Flooring (FL) Specifications

Reclaimed Flooring

At E&K Vintage Wood we offer reclaimed flooring in most of the wood species that we carry in our inventory. Our most requested floors are in Douglas Fir, Oak, Maple and Walnut, though we offer a number of other types of floors. In most cases our flooring is milled from our stock of Reclaimed Lumber and Reclaimed Beams. This allows us to provide wood that has been around for many years and has the unique patina of vintage wood but still allows us to mill a new tongue and groove. This ensures that the material will lay down properly and will be as easy to install as new flooring. In some cases we offer original flooring that has been reclaimed to be refinished and used again as flooring.

Our flooring is hand selected from our stock of existing reclaimed wood, every board goes through a rigorous inspection process. The ends are trimmed and the boards are denailed and kiln dried. When a board has completed these steps it is then ready to be milled into flooring.

After the milling process the boards will either be sold unfinished or they will be pre-finished by our team of Artisan Finishers. At E&K we do not just push a board through a UV machine. We lay the floor down at our facility board by board and then we apply the finish by hand, hand scraping and sanding the boards where necessary. We use traditional finishing methods that are best for reclaimed floors. There are no UV machines or automatic finishers; everything is done the way floors were done when quality was the first priority, not quantity.

Every board that we use is unique; grain type will vary, amount of nail holes, knots, weathering, etc. will vary from board to board. This means that every floor will be unique; no two will be exactly the same. When looking at images of the variety of custom finishes we offer, you must keep in mind that we cannot replicate sample images exactly, each board reacts differently to a given finish. We try to develop finishes that work specifically with our wood and some combinations of species and custom finishes are more consistent than others. If this variance is a concern, we will be happy to recommend our more consistent finishes. In some cases, we offer Select or Premium Grade options; this is for the hand selection of flooring based on certain specific characteristics. These may include amount of knots, nail holes, difference in coloring, grain type, etc.

Listed below are general flooring specifications, individual products may vary from the general specifications. Not all products are offered in all standard specifications. E&K Vintage Wood recommends that flooring is stored, acclimated and installed according to the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) guidelines.

SOURCE: Our wood flooring may contain wood that was originally from Barns, Mills, Residences or Factories, or it may come from the planks or beams that held up these structures. We mill the planks and beams that pass our initial inspection and meet our strict standards for E&K flooring. In some cases, with client approval, we will use FSC certified material if the client desires material that cannot be obtained as reclaimed.

SPECIES: We offer all of our material as unfinished flooring, some of our most popular pre-finished species include: Douglas Fir, Hickory, Maple, Oak, and Walnut.

STANDARD RANGE OF DIMENSIONS: Most of our flooring is available in our standard dimensions. Custom dimensions may be selected depending on supply. Timing for orders, even standard dimensions, is based on current inventory. If we have a certain size in stock then we can generally provide the finished product considerably faster than if we have to take down one of our many structures to supply the order.

Length: Standard range is 2’ – 8’ Random or 2' - 10’ Random with the bulk of the flooring 4’+. Subject to supply, we can offer most material in longer lengths if desired, or all boards cut to a specific length.

Thickness: Standard thickness is ¾”, we can provide flooring at smaller or larger dimensions. In some cases standard thickness will be 5/8”.

Width: The standard widths offered are 2” – 8”, though we offer wide plank flooring up to 15”. An order may be a single fixed width or multiple widths. When doing multiple widths we generally provide equal linear footage of each width.

MILLING: The choice of surface milling is only a consideration if you are purchasing unfinished floors or a custom finished floor. On all of our pre-finished floors, the milling is already determined. In most cases when we are making floors we mill them from reclaimed wood. In cases where we are working with pre-existing floors, we will not mill the surface. We will only mill the edges to get a clean Tongue and Groove. There is a $450 milling set up fee on flooring orders under 500 SF and a $500 fee on all custom flooring orders.

Profile: Our standard flooring is Tongue and Grooved (T&G). We work within standard industry norms for the exact profile of the T&G. Not all of our flooring has exactly the same T&G. If you require a custom profile, we can make knives for the custom profile at an additional cost.

Relief: We have a back relief on all flooring that is over 5” wide and on some that is less than 5” wide.

Surface Milling: There are 3 options for the initial milling of the surface of the flooring.

Planed: The material is put through the molder and the blades cut the surface layer off leaving the face of the material smooth.

Hit or Miss (HOM or Skip Planed): The blades on the molder are set to just skim the top of the board. The material is lightly planed, the high points will be planed and the low points will be left with the original surface. Generally when doing HOM we will do a heavier “hit” than “miss” to help get more consistent boards.

Rough Face (Dirty Top): The original face is left on the board; the boards are hand sanded to take down the rough points, leaving more of the patina than the other two milling options.

Varied Thickness on HOM and Original Face:Due to the fact the finished face of flooring with Rough Face and HOM milling by definition is not milled or not fully milled, there will often be a slight "lip" along the seams where two floor boards come together upon installation. Wood planks are not always level. They may have a slight cup or bow in them; this is part of what makes the HOM work. The blade only scrapes the high points and you do not cut the entire top layer off to an even thickness Thus you have boards that will be higher or lower in the middle and higher or lower in the center. This creates boards that are not exactly the same thickness; this is especially true with Oak. When we pre-finish HOM boards and Original Face boards we will do some scraping of the joints to bring more consistent thickness to the boards, though we do not eliminate all differences edge thickness.

Micro-bevel: When we pre-finish flooring we mill the flooring to have a micro-bevel. This is standard in pre-finished floors. The micro-bevel allows for some unevenness in the sub-floor and does not cause the boards to need to be sanded after being installed. If you desire a square edge then you may have unequal edges and sanding will be required. If the material is pre-finished this will remove the finish. On unfinished floors you may request a square edge, micro-bevel or custom groove.

CHARACTER MARKS, LOOK AND APPEARANCE: Part of the charm and aesthetic of reclaimed wood is the character inherent in boards that have had a prior use. This means that material may have some, all or none of the following: knots, cracks, splits, bolt holes, insect tracks, divots, and other signs of previous use, as long as the board is sound, these items may be present. In some cases it may be specified by E&K that some or all of these will not be present. Clients can in some cases order Select or Premium grade flooring where E&K will hand select for the inclusion or exclusion of some or all of these traits, depending on supply.

We try to make samples that represent the presence of character marks but in some cases sample boards may not show all possible marks. Sample boards are generally 2 to 6 sq.ft. in size and flooring orders range from 500 sq.ft to 5000 sq.ft. We cannot incorporate all the types of markings that your floor will contain in a single sample. If the sample does not display these characteristics it DOES NOT MEAN THEY WILL NOT APPEAR IN THE FINAL FLOORING.

E&K will use filler at its discretion to fill knot holes and nail holes and other surface holes. In some cases there may be some holes that are filled and others that are not filled. If you purchase unfinished floors, you can expect to see a number of knot holes, cracks and nail holes that need to be filled and that the installer will be expected to fill or E&K can be contracted to repair such holes.

GRADE: E&K offers “Select” or “Premium” grades in some cases. These options vary depending on the species and supply. What they mean is that E&K will hand select for certain traits. In general “Select” grade means fewer knots, nail holes and other character marks and more consistent looking boards. “Premium” grade may be for the selection of specific grain types such as Vertical Grain, Quarter sawn or it may be for a certain coloring present in some boards but not others. Premium can also include selecting for fewer character marks. Grade specifications are usually determined on a product by product basis.

FINISHING: E&K offers pre-finished flooring that consists of different stains and sealers combined by E&K’s finishing team to create signature E&K finishes. E&K uses low VOC products in almost all its finishes.

In some cases E&K will share the makeup of its finishes and in other cases they are considered proprietary to E&K. We strive to use low VOC finishes. We can offer no or very low VOC finishes upon request.

MOISTURE CONTENT: All E&K flooring is checked for moisture content (MC) and is considered acceptable between 6 – 9% MC with the bulk at 7- 8%. Most material is kiln dried prior to milling. When receiving flooring, it is recommended that the client confirm the MC of the flooring when it is received. After flooring is delivered to the client, E&K makes no warranties or representations that the flooring will maintain the proper MC. There are a number of misunderstandings regarding the proper storage, acclimation and installation guidelines in regards to preventing moisture issues with hardwood flooring. E&K follows the National Hardwood Flooring Association (NWFA) Guidelines and we recommend that anyone purchasing hardwood floors read the publications issued by the NWFA. General Installation Guidelines include Job site Conditions, Acclimation, Moisture Testing, Moisture and Wood Maintenance.

In order to keep flooring at the proper MC levels to prevent shrinking or expansion after installation, the NWFA recommends a number of steps be completed prior to installation and/or upon receiving flooring at the job site.

WEIGHT: Flooring varies in weight by species. ¾” thick flooring will weigh 75% of the board footage for any given species. Some examples of flooring weights per sq.ft. are: Oak 3lbs, Douglas Fir 1.75 – 2lbs and Walnut 2 – 2.5lbs. The general range is between 2 – 4lbs.

PACKAGING: It is standard to package flooring in Bundles. The flooring is stacked in rows with paper between each row to protect the boards. The bundle is then secured with metal straps. The bundles sit on stickers (small boards) spaced approximately every 48”. The standard size of the bundles is intended for moving by forklift. Bundle sizes are approximately 24 – 48” high, 42” wide and 8' – 12’ long.

E&K offers other Packaging Options:

Hand Carry: Flooring is packaged in 4 - 8 board packages and then bundled. This provides easy-to-carry small packages of flooring that one or two people can lift once the bundle is opened.

Crate: When flooring is going to be shipped by a 3^rd party and the material may be loaded on and off a vehicle, the most protection offered is when the material is crated. A wooden crate is built that completely encompasses the flooring.

Palletizing: A less expensive option than crating is to palletize the flooring. The flooring is packaged as per Standard Bundling except instead of sitting on stickers the bundles sit on single or double pallets.

CERTIFICATON: E&K Flooring is FSC Certified and can help a project qualify for up to 5 LEED credit points. The points it may qualify for are MR 4.1 and MR 4.2 (Recycled Content), MR 7 (Certified Wood) and if within 500 miles of Los Angeles, MR 5.1 and MR 5.2 (Regional Materials) points.

FUMIGATION: All E&K Flooring is fumigated and in most cases it is kiln dried. E&K has an extremely diligent policy of monitoring for any type of pests or infestation in its wood.

PRODUCT CATEGORY ID FLOORING: “FL”

PRODUCT LINES:

Oak Flooring – FLOK

Douglas Fir Flooring – FLDF

Walnut Flooring – FLWN

Maple Flooring – FLMP

OPTIONS Available for Flooring:

Cut to Fixed Length, Cut to Minimum Length or Greater, Select / Premium Grades, Packaging