Archive for the ‘Flooring News & Tips’ Category

The Speedy Way to Clean and Maintain Your Hardwood Floors

Cleaning and Maintaining Your Hardwood Floors: Part 1

At Speedy Floor Removal, we have already stated our opinions on solid hardwood floors, but we will say them again: hardwood floors bring timeless, traditional, and natural beauty to your home. Hardwood floors add to the aesthetic appeal as well as the monetary value of a house, and though it is a very long-established flooring option, hardwood flooring is still as fashionable as ever.

With all of hardwood’s great qualities, it is easy to fall in love with this flooring option, but in order to make your adoring relationship with your hardwood floors last, some upkeep is required. As a natural product chemically altered to fit into your home, solid hardwood has very specific cleaning and maintenance needs that will retain all of the original luster and luxury of your flooring if followed properly, but which will cause all of that wonder to slowly slip away if not followed.

Therefore, understanding each particular cleaning and maintenance step for solid hardwood is critical for homeowners with any amount of this classic flooring in their house. Speedy Floor Removal wants to prepare hardwood flooring homeowners to be able to protect their investment and promote their style for as long as possible, so we have supplied every essential cleaning and maintaining tip for hardwood flooring that homeowners could ever need. We will reveal these tips in this two part blog series, and this first part will discuss how to clean your hardwood floors. So, whether you and your hardwood flooring are at home in North Central Florida or anywhere else in America, stick with us to find out how to give your distinctive real wood floors all of the TLC they deserve!

Cleaning Your Hardwood Floors:

When it comes to cleaning your hardwood floors, it is important to recall how your hardwood floors are sealed because it is the finish, not the wood type, that determines how you should clean your floors.

There are three different types of finishes that your hardwood floor may have. These finish types are:

  • Surface-sealed floors: new wood floors are usually sealed with urethane, polyurethane, or polyacrylic, and these types of seals render the floor mostly stain and water damage resistant. Surface sealed floors are fairly easy to care for and clean.
  • Penetrating-seal-treated and oil-treated floors: a penetrating soil or an oil finish soaks into the grain of the wood and hardens. Penetrating seal-treated or oil-treated are a bit more delicate and must be pampered with liquid or paste wax.
  • Lacquered, shellacked, varnished, or untreated floors: These types of finishes are technically considered surface finishes, but floors covered with lacquers, shellacs, or varnishes are not as resistant to moisture, spills, wear, and tear as other surface-sealed floors are. Therefore, floors with these finishes should be treated as carefully as penetrating-seal-treated or oil-treated floors.

Tip from Today: to quickly determine which type of finish is on your floor, rub your finger across the hardwood. Floors treated with a penetrating seal, oil finish, lacquer, shellac, or varnish will leave a smudge. Surface-sealed floors will not.

Cleaning Surface-Sealed Hardwood Floors:

To clean surface-sealed floors, heed the following advice:

  • Do not use the following products on your surface-sealed floors, as they will leave behind residue, scratches, or a dull finish:
    • Furniture sprays
    • Oils
    • Waxes
    • Straight ammonia
    • Alkaline products
    • Abrasive cleaners
  • Use soap and water to get a great clean without jeopardizing your floor’s warranty. Floor cleaning products recommended by the floor finisher should work as well, but those may be more expensive. Water alone or water and vinegar will leave your floors looking dingy and will not be as effective at removing buildup.
  • Sweep daily if possible. Mop at least once a week.
  • When mopping, make sure the mop is damp and not dripping, as any amount of standing water is bad for hardwood floors. After dipping the mop in a bucket of cleaning solution, wring it out completely, and follow the wood grain with your strokes. Replace the cleaning solution when the water gets dirty, and rinse the entire surface with clean water after applying the cleaning solution.

Specific problems with your surface-sealed wood floors only require simple solutions. The following recommendations should help you overcome them:

  • Erase scuffmarks with some baking soda on a damp sponge.
  • Use a commercial cleaner to address food, water, and grease stains.
  • Wait for the seasons to change to see your hairline cracks disappear. These cracks should close up during the summer months when the air is not so dry, or a humidifier can help as well.
  • Recoat your floor with one or two additional layers of sealer after a light sanding to restore shine. Complete this process every five to seven years.

Cleaning Hardwood Floors with All Other Finishes or Untreated Hardwood Floors:

These directions apply to cleaning and caring for untreated floors or floors treated with penetrating seals, oils, lacquer, shellac, or varnish:

  • Do not use the following waxes on your hardwood floors:
    • Furniture wax: leaves the floors too slick
    • One-step wax: traps dirt
    • Acrylic or water-based waxes: turn the floors white
  • Use a stripper recommended by the floor manufacturer, a commercial product from the hardware store, or mineral spirits to remove old wax buildup.
  • Protect your hardwood floors with liquid wax or paste wax.
  • Do NOT use a damp mop on your waxed floors.
  • Vacuum and sweep these wood floors often.
  • Once or twice a year, apply a fresh coat of wax after stripping away the old coat. Spot-wax in between in dull areas if necessary.
  • To wax your floor:
    • Remove the old wax by following the instructions of a commercial stripper or by rubbing mineral spirits into the wood and wiping off with a soft, clean cloth.
    • Apply a thin coat of wax when the floor has dried. Use an applicator for liquid wax or a cloth for paste wax. Add another thin coat after the first coat dries for more protection.
    • Buff the floor in the direction of the wood grain with a cloth or a rented buffing machine.

Minor issues with your untreated, penetrating-seal-treated, oil-treated, lacquered, shellacked, or varnished floors can be resolved with these easy answers:

  • Remove white water spots by rubbing the area in a circular motion with a small amount of mineral spirits added to an extra fine steel wool pad.
  • Buff away heel marks with a small amount of wax applied to an extra fine steel wood pad and rubbed in a circular motion over the area.
  • Take away food stains by wiping the surface with a damp cloth, then rubbing the area dry and waxing. Work from the outside edge toward the center to eliminate the stain.

Maintaining Your Hardwood Floors:

To learn how to maintain your solid wood floors treated with any type of sealer or finish, revisit Speedy Floor Removal’s blog next month for more essential information on taking care of your wonderful hardwood! For more information how Speedy Floor Removal can help you secure an amazing new hardwood floor for your home, contact us today!

Floor Flattening: The Best Kept Secret For The Best New Flooring Installation

Get Your Floors Professionally Leveled with Speedy’s Floor Flattening Services

Are you thinking about putting new flooring into your North Central Florida home? Have you been perusing trendy products such as classic hardwood, engineered hardwood, modern laminate, or ceramic, stone, or wood plank tile? It seems that options for what you can use to cover your floors are always increasing, but one thing is true about most of them: you need a very flat floor to achieve the perfect installation.

Up-to-Date Flooring Demands Up-to-Date Subfloor Standards

Certain flooring products require the flattest of subfloors in order to prevent visible unevenness that could result in various problems. Misaligned floors are more likely to cause chips, cracks, breaks, wobbly furniture, and injured humans.

The increasingly popular wood plank tile is particularly prone to these problems as these tiles themselves are not perfectly flat. The center of wood plank tiles is higher than the ends, and when people try to genuinely replicate the look of wood by offsetting the planks, improperly leveled floors will only worsen these potentially hazardous height differences.

In order to lay wood plank tile for the utmost safety and longevity, the maximum allowable variation in floor heights is one eighth of an inch in a ten foot space. In fact, the longer the planks, the more the floor needs to be flattened. Really long, realistic-looking planks need super flat floors for successful installation, and on their own, subfloors are rarely flat enough.

Subfloors that are not perfectly flat will also create gaps in flooring such as solid hardwood and engineered hardwood floors, and as homeowners walk over these gaps, the wood boards will flex and rub together. When the boards move in this way, they will start to squeak, and that squeaking will increase over time. After a few years, these excessive sounds will become very off-putting to your ears.

Unavoidable acts of a nature and particularly shoddy construction work can leave your subfloors ill prepared for that new flooring you want to install. After having your old floor removed with efficient floor removal services, you may discover that your subfloor is worse than you feared. So, what can you do to fix these problems and secure a flawlessly flat floor? The answer is one of the best-kept secrets in the floor industry: floor-flattening services. What are floor-flattening services and how do they work? Please allow Speedy Floor Removal to explain.

Floor Flattening Levels Old Subfloor Problems

Floor flattening services do what they say they do: they flatten your floor, rendering it absolutely level and beautifully smooth for the best possible installation of any future flooring changes. Floor flattening services repair uneven surfaces by grinding the concrete in high spots and leveling the concrete in low spots with the most effective tools for properly completing each job the first time.

Floor flattening can fix the damage of any of the following poor subfloor conditions:

  • Cracked or split concrete
  • Low or sunken concrete
  • Bumpy or uneven concrete
  • Irregular elevations in the concrete

Flatter Floors Satisfy Industry Standards

These kinds of floor faults can jeopardize the life of your flooring and the validity of any warranties included with your flooring purchase. Subfloors improved with floor flattening services are able to meet or exceed a flooring manufacturer’s minimum specifications for flatness over every square inch.

With floor flattening, the level of the subfloor will be the same ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet, and even farther away from any particular point. A truly flat floor has no perceptible height differences: no high points or low points at all. Therefore, a truly flat floor will enable you to meet the warranty requirements of your new flooring and extend the lifetime of your investment even longer.

The Benefits of Flatter Floors Go Beyond

Meeting industry standards is just the beginning of the blessings of flatter subfloors. Flatter subfloors are the surest way to secure unrivaled installation of your new flooring material and to avoid any unnecessary complications to come. With a professionally flattened floor, you are guaranteed to get: straight and even baseboards without random spaces between the baseboards and the floor; really large ceramic, stone, or wood plank tiles laid down without frustrating variances that could produce cracks; and wood floors glued down without any noisy hollow spots. Eliminating these annoyances not only makes living with your floors easier now, but it also makes someone else more willing to live with those same floors later, which means your home’s value increases.

Only Professionals Can Achieve the Flattest Floors

When you first discover any issues in your subfloor that will take extra steps to resolve, it may be tempting to figure it out and do it yourself. Products called “self-leveling underlayments” are available for homeowners to buy, but they are certainly not simple for homeowners to use, and even small mistakes made with these products can lead to expensive corrections.

Self-leveling underlayments only work if they are applied well with the right tools, such as an aluminum screed. An aluminum screed helps control the depth of the leveler, and without it, it can be all too easy to over-pour the leveler and develop a sizable hump in the subfloor. No matter the size of the hump, once the leveler dries, the hump will be a beast to remove because grinding down fully dried leveler takes four times longer than grinding down concrete!

This should be reason enough to leave leveling to the pros, but another equally convincing argument is that of money. Leveler is not cheap, and in order to even out the low and the high spots enough without grinding down the high spots first will require dozens of bags of it. Covering the entire floor with leveler can be very expensive, with costs creeping into the thousands of dollars.

The only way to save on leveler is to grind down the high spots with the right equipment, and the right equipment cannot be rented by Do-It-Yourselfers. The only people with the necessary machines are the professionals who built the machines themselves, such as Speedy Floor Removal.

The Professionals Are At Speedy Floor Removal

Speedy Floor Removal can literally save you hundreds of dollars on the process of flattening your floors with our industry experience, expertise, and instruments. With our resources, we are not only able to remove the high spots and raise the low spots, but we are also able to eliminate any leftover traces of paint, drywall, old coating, and adhesives and reveal the ideal surface upon which to put the primer and, eventually, the new flooring.

Flattening your floor is too big of a project to tackle alone. It is a risky venture with expensive consequences that you only have one try to get right, so please do not even bother to address it on your own. Instead, rely on the floor flattening services of Speedy Floor Removal to deliver the finest floor you could ever desire. Speedy Floor Removal is built into the floor business, and our floor flattening services are just another extension of our innovative work with floors. To learn more and receive a flawlessly flat floor for your next flooring project, contact Speedy Floor Removal today.

The Hottest New Flooring Trend: Wood Plank Tile

The Many Wonders of Wood Plank Tiles

In order to best serve the flooring needs of North Central Florida, Speedy Floor Removal wants to continue to share the best information and the latest trends in flooring. One flooring trend in particular that has recently skyrocketed in popularity is wood plank tile, which is ceramic or porcelain tile that imitates the look of real wood floors. Traditional wood flooring has long embodied a classic, sophisticated, and luxurious look, but particular qualities of hardwood flooring make it impractical or impossible for certain rooms in the home or regions in the world.

In our blog about hardwood and engineered wood flooring, Speedy Floor Removal discussed the struggle with real hardwood flooring that living in Florida produces. Hardwood flooring is difficult to maintain in Florida because of the high humidity levels of the state’s climate. Hardwood flooring does not do well in moist environments, which is why it is not recommended for bathrooms and kitchens; yet in Florida, hardwood flooring is not recommended for the near-sea level ground floor at all due to the dangers of flooding and rapid mold growth.Therefore, tile flooring is a much better option for states with sea water wafting through the air like Florida, but until now, opting for tile floors meant sacrificing the timeless and stylish look of real wood.

Thankfully, the latest advancements in manufacturing technology enables the wood floor-loving homeowners of the South to obtain their dream flooring look without having to move out of state or go to floor care extremes. This fresh new approach to flooring combines the best of both the tile flooring and hardwood flooring worlds and provides an alternative that many will find more advantageous than the real thing.

Knowing how quickly Florida homeowners embrace the idea of wood plank tile once they learn of it, Speedy Floor Removal wants to share the many benefits of going with the decorating flow by installing wood plank tile floors in your home.

The Pros of Wood Plank Tile

Looks Exactly Like Real Wood

The quality of imitation from certain flooring brands that make wood plank tile can actually be quite astounding: wood plank tile can look so much like real wood to the naked eye that you have to touch it to know the difference. Highly developed technology like digital imaging and inkjet printing equips tile manufacturers to add the details that make the forgery seem more genuine, such as grain, distress, knots, shading variations, hand scraped textures, and glossy finishes. Wood plank tile can pretend to be any type of wood: cherry, acacia, walnut, reclaimed wood, driftwood, petrified wood, etc. Therefore, you can receive all of the beauty and style of classic wood floors while achieving all of the durability, versatility, and simplicity of tile floors.

Wood plank tile

Another advancement that improves the real look of fake wood tiles is the change in sizing. Tiles are no longer limited to the conventional sizes of yesterday. Instead, they can now be made into long rectangular shapes called planks, and this innovation enables them to take on the look of wood with even more realism. With technology and manufactures working so hard to generate tile that looks like wood, homeowners need to remember to maintain the illusion by choosing the correct grout color. When installing wood plank tiles, go for a grout color that matches the tone of the wood as well as possible so as not to throw off the intended look and feel. For darker wood floors, choose a dark grout color rather than a light one, and vice versa, or your “wood” floors will just look funny.

More Durable Than Real Wood

Real wood floors are lovely and can look nice for a long time, but when certain elements such as large animals, little children, and a few pairs of high heels are added to an environment with wood floors, their presence can cause wood floors to really suffer. Therefore, tiles floors can offer superior functionality to households in which these elements are permanent features. While real hardwood floors have their merits of being soft and warm, many people feel that tile floors are more durable all around. Tiles floors are definitely not as prone to dent, scratch, warp, crack, or chip as real hardwood floors. They seem to be harder and stronger in the long run, so some people find them easier to preserve over time.

Porcelain tile is generally considered to be stronger than ceramic; as it is fired at extremely high temperatures, porcelain tile manages to be especially hard and durable. Wood plank tile is actually so enduring that it will probably last even longer than your personal style preferences: you may want to change it before it even needs to go. If tile floors do endure damage, undoing it is also a bit easier than the usual repair process for hardwood floors. A single tile or multiple tiles can be replaced without having to rip up the entire floor, and for upkeep, instead of resurfacing, refinishing, and resealing a real wood floor every few years, maintaining a tile floor simply involves putting down a new layer of sealer every three to five years to keep moisture from getting into the grout.

More Versatile Than Real Wood

In certain rooms, real wood flooring really elevates the overall level of flair and distinction of the space; however, in other rooms, hardwood flooring is not even an option. Real hardwood flooring does not do well in rooms with excessive amounts of moisture, such as the bathroom and kitchen, as water that seeps deep into the layers of wood will not dry out easily and can harbor major mold growth. Also, as captivating as wood flooring can be, glistening in the natural glow of a well-lit living room, dining room, or sunroom boasting oversized windows, ages of exposure to sunlight can cause that rich, organic beauty to fade over time. Therefore, tile flooring that emulates wood is much more versatile than actual wood because it really can go in any room and withstand unmonitored amounts of moisture or sunlight. Wood plank tiles can get really wet while serving as a backsplash, and these tiles can also get really warm when used with underfloor radiant heating.

Wood plank tile also works much better for accent walls than real wood. Another popular application of wood plank tile is extending the look from floor to ceiling, and the creation of this commanding design feature is better served by tile because when placed against the wall, wood plank tiles will not snag linens or upholstery, nor will they leave homeowners fearing the old lead paint or toxins from wood pallets. Therefore, wood plank tile is the way to go when hoping to literally take the effect of wood up a notch.

More Customizable Than Real Wood

Tile already affords a greater range of color, design, and pattern options than real wood flooring, and wood plank tiles are no different. With wood plank tiles, the signatures colors of different types of wood are much more accessible, and particular wood patterns such as herringbone and parquet are easier to achieve as well. As wood plank tiles can be made in many different sizes, the variations in plank sizes can be mixed and matched to create previously unattainable, original looks. Wood plank tiles now come in even bigger sizes — some as large as one meter by three meters — and this quality allows homeowners to bring more refined luxury into their spaces.

More Sustainable and Less Costly Overall Than Real Wood

Wood plank tile is especially eco-friendly, as millions of trees do not have to be cut down in order to put the forest outside under your feet inside. Wood plank tile floors provide the cozy and welcoming look of wood without harming a single tree. While the initial purchasing price of wood plank tiles can be comparable to that of real hardwood flooring, the cost of labor for tile is less, as the tile installation process is not as intensive as the wood flooring installation process, and maintenance costs of tile are lower than those of wood as well. Also, with the amount of realism that technology can achieve with wood plank tiles, homeowners can get the look of more expensive and exotic woods for a much more reasonable price with tile.

Better For Florida Than Real Wood

Finally, the most significant reason why Florida residents should consider choosing wood plank tiles over real wood floors is that tile simply fairs better in Florida’s subtropical and tropical climates. As previously stated, wood plank tiles withstand moisture better than real wood, which means Florida homeowners can recreate the facade of real wood on the lower levels of the house without having to fear mold overwhelming the floor over time. Also, as Speedy Floor Removal revealed in our blog about tile floors, wood plank tile would keep Florida residents cooler in the summer rather than adding to the sweat-inducing heat. Whether Florida residents use these reasons alone to decide to install wood plank tile or simply add them to the list of other pros wood plank tiles have going for them, it would be unwise for Florida residents to ignore these truths completely when making a major flooring decision.

Speedy Floor Removal’s Prep for Wood Plank Tiles

While all of the benefits of wood plank tiles position this novel flooring invention as strong competition to real wood flooring, there is one factor for which North Central Florida residents need to be prepared in order to make the dream of wood plank tiles a reality in their houses. In the process of installing wood plank tiles, homeowners need to ensure that their floors are perfectly flat in order to accommodate the fact that unlike real wood floors, wood plank tiles cannot be leveled out by sanding after they are placed. If the floors do not follow the maximum allowable variation of one-eighth of an inch in a space of ten feet, the insufficiently flat space will magnify the truth that the crown, or the middle section, of a wood plank tile is higher than the outside sections. If homeowners plan to offset their wood plank tiles in order to more convincingly replicate the look of real wood floors, a floor that is not perfectly flat will destroy the resemblance with gaps occurring in the offset sections.

Most floors are not quite flat enough nowadays, but Speedy Floor Removal can solve that problem with our floor flattening services. Our floor flattening services remove high spots from the slab and save time and money on bags of leveler. Our ability to flatten floors completely by leveling out every section results in better installation, as the new flooring will adhere directly to the concrete slab instead of another leveler or coating. Therefore, if you are determined to add all of these flooring pros to your home, contact Speedy Floor Removal to get your floors as flat as they need to be to showcase the wonders of wood plank tiles.

Tile Flooring in Florida: Everything You Need to Know

As “floor” is literally our middle name, Speedy Floor Removal is all about sharing valuable incite into the different types of flooring available to Florida residents who want to make the most of the ground on which they walk. Whether you are currently building your dream home or have lived in the same house for years, there may come a time when new flooring is a necessity, and in those situations, Speedy Floor Removal wants you to be informed. Speedy Floor Removal has already posted a blog detailing every possible positive and negative quality of hardwood and engineered wood floors in Florida, and continuing with the topic of flooring options for Florida residents, we would now like to explain the various types of tile flooring and their effectiveness in local homes and businesses.

Tile flooring is a venerable flooring choice that remains practical, economical, and fashionable today, even after millennia of use. The employment of tiles on floors, walls, and ceilings has been in practice for thousands of years, but modern innovations have sustained the durability and desirability of tile flooring for contemporary homeowners. Tile flooring takes up a vast amount of space in the flooring options arena, as the diverse range of textures, shapes, colors, and materials offers limitless options that can satisfy any design style.

The definition of tile flooring and what qualifies as such is actually rather broad, but for the purpose of providing a sufficient understanding of the market without carrying on in excess, this article will define only the most popular tile flooring choices. The most popular kinds of flooring can be divided neatly into three groups: ceramic tiles, stone tiles, and alternative materials tiles. Each category of tile flooring has pros and cons to mention, and after learning all the possibilities for tile flooring, it is important to consider the general pros and cons of installing tile flooring in the state of Florida. Lastly, as Speedy Floor Removal wants Florida residents to comprehend everything that goes into the process of upgrading flooring, we will describe what removing tile flooring entails.

Types of Tile Floors

Ceramic Tiles

tile-grout-floridaOne of the original types of tile flooring ever created is ceramic tiles, which is a strong option made with natural components. Ceramic tiles come in two forms: non-porcelain ceramic and porcelain ceramic. Non-porcelain ceramic tiles are the more traditional variation made of natural white, red, or brown clay and minerals that have undergone a manufactured process of heating and cooling. The look of non-porcelain ceramic tiles are also quite customizable, as this type of tile affords a great range of sizes, shapes, textures, colors, and finishes from which to choose. Porcelain ceramic tiles also consist of a natural material that endures a manufactured transformation. To make porcelain tiles, very refined clay combined with feldspar, a type of crystal that melts into a glass-like bonding agent, is heated at very high temperatures in order to produce a particularly strong flooring product. Porcelain tiles can be used both indoors and outdoors and can fit into any decorating style with its various colors, textures, and sizes. Porcelain ceramic tiles can be made to look like stone, slate, and wood, and they can be treated so that they are stain resistant and last that much longer.

Though ceramic tiles have come a long way from their first formations, they still possess particular pros and cons. For pros, non-porcelain and porcelain ceramic tiles are extremely strong and durable, and they are stain resistant with a consistency that is easy to clean and sterilize. Damaged sections can be replaced quite simply, and these types of tiles come in a great range of colors and designs. In the category of cons, the grout section of ceramic tile flooring can be hard to keep clean, and the fact that these tiles are so hard means they are not very comfortable for living areas and not safe for delicate materials such as glass. Yet ceramic tiles can still find their place in the right kind of room or building, so do not overlook ceramic tile as a viable tile flooring option.

Stone Tiles

The options for stone tiles have been drawn from the inspiring number of minerals present in nature. Stone tiles consist of different rocks that come from all around the world and display various properties that make them perfect for enduring the unending tread of human feet. The list of stone tile types is long, but any one of these stone tile looks could be ideal for the right home or business.

  • Slate: Slate tiles are made from metamorphic rock harvested across the world. Slate tiles are a fine-grained flooring option that can be used indoors and outdoors with a wide range of colors available.
  • Quartzite: Another metamorphic rock that grounds a space in sophistication, quartzite is a multitasking tile that can fulfill both commercial and residential purposes and be featured indoors and outdoors due to its outstanding durability. Quartzite is available in an attractive array of colors and textures to amplify the elegance of any area.
  • Marble: Marble tiles always serve as a stunning floor selection due to limitless colorations and a multitude of refined finishes, such as polished, honed, tumbled, and brushed. Marble tiles create a classic look that can complement any decor.
  • Terrazzo: Terrazzo is a kind of tile made with bits of marble and other stone chips embedded in concrete, then polished to a high sheen. Terrazzo tiles are lovely, easy to maintain, and extremely durable, but they can be even too hard for some households, such as those with children and fragile objects throughout.
  • Granite: Granite tile flooring is a cool look that comes from a hot place, because granite is an igneous rock that forms when lava or magma cools and solidifies. Granite tile provides a great depth of tonal and visual appeal due to the small flecks on its surface that define it.
  • Onyx: For less trafficked areas of your home, consider the softer consistency of onyx, a stone specializing in a smooth and transparent texture that suits indoor floors and countertops in a range of earth tones.
  • Pebbles and Stones: Pebbles and stones is a unique type of tile that can bring nature into a home with an unparalleled level of authenticity. Pebbles and stones tiles transplant natural shapes and tones into the floor of a shower or powder room and bring with them a truly uncommon decor mood.
  • Limestone: Limestone is a sedimentary rock that has been reshaped for flooring purposes while still expressing an earthy appearance through light and dark shades and textured or smooth surfaces. Limestone is not as dense as granite and marble, so it is better for rooms that are less frequented and not as vulnerable to messes.
  • Travertine: Travertine is a limestone byproduct of hot springs from around the globe. Travertine contains minerals of different hues that are mixed while the limestone is forming, and this colorful quality gives each collection of travertine tiles a distinct pattern that adorns your home with a truly original flooring look.

As stone tiles are made of a very hard natural material, they are not without their pros and cons. On the positive side, stone tiles are just about the most durable flooring option around, and unlike materials that show stains and scuffs over time, the appearance of stone tiles actually improves with age. Stone tiles are agelessly alluring. On the negative side, not only can stone tiles be very expensive, their installation process can also be quite labor intensive. Certain stone tiles absorb dirt and stains, so they are fairly difficult to clean, and they can also be dangerously slippery when wet. Home and business owners must analyze every condition of their living space and every feature of stone tiles before selecting them, but once installed, stone tiles are sure to make a stunning, timeless statement.

Alternative Materials Tiles

Alternative material tiles have been fashioned in factory settings by undergoing chemical procedures that allow tiles made of synthetic or organic materials to replicate the look of natural substances such as wood, stone, or clay. Alternative materials tiles respond to the negative qualities of natural stone or ceramic tiles, such as their price and difficulty of installation. Some types of alternative materials tiles were first manufactured after World War II, so this flooring option has also undergone years of experimentation and improvement. One very well known type of alternative tile is vinyl tile, which is a fairly old flooring option made from plastic that has been upgraded to the point that these tiles can now mimic the look of any other type of flooring, such as wood or stone. Vinyl tile flooring saves time and money with easy installation and inexpensive costs. One popular type of vinyl flooring is vinyl composition tile (VCT), which contains the primary raw ingredient of limestone, a natural substance that serves as a filler material and characterizes VCT with industrial strength. As it is so strong, VCT is commonly used as commercial flooring because it holds up well in public spaces such as retail stores and schools. Another type of alternative materials tile is floating wood tile, which is a type of tile laminate. Floating wood tiles imitate the texture and warmth of real wood but are stain resistant and less expensive. Floating wood tiles can be installed easily when they feature a tongue and groove system that locks into place and avoids the need for adhesive. The last popular type of alternative materials tile to mention is linoleum, a type of tile whose popularity has revived in recent years. Linoleum is made of natural components such as linseed oil and cork dust, and this recipe qualifies it as sturdy, water-resistant, easy to clean, and financially economical.

The development of alternative materials tiles has solved many flooring problems but has not forged a flawless type of flooring. Therefore, home and business owners must acknowledge the pros and cons of alternative materials tiles. Some positive points about these types of tiles include the fact that certain kinds, such as vinyl and linoleum, can be laid down as individual tiles or as whole sheets of tiles that cover a floor in one continuous piece. Vinyl and linoleum are versatile in this way because they consist of material that is much more flexible than other types of tile. Many of the alternative materials tiles are much cheaper than tiles made from stone or ceramic, and they can last a long time with proper cleaning and care. Negative aspects of alternative materials tiles are that they can suffer certain cosmetic wounds that stone and ceramic are more immune to, such as gouges and tears in the tiles that are difficult to repair. Floating wood tiles tend to show scuff marks and cannot be sanded or refinished, so these tiles are more likely to expose excessive wear and tear over time. Consulting the budget and the purpose of the space for which the new flooring is intended will assist home and business owners in determining if alternative materials tiles are the best solution for their flooring needs.

Tile floors in Florida

tile-bathroom-floridaTile flooring can work really well in Florida because it possesses several redeeming qualities for the Sunshine State, but some residents may be unable to ignore its inevitable deficiencies. Still, the positives of tile flooring are many. For one, tile flooring is a great choice for the Florida environment that sweats through high humidity levels. Tiles are tough and water-resistant, which enables them to take on the excessive moisture in the Florida atmosphere without taking it in and harboring mold or mildew. Tile flooring serves especially well in kitchens and bathrooms that generate even more contact with liquid, and tile flooring can withstand the heavy traffic of these areas effortlessly. Tile flooring also keeps the allergies and bacteria at bay when spread out to create super-hard surfaces that will not trap allergens, dust, or dirt. Homes with pets will find extra benefits in tile, as accidental messes are simple to clean on this type of flooring, and the durability of tile can accommodate animal nails. Additionally, tile floors are cool to the touch because they are good conductors of heat, which means that they remove heat from warmer substances such as feet. Tile floors feel great in the Florida heat as they help keep your body and the house cool.

The cons of tile flooring are few. Tile can be a difficult flooring material to install, requiring a skilled hand and special tools to cut and place the tile perfectly. Tile flooring also fails to heatproof and soundproof a room, but area runners and rugs can address this problem. Lastly, older tiles can be very slippery when wet if they have not been treated to have the anti-slip surface that modern tile floors have.

Tile Floor Removal

When approaching the task of removing tile floors, home and business owners should remember that not only is this daunting venture absolutely no fun at all, but it can also be extremely taxing of both time and effort. Attempting to remove tile floors without the help of a professional requires individuals to clear the area of all furniture and appliances and to disconnect any pipes or drains. Then, the grueling work of chiseling away at dozens or even hundreds of square feet of stubborn tile begins. Gloves and safety glasses are essential, and your strategy for removal must adapt to whatever surface to which the tile is connected. A chisel, a sledgehammer, a flat bar, a blade, or a saw will have to serve as your arsenal for the fight, and the battle may rage for days, as even the process of removing a small bathroom floor can take at least half a day. After you have completely cleared the tile away, then you have to remove as much of the adhesive as you can manage, but even when that chore is accomplished, one major trouble will still be looming over you: all that dust. Taking out a tile floor can literally produce pounds of dust, and you will be responsible to clean it all up some way or another. However, Speedy Floor Removal would like to make a suggestion that will not only spare you from all the cleanup, but also allow you to skip out on the demolition as well. Our recommendation: call Speedy Floor Removal to do the job. We are professional floor removers, and we have eradicated countless tile floors with our streamlined and systematic dustless floor removal process. We know exactly how to get rid of that old tile floor and save you so much time and hassle, so call Speedy today to unleash the power of dustless removal on your tile floor.

Dangers of Dust in Your Home

One of the most important things about Speedy Floor Removal is that our process of removing old flooring is virtually dustless. For years, we have trained our team, tested our tools, and perfected our procedures to minimize the amount of dust from a floor removal project. Our workers are highly skilled in the art of dustless floor removal due to their thorough amount of practice with our advanced technology that includes:

  • Hepa-filtered dust collection vacuums
  • Riding floor scrapers
  • Floor sanders
  • Grinders
  • And more

We have invested a lot of time and money because we care about leaving your home clean and your air healthy. We guarantee that our machines successfully eliminate pounds of dust that floor removal can generate. With all of this effort, we will do the best job of collecting and expelling dust on any size project.

What is the Big Deal with Dust?

Excessive exposure to dust can be quite dangerous for you and your family. To share the importance of our services that will protect you and your family, Speedy Floor Removal would like you to understand the consequences of having too much dust in your home.

What is Dust?

We have all heard of dust, but what dust is may still be a mystery to many. Dust consists of many different things, and several sources contribute to the dust content in your home. More than half of the household dust is soil that has been brought into your home by shoes, bare feet, or airborne particles. The other half is an assortment of debris such as:

  • Skin cells
  • Fur
  • Food products
  • Fibers
  • Kitchen grease
  • Plant and insect parts
  • Mold
  • And more

While these particular dust ingredients may simply make the house dirtier, other components are a problem because they can cause many more health issues. These problems can range from simple allergies to more hazardous health issues.

Dust Allergies

As is the case with any allergy, dust allergies can be quite the burden. Ranging from mild to severe, dust allergies symptoms include:

  • Occasional runny nose
  • Nasal congestion
  • Postnasal drip
  • Itchy, red, or watery eyes
  • Itchy nose, roof of mouth, or throat
  • Sneezing
  • Cough
  • Facial pressure and pain
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Frequent awakening
  • Swollen, blue skin under the eyes

Those most vulnerable to dust allergies are the elderly and children. Infants are one hundred times more endangered by the health threats of dust-borne pollutants than adults are; dust allergies can appear at a very young age, less than one or two years. Also, families living in older homes that need to have their floors replaced, are more likely to suffer from dust allergies.

Dust Mites

Dust mites bring their own donations to the dust levels of your home. Though these insects are barely visible to an unaided eye, the number of health issues they can inflict upon humans is high enough to be concerned. Dust mites are microscopic arthropods, which means they are small bugs that have eight legs and measure about one-third of a millimeter long. They thrive in warm, humid environments, places like Florida are particularly susceptible to them.dust-mite-allergies

Dust mites like to feed on human skin, the flakes of which people shed every day. On average, adults shed about one and a half grams of skin per day—which can satisfy one million dust mites. They typically live for about two to four months, and during this time, they eat, reproduce, and release waste.

Though this sounds disgusting, what does this mean for humans? Their fecal matter and body fragments contain harmful allergens that can cause a great variety of uncomfortable side effects that we discussed earlier. Other side effects of dust mites are:

  • Nasal polyps
  • Eczema
  • Hay fever
  • And other allergic ailments

Dangers of Breathing in Dust

Breathing in dust is part of our daily life. However, breathing in large amounts of dust for a period of time can lead to diseases and severe injuries to the respiratory system. Dust commonly contains residue from many different things, but there can also be residue from cleaning products, pieces of heavy metal, and toxic liquids. Our bodies are equipped with respiratory systems that can function very well under normal conditions, however; breathing in the dust for a period of time can take a toll on you and your body.

If dust makes it so far as to the lungs, it can cause different kinds of problems depending on the types of materials it contains. Some of the more serious side effects of breathing in dust over a long period include:

  • Bronchitis
  • Fibrosis
  • Silicosis
  • Asthma
  • Cancer
  • And more

It is hard to know how susceptible your body is to these problems until you already are suffering from them. Keep in mind that people of different ages and health levels in or visiting your home may be at even more risk. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure when removing your old floors that you go with the dust-free floor removal. When removing your old floors, stirring or spreading dust from underneath your old floor can be polluted by bacteria, fungi, and dust mites that can cause the issues above.

Importance of Dustless Floor Removal

In the process of removing your floors, pounds of dust are produced both from the breaking of the floor materials and from the process of stirring up all the unseen particles lodged in and underneath the floor. Trying to clean up the dust that quickly settles throughout your house could take weeks. Not to mention, you own body can take so much before significant amounts of dust cause many of the health concerns stated above.

For homeowners not willing to take these risks, Speedy Floor Removal offers several floor removal packages that leaves your home dust free and worry free. Speedy Floor Removal knows dust and our dustless floor removal is both and art and science. We have mastered the process to be able to offer families and companies much safer options when changing floors. Therefore, you move on with life and exist comfortably long after the project is completed. You can see our process in action on our video page. Remember, before any floor removal project, contact Speedy Floor Removal.

With us there is no dust, call for your free quote now!

Best Hardwood Floors for Florida: Part 2 of 2

Engineered Hardwood Floors

This section will reveal the pros and cons of another viable option for hardwood floors in Florida and will offer some concluding thoughts on how to decide which type of wood flooring is best for your home. If you missed Part 1 of Best Hardwood Floors for Florida, you can check it out on our News & Tips page.

Option 2: Engineered Hardwood Floors

Pros:

Having solid hardwood flooring in Florida is still very possible, but there is an alternative option for families who want the look of real wood without the upkeep. Engineered hardwood floors have been in existence for over thirty years and have become the most popular option for a DIY wood floor. Engineered wood flooring is all-wood, laminate plank manufactured from pieces of wood that comes in a variety of pre-finished shades. This type of flooring boasts a wood wear layer that tops three to twelve ply layers of various wooden materials, such as oak and poplar. These materials are cross-layered, glued, and pressed together.

Engineered hardwood is not the same as laminate because the top layer consists of real wood. This trait guarantees attractiveness comparable to solid wood flooring. It also means that engineered wood floors are capable of surviving several refinishes to achieve a fresh look, and it can be site-finished just like solid hardwood if the owner prefers.

Even though they can be sanded a few times like real wood, the real wood layer on top of engineered hardwood floors is much thinner than a solid wood plank, so engineered hardwood floors do not use as much wood overall. Depending on the way manufacturers cut the real wood for the thin top layer, engineered hardwood floors can produce almost no sawdust, which categorizes this type of flooring as more resourceful of wood and less wasteful on the whole.

Engineered wood floors bear a great resemblance in look and feel to solid hardwood, but they are designed to deflect the moisture problems of Florida specifically. Engineered hardwood floors are more impervious to higher moisture levels in the environment, so they are ideal for Florida and similar regions. They are also coated in a specially formulated, UV-cure urethane finish that intensifies their durability and resistance to scratches. With all the sand and sunlight that comes in to Florida homes, that extra protection is essential.

Some types of engineered hardwood floors, such as acrylic impregnated flooring, offer unparalleled durability due to a process that bolsters the strength of the wood to the point that it is 300% harder and more indent immune than natural wood. Engineered hardwood floors are also known to be more stable than solid hardwood as the manufactured wood moves less than real wood.

The installation process of engineered wood also seems catered to Florida housing communities; this flooring can be attached to a subfloor like real wood, but it can also be glued down directly over concrete slabs above or below grade, which is much more convenient for homeowners in Florida. Another difference in installation between real and engineered hardwood floors is the fact that real wood has to be nailed down, whereas engineered hardwood planks snap together and float over a thin foam-rubber underlayment, which ensures a quick and clean insertion with no gluing or nailing.

Cons:

Even though engineered hardwood floors are shaded with many popular wood stains, the color options are limited to the choices of the manufacturer, so engineered hardwood floors cannot be personalized to the extent that solid wood floors can be.

Engineered hardwood floors also have a cap on the number of times they can be refinished due to the fact that the real wood layer on top is only a thin portion of each plank. Minimized sanding also means that engineered hardwood is incapable of concealing subfloor flaws, as there is usually no sanding during the installation, so this restriction necessitates perfecting the subfloor to prepare for the wood layer.

This lack of real wood to work with also leaves engineered hardwood floors harder to repair; a whole section may have to be replaced if the floor is damaged, and matching up the color and grain between the new and existing planks can be tricky depending on the supplying company.

Another notable con for engineered hardwood floors is that they are considerably more expensive than laminate, tile, and carpet, and prices usually start higher than even solid hardwood.

Lastly, engineered hardwood floors come in great ranges of quality, so homeowners must be extremely careful when buying. Inappropriately thin veneers shorten the life of the floor by resisting sanding and refinishing opportunities, and they can even cause premature warping and fading. If the core layers are made of fiberboard or strand board rather than high quality wood, the stability of the floor could be compromised, and the flooring will certainly be an inferior product.

Conclusion:

Both solid and engineered hardwood floors are accessible for homeowners in Florida to incorporate into their houses, but there are clearly some specific benefits and drawbacks to going with either option in this state. Engineered hardwood floors may be a better choice for the ground floor simply because of the humidity situation, but solid hardwood floors can sometimes be added to upper floors that are farther away from the moisture. There are ways to make both types fit in Florida, but the personal factors and preferences of individual homeowners might make one choice standout as the most convenient option for them.

However, the work that precedes and follows the flooring procedure is also something to consider before making a definite decision. If different flooring already exists in the home, removing the old and preparing for the new are important steps that contribute to the eventual success of the future surface. There can be a lot to remove and repair to get ready for solid or engineered hardwood floors, and Speedy Floor Removal has experience with all of it. To learn more, review the professional services we can offer to your next flooring project, whether solid or engineered hardwood is the final choice, and contact Speedy Floor Removal today.

 

Sources:

“Acrylic Impregnated”. Design Biz.com. BuildBiz, Inc. n.d. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://www.designbiz.com/BizLibrary/products/acrylic-impregnated-wood-flooring.asp

“Hardwood Flooring Installations and Sales”. About Floors N More. About Floors N More. n.d. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://www.aboutfloorsnmore.com/services/hardwood-flooring.html

Hosking, Jeff. “All About Engineered Wood Flooring.” Hosking Hardwood. Hosking Hardwood Flooring. n.d. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/Department/Hardwood-Floors/All-About-Engineered-Wood-Floors.aspx?dId=7&pageId=7

“Mold and Moisture”. Florida Health. Florida Department of Health. n.d. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/mold/

Newcom, Christopher. “Fight Florida Humidity: Choose engineered hardwood floors.” Angie’s List. Angie’s List. 19 August 2010. Web. 6 October 2010.

http://www.angieslist.com/articles/fight-florida-humidity-choose-engineered-hardwood-floors.htm

Pickett, Marcus. “Engineered Flooring: Easier Hardwood?” HomeAdvisor. HomeAdvisor, Inc. n.d. Web. 8 October 2014.

http://www.homeadvisor.com/article.show.Engineered-Flooring-Easier-Hardwood.14586.html

“Solid vs. Engineered.” Expressive Woods. Expressive Woods. n.d. Web. 8 October 2014.

http://www.expressivewoods.com/exotic-woods-101/solid-vs-engineered-flooring/

“Solid vs. Engineered Hardwood Flooring.” Shaw Floors. Shaw Industries Group, Inc. n.d. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://shawfloors.com/tips-trends/natural-hardwood/hardwood-solid-engineered

Thompson, Sally. “Frequently Asked Questions”. Feil, Inc. Wood Flooring. Feil Wood Flooring. n.d. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://www.feil.us/faqs.html

Truini, Joseph. “Which Kind of Hardwood Flooring Should You Choose?” Popular Mechanics. Hearst Communication, Inc. 26 April 2012. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/interior/which-kind-of-hardwood-flooring-should-you-choose

“Types of Hardwood Flooring.” Floor Facts. Quin Street, Inc. n.d. Web. 10 October 2014.

http://www.floorfacts.com/hardwood-floors/types-of-hardwood-floors.asp

White, Ron. “What Type of Wood Floors Are Best for Florida?” eHow. Demand Media, Inc. n.d. Web. 6 October 2014.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5317716_type-wood-floors-florida.html

Best Hardwood Floors for Florida: Part 1 of 2

Solid Hardwood Floors for Florida

Flooring is the visual foundation of home interiors. The type of flooring in a house contributes significantly to each room’s lighting, color tone, and comfort levels. Modern American homes are not without a plethora of flooring options, but one choice remains undeniably popular over the years for being timeless, traditional, and natural: hardwood floors.

Hardwood floors not only add to the aesthetic appeal of a house: they also had to the monetary value, as houses with wood flooring have sold faster and at higher prices than houses without them in the last few years, according to a report by the National Wood Flooring Association. The National Wood Flooring Association also verifies that every year from 2002 to 2011, Americans bought more than 900 million square feet of wood flooring. Homes all across America feature hardwood flooring, an undying trend that qualifies it as an almost universally attractive decorating decision.

Homeowners in Florida are certainly capable of solidly defining the character of their spaces with hardwood, but due to its geographical location, Florida possesses some unique characteristics that put added pressure on residents making decisions about flooring. Floridians need to know the positive and negative aspects of placing hardwood flooring in their homes, and they should be aware of the different options available in this area of flooring. Therefore, this blog will discuss the facts about the options for hardwood flooring and what those facts mean for Florida residents.

Option 1: Solid Hardwood Floors

Pros:

The oldest, most organic hardwood flooring selection is solid hardwood, which is made solely of real wood. Solid harwood flooring has been popular for so long because it definitely has its pros.

Solid hardwood flooring can last for years while always adding some shine to a space. Popular solid harwood flooring materials include pine, oak, cherry, and bamboo, which can be bought in stained or unstained condition. Sometimes, solid hardwood floors can also be made with recycled wood for the sake of eco-friendliness. Because solid hardwood floors can be purchased unstained, color and finish options are completely customizable.

Having real wood underfoot promises a look and feel like nothing else. The fact that the material is natural means that real wood floors can develop character over time, so people often credit them with augmenting their distinction and beauty with age, especially as the color becomes deeper and darker. Solid hardwood floors can also be renewed as needed by sanding and refinishing, and this same process keeps repairs relatively simple.

Real wood can endure for decades due to its ability to be refinished. During installation, real wood can receive on-site finishing, in which workers sand and finish the floors at the site to give the wood a more classic look. Solid hardwood stays down with nails hammered into a subfloor, but with sanding, real wood can hide any flaws in the subfloor such as minor irregularities or height variations. Solid hardwood floors also tends to stay dust-free better other types of flooring, so cleaning is less complicated.

Cons:

The reason that homeowners in Florida need to make their hardwood flooring decisions carefully is because solid hardwood floors, as a natural substance, are susceptible to debilitating consequences when exposed to humidity. Humid air can cause the wood to expand and even rot. To compensate for the swelling, installers must leave a gap between the wall and the floor.

Many flooring providers do not recommend placing real wood floors in areas exposed to excessive moisture. The website floorfacts.com actually cautions against installing solid hardwood floors in areas that are below-grade and prone to flooding, and Florida qualifies as such an area because it is flat and near sea level. The material costs for solid hardwood floors do not have to be expensive in the beginning, but installation and completion procedures can really build up the total cost overall. Also, installation can take days to complete, as the planks have to be sanded and finished after they are laid down, and the dust and chemical fumes released during the process can severely disrupt the health and comfort of the homeowners.

Sustaining solid hardwood floors in Florida homes means lengthening the list of chores. To protect it, homeowners must commit to coating their solid hardwood floors with three to ten topcoats of finish initially. Solid hardwood floors require a topcoat finish to protect against scratches and moisture, as damage from those sources can lead to mold. Mold can definitely be a problem in Florida due to the excessive rainfall and humidity levels, so keepers of real wood floors must faithfully adjust humidity levels in the home to keep them below 60% at most for the safety of their surfaces. Dropping humidity levels lower than 50% is more ideal for controlling mold growth and dust mites.

To help the finish last, solid hardwood floors should regularly receive a coat of wax or polish. Proper maintenance for solid hardwood floors also demands owners to abstain from cleaning wood floors with a wet mop, dragging furniture across the floor, or allowing the floor to be exposed to excessive sunlight.

Part 2:

Read more about best hardwood floors for Florida in Part 2 of this blog! The second section reveals the pros and cons of another viable option for hardwood floors in Florida and offers some concluding thoughts on how to decide which type of wood flooring is best for your home. For more information on solid hardwood floors, contact Speedy Floor Removal today.

See Part 2 for sources.

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