Laminates $.79 sq-ft/ Carpets $.89 sq-ft
Hardwoods $1.99 sq-ft / Tile $.69 sq-ft
Laminates From $.79 Cents / Hardwoods From $1.99 SF
Flooring Trends In Georgia
Types Of Woods: Numerous types of hardwood and softwood tree species offer a wide range of beautiful timber for making floors. From expensive mahogany and cherry wood to the less expensive bamboo and pine, you'll find a good match for your home door and budget. Bamboo flooring is very popular due to the fact it is cheap comes from a more renewable resource than hardwood trees.
Hybrid Flooring which has several types of materials, may use a small very thin piece (7 to 10 mm thick) of wood veneer on top of a fiber board or plywood board. The technology is so precise and efficient that 50 to one hundred houses can have complete floors from one tree. This is very good news for our natural environment and ecology.
Engineered Hardwood Flooring and Laminate are confused easily, but differ in aesthetics, performance and construction. While engineered hardwood flooring comes in prefinished and unfinished hardwood of several domestic and exotic species, laminate is made of HDF (high density fiberboard)--not real wood. Laminate Floors are perfect for active rooms in the home and especially practical in homes with children and animals. Laminate flooring combines realistic designs with strong, durable and water-resistant finish
Types of Hardwood Floors
There are 2 basic types of hardwood floors with several different variations of engineered wood flooring.
Solid Hardwood Floors
Solid hardwood floors are cut from a wood log into a solid plank and the tongue and grooves are milled on all four sides. They range from 5/16" to 3/4" in thickness and come in various widths and generally are in random lengths. Solid wood planks are sold in both unfinished bundles or prefinished at the factory and sold in full cartons. You can buy solid wood flooring in a variety of North American wood species as well as exotic hardwoods from different countries from around the World.
Because solid wood planks are sensitive to changes in humidity they are only recommended for on or above ground level. Use caution if on grade above a crawl-space. Solid wood floors are meant to be nailed-down over a wood type sub floor and should be installed perpendicular to the floor joists.
Engineered Hardwood Floors
Engineered wood floors are also called laminate wood floors because they consist of several thin, wood plies that are glued together under heat and pressure. The plies can vary from 3 to 9 plies and are offered in a variety of widths from 2-1/4" to 8" wide and in many different stained colors. Due to the construction methods used with engineered wood floors they are more dimensionally stable than solid wood planks and can be use on all grade levels, including in dry basements over fully cured concrete slabs. The top ply of an engineered wood is called the finish layer and can be any hardwood specie, both North American or exotic hardwoods.
Many engineered wood floors can be glued-down, stapled down or floated over wood sub floors, dry concrete slabs and some types of hard surface floor coverings, such as vinyl flooring or vinyl floor tiles.
Acrylic Impregnated Hardwood Floors - are really an engineered hard wood floor where to top, finish ply has been totally saturated in acrylic and stain. This allows the color to go all the way through the top ply rather than only partially staining the top ply. Saturating the entire top ply makes the finish layer harder than normal wood flooring, but this also means you cannot refinish the wood floor. You can re-coat the floor's surface though.
Longstrip Hardwood Floors - are really engineered hard wood floors that are 3-plies and generally around 7-1/2" to 8" wide. The top finish layer is usually 2-3 rows of thin, hardwood slices all glued to the center wood core. This gives each plank the appearance of being 2-3 rows of planks already secured together. Longstrip wood planks are not very common, although they are a bit easier to install for do-it-yourself installations.
Recommended Hardwood Floors Over Different Types of Sub floors
| Substrate / Sub floor | Recommended Type Wood Floor |
| Concrete Slab | Solid Wood Floors - only over a sleeper system with 3/4" plywood and moisture barrier. Engineered Wood Floors - glued or floated |
| 5/8" - 3/4" Plywood | Solid Wood Floors - nailed-down Engineered Wood Floors - glue, staple or float |
| Particle Board | Its best to remove all particle board Solid Wood Floors - NOT recommended Engineered Wood Floors - float only |
| 5/8" - 3/4" OSB | Solid Wood Floors - nail or staple Engineered Wood Floors - float only |
Engineered Wood Floors
Hardwood engineered floors are generally 3, 5, 7 or 9 thin wood plies (called veneers) that are laminated together with special glues under heat and pressure to form a single wood plank. 
In the manufacturing process the thin wood plies are stacked on top of each other, but generally in opposite directions. This creates a floor that is much more dimensionally stable and far less effected by moisture than a solid hardwood floor.
Engineered wood floors range from 1/4" to 9/16" in thickness, and from 2 1/4" to 8" in width with random lengths. The top finish layer is cut from a variety of North American hardwoods as well as many different types of exotic wood species. The top wood ply is also generally sliced cut, rotary cut, or sown. Each gives a unique visual to the wood face.
Hardwood engineered floors are often confused with laminate floors because they are constructed of several wood plies that are laminated together. Laminate flooring is constructed differently and uses a photo print to simulate the appearance of real hardwood flooring. (Note: there are some laminate floors that have a thin ply of wood veneer as the top layer and use a fiber core underneath.)
These floors are the best choice for installing over concrete slabs and in basements. You should still check if excessive moisture and humidity are not present. (Note: concrete slabs must still be dry, clean and fully-cured.) This makes engineered wood floors ideal for many homes in southern or western United States.
Wood always wants to expand in a certain direction. Solid wood plank will always expand in the presence of moisture across the width of the planks, rather than down the length of the boards. To avoid the expansion/contraction problem, manufacturers of engineered wood planks place each ply in the opposite direction of each other. This is called cross-ply construction and is what gives engineered wood floors their dimensional stability. If humidity is a concern, then you should strongly consider an engineered wood floor or rather than a solid wood floor.
Another advantage of engineered wood floors is the top ply can be a wide variety of wood species without driving the manufacturing costs out of sight. Thus, engineered hardwood floors are offered in a variety of American hardwoods, as well as many exotic hardwood species. If you a looking for some of the more unusual, or exotic wood species than you should definitely take a look at manufacturers offering engineered hardwood floors.
Most engineered floors can be installed several methods, including: nailed-down, stapled-down, glued-down, or floated over a wide variety of sub floors, including some types of existing floors. Caution should be used when attempting to go over an existing floor to be sure the existing flooring is well adhered and that your installation application meets the manufacturer's installation recommendations.
