Award

AUGUST 2016 | 43 Hardwood Flooring T Advancements in hardwood flooring make it more attractive than ever by LAURIE JONES Today's hardwood flooring and adhesive/substrate selections are not only stylish and long-lasting, they also have some unique environmental properties. TORLYS has recently introduced SuperSolid Hardwood, its pinnacle brand of hardwood. Available in two collections, SuperSolid 7 and SuperSolid 5, these beautifully styled hardwoods are available in 7 -inch and 5-inch widths by random lengths up to six feet. They also offer the utmost in exquisite texturing with wire-brushed, hand-scraped and smooth finishes. "TORLYS SuperSolid Hardwood is unique for an engineered hardwood because it is all hardwood – there are no softwood fillers or fibres," says Karen Deel, brand manager. "The construction is a patented innovation called E-Lock, a cross-joined, compression- locked structure that uses the same species of hard- wood for its bottom, core and wear layers, and finished with highest quality Klumpp topcoat for remarkable durability and performance." SuperSolid Hardwood is built for life in North America, says Deel. Solid hardwood can expand and contract when humidity levels change. "Typically, the wider and lon- ger the board, the more cupping and gapping you will see. SuperSolid Hardwood outperforms solid hardwood across a much larger range of relative humidity. These floors can also be installed over radiant heat and installed below or above grade. Best of all, these floors are sus- tainable. The floor is all hardwood generating four times more flooring from a single tree than solid hardwood." Pure Genius, Lauzon Flooring's latest offering, brings a breath of fresh air to indoor air quality. Noted as the world's first smart hardwood floor, Pure Genius is a light- activated, air-purifying agent made of titanium dioxide, which is integrated into Lauzon's Titanium floor finish. "The air circulation generated by your movement through a room or a fan is all that's needed for the toxic contaminants present in the air to enter into con- tact with the active Pure Genius nanoparticles," says Priscilla Bergeron, director of communications. "The active nanoparticles in Pure Genius decompose toxic contaminants in the air [formaldehyde and other pol- lutants] and convert them into harmless water and carbon dioxide molecules." Long-term effectiveness provided by Pure Genius improves the indoor air quality without loss of the floor's performance, for as long as the finish lasts. "Pure Genius has been repeatedly tested in expert independent North American and European laboratories to prove the per- formance of the technology," says Bergeron. The Solid Choice seamless flooring surfaces with no bevels, regardless of board width and length. Terry O'Neill, president at TRC Distribution, agrees that consumers, builders and designers continue to request wide, textured wood floors. "We are seeing more requests this year for seven inch or wider options compared to last year when five inch was most popu- lar. Over 60 per cent of the Timeless Wood Floors line is now over five-inches wide and includes the Napa collec- tion with a mix of four-, six- and eight-inch-wide boards." Maple is giving up some of it's dominance for plain sawn or quarter sawn white oak. The quarter sawn floors have a linear grain that avoids the "flared" grain. This trend toward wider floors is leading to the growth in engineered floors that provide increased stability in wide widths. When it comes to colour, choices tend to be lighter than previous years with greys, medium browns, white washes and two-tone looks making their mark. Wire brushed and saw cut textures are also growing in popularity and though still strong, hand-scraped floors seem to be less dominant. O'Neill adds that low sheen and oiled finishes also continue to grow. "Many consumers like the look of oiled floors but are more comfortable with a matte urethane that provides the look of oil with the mainte- nance they are familiar with," he says. "We are seeing more requests for patterned floors such as herringbone. Typically, a whole home will not be installed with a herringbone pattern but a study or dining room may be highlighted with a herringbone floor that matches the traditional plank floor in the rest of the home." Wiston Building Materials Co. offers over 100 selec- tions of hardwood flooring in a variety of colours and styles that work for projects as small as a living room remodel to large luxury condo developments. "Our manufacturing facility is wholly owned and dedicated to manufacturing Wiston floors only," says Malcolm Sask, VP. "As the manufacturer of Wiston products, our process begins with buying our own bark-on logs so we know the source and quality of the lumber used to man- ufacture our flooring. All our wood is Lacey Act compli- ant [requiring all importers to declare the species and country of origin of any wood product], and there is the added option of ordering floors that qualify for LEED." Sask says they use cold press technology and low- VOC adhesives from Dynea for reliable flooring that won't delaminate, and finish with quality products from Bergolin, Loba and Rubio Monocoat to provide durable surfaces. "Wiston products are manufactured at a higher global standard, using German built preci- sion equipment and utilizing the best coatings, adhe- sives and lumber," he says. "Our products can exceed the quality and environmental requirements of the world's most demanding markets." Mozart Collection Hardwood Flooring – produced by Scheucher, Austria, and exclusively distributed in Canada by European Touch Hardwood Inc., Vancouver – introduces Mozart Collection Chevron Hardwood Parquet. "This product can be co-ordinated with any of the Scheucher's 1-strip, engineered hardwood planks available in three widths – 140, 182 and 220 milli- metre [mm]," says Alicja Kudyba, managing partner. "It comes in board lengths of 2,200 mm with over 20 wood species, 50 colours, precisely controlled lumber grades plus a variety of textures and finishes." Kudyba adds that in addition to the unparalleled variety of options in wood species and colours, the Mozart Collection Chevron Hardwood Parquet fea- tures 5G-lock system, a board width of 140 mm and board lengths of either 500 mm (MULTIflor 500) or 740 mm (MULTIflor 700). "Now it is possible to perfectly co-ordinate instal- lation of chevron or herringbone hardwood flooring with perfectly matched wide and long plank hard- wood flooring, which can be used on another level or on stairs," says Kudyba. Scheucher hardwood flooring collections are sold in over 40 countries worldwide and are consistently praised for their wide range of options and precision of milling, which is capable of delivering perfectly Palladio Wide Plank flooring from TRC Flooring. TORLYS SuperSolid 7 Hardwood in Edengrove Oak. Quality hardwood flooring from Wiston Building Materials Co.; Mozart Collection Hardwood Parquet from European Touch Hardwood Inc.

• Cover