic wood of American walnut, teak, rosewood, tiger wood, merbau, kumar and many others. In terms of exclusive timber, this company is the undisputed leader. Its solid boards are praised by many consumers for its affordable price, precise geometric shape and a 25-year material warranty.
- SHERWOOD PARQUET … The solid board of this company pleases many with its impeccable English quality. Its production is concentrated near the areas of industrial tree felling. The main raw material for making the board is ash, oak and some exotic species: limbs, zebranos, kurumpaya, etc. The excellent reputation of SHERWOOD PARQUET is familiar not only to Europe, but also to both Americas. First of all, the consumer is attracted by the democratic price and the exceptional appearance of the materials of this manufacturer.
In addition to all of the above companies, you can safely buy a solid board from such manufacturers: PREMIER PARQUET (Italy) and NAGOJA (Lithuania), DEKER (China) and BOEN (Germany, Lithuania, Norway), MISSOURI COLLECTION (USA) and LEWIS & MARK (USA), China), PARKETOFF (Germany, Peru, Indonesia, China) and MONTBLANC (China, Germany), MERCIER (Canada) and TREE LIFE LAB (Italy), AMBER WOOD (Russia).
How to choose a solid board - watch the video:
After choosing the main material, the matter remains small: choose the right glue for the solid board and get to work. Good luck!
