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    Categories Epoxy Floors

    What Are the Advantages of Epoxy Flooring?

    Building maintenance costs hover around $2 per square foot per year. If you make the right decisions about your facility from the beginning, though, you can drive that cost down.

    Ever looked into epoxy flooring? This rugged, durable material helps keep maintenance costs down in industrial settings without breaking the bank. It offers many upsides over other floor types like bare concrete.

    If you’re starting construction on a new industrial or warehouse facility, you should go into the process with all the facts. Keep reading to learn why you’d want to choose epoxy for your next floor design.

    Strong Bonds Make Strong Floors

    The epoxy coating used on floors will resist most stressors. It weathers chemical spills, heavy loads, and moving industrial equipment without complaint for years, making it an excellent choice for high-traffic areas.

    While other types of floors can withstand a physical pounding, epoxy floors excel at handling chemical spills. The chemical resistance of epoxy resin makes it hard for spills and perforations to damage the material. If you’re replacing a floor for an industry like pharmaceuticals or oil, an epoxy floor installation will prove to be a safe investment.

    Facilities Staff Will Thank You for Investing in Epoxy Flooring

    If you want a floor that’s easy to clean, give epoxy a serious look. Epoxy floors have a non-porous surface with no crevices, cracks, seams, or carpets. Any of these can become the hiding place for dirt, grime, and bacteria, which can cause problems in hospitals and intensive care wards.

    The chemical resistance of the floor also makes it safe to use a variety of chemicals when cleaning it. If you need something heavy-duty to handle a spill, your epoxy floor won’t warp or crack in response to cleaning chemicals.

    Environmental Friendliness

    While eco-friendly floors can use many materials, including hardwood, epoxy floors have some environmental benefits unique to them.

    The smoothness allows epoxy to add light to a room, so you’ll use less artificial light. This effect works well in large spaces like warehouses.

    An epoxy floor can also last more than two decades. This long life reduces waste.

    An epoxy-coating floor won’t chip or flake either. This avoids the creation of environmental waste from the floor.

    Cost-Efficient Flooring

    While it isn’t the cheapest option for flooring, epoxy floors come in at a strong price point over the life of the floor. Due to the long life and low need for maintenance, an epoxy floor will often beat other types of floor on cost in the long run.

    Colors, Colors, Colors

    Epoxy floors come in a wide range of colors. Regardless of what aesthetic statements you want your building to make, epoxy can get you there.

    A Floor That Stands the Test of Time

    If you expect any kind of stress on your floor, epoxy flooring makes a cost-efficient and rugged choice. It also works well in applications where cleanliness plays a major role.

    If you want epoxy flooring in the Pittsburgh area, reach out to us today. We have an extensive background in both epoxy and hardwood flooring and can help you find the best floor for your space. Our employees also have extensive customer service training, so you’ll always have a friendly, courteous professional helping you.

    Categories Hardwood

    Hardwood Floor Colors: A Selection Guide for Pittsburgh Homeowners

    When it comes to value-add flooring options, hardwood flooring still takes the lead. Hardwood flooring goes well with any architectural style, adding a touch of timelessness and modernity all at once.

    Picking hardwood over other flooring options isn’t the end of your decision-making process. There are tons of different hardwood floor colors to consider, as well.

    We’re here to offer this quick but useful guide. Read on for our hardwood floor color selection guide.

    Cool Hardwood Floor Colors

    Cool tones have a tendency to evoke feelings of calmness. They do a great job of brightening natural light and opening up small spaces. In the world of hardwood flooring, anything with a white or gray undertone is going to provide that coolness.

    If you’re making your choice strictly for your own enjoyment, gray hardwood is worth considering. If your goal is to increase resale value, keep in mind that grey as a predominant part of residential color schemes has peaked in popularity.

    Warm Hardwood Floor Colors

    Warm tones are often described as inviting or cozy. Warm tones pair well with a playful or rustic decor style and can leave you feeling energized and invigorated. Anything with a yellow, orange, or red undertone will add warmth to rooms of any size.

    Some homeowners associate red hardwood and other warm hardwood colors with a more traditional style. However, with modern interior design or hardwood floor trends like the ombre wood floor, you can easily enjoy the best of both worlds.

    Modern Hardwood Floor Colors

    What if you’re looking for something that evokes both modernity and luxury? A lot of high-cost, contemporary styles rely on bold colors that you can find in nature. This includes things like white hardwood and black hardwood, both of which can add drama to your home.

    On the other end of the modern trend, you’ll start to see hardwoods (both natural and synthetic) in vibrant colors we don’t often find in nature. This includes bright reds, oranges, blues, and greens. Going in a more customized direction is a great way to infuse your home with your unique personality, although it may make it difficult to find the perfect buyer in the future.

    Traditional Hardwood Floor Colors

    The more timeless your hardwood floor colors are, the more timeless the overall effect will be. Are you less inclined to chase the latest trend and more inclined to reach for something that never goes out of style? If so, you’re looking for rich hardwood colors like walnut, cherry, and oak.

    Dark brown hardwood can create an air of prestige and presence, adding stateliness to your home library or office. On the other end of the spectrum, you can go as light as hickory and still find yourself in the traditional style while adding an airiness to your home.

    Call Peak Floors for Pittsburgh Hardwood Floor Installation

    Without a doubt, hardwood floors are the way to go if you want to pair durability with beauty and value. Not only will you get years of enjoyment out of your hardwood floors, but you’ll also find eager buyers in the future. The question is, which hardwood floor colors are right for your home?

    From hardwood floor installations to refinishing, we’re your number one hardwood flooring source in Western Pennsylvania. Contact us to request an estimate on your new hardwood floors.

    Categories Hardwood

    Refreshing a Pittsburgh Home: 3 Benefits of Hardwood Floor Refinishing

    Hardwood floors are one of the most popular choices for Pittsburgh homeowners year after year. While hardwood may not be the perfect option for every room in the house, it can elevate spaces like bedrooms, living rooms, home offices, and more.

    What if you bought a home with original hardwood only to discover you’re living on damaged floors? Do you need to invest in all new flooring to improve your home and property value?

    The short answer is no. Many homes can benefit from hardwood floor refinishing services at a fraction of the cost.

    Read on to learn three major benefits of hardwood floor refinishing in Pittsburgh.

     

    1. Restoration of Older Property

    In the city of Pittsburgh, the median age of available homes is 78 years old. While we do see some new build construction, most homebuyers are looking at purchasing properties that require some TLC.

    Hardwood floor refinishing involves steps like:

    • Filling in floor gaps
    • Smoothing out rough wood
    • Buffing out most (if not all) scratches
    • Removing dirt and grime trapped under old finishing coats

    Once we’ve gotten your wood flooring in the best shape possible, we’ll add a new coat of finish to preserve the results for years to come.

    2. Great Return on Investment

    As a homeowner, it’s important to look for upgrades that can increase your home value and save money. Wood floor refinishing costs are far lower than the cost of installing new floors, but do they yield a strong return on investment?

    According to the National Association of Realtors, refinishing hardwood floors can have an ROI of 147% compared to the 118% ROI on new wood floors. This is in large part because hardwood floor refinishing can give your floors a like-new look and feel while maintaining your home’s historic and structural integrity. In a competitive real estate market, this is exactly the kind of detail that can catch a buyer’s eye.

    3. Eco-Friendly Upgrade

    At Peak Floors, we talk to homeowners every day about the need for sustainability. If you’re environmentally conscious, refinishing your hardwood floors is a great way to care for your home while making a low environmental impact.

    For starters, hardwood floor refinishing requires very few new materials. It takes far less wood to fill in gaps and replace a few boards than it does to build a whole new floor. Plus, we’ve worked hard to develop high-quality water-based finishing coats with lower VOC production than traditional options.

    Need Pittsburgh Hardwood Floor Refinishing? Peak Can Help

    Whether you bought a new property in need of upgrading or want to restore the flooring in your long-time home, hardwood floor refinishing can help. When you’ve got a great base, there’s no need to start from scratch. Hardwood floor refinishing can add beauty and value at a low cost and low environmental impact.

    Are you ready to invest in your Pittsburgh hardwood floors? Peak Floors is a family-owned business in Western Pennsylvania with a commitment to great customer service and great results. Contact us today to request a free estimate for your flooring upgrades.

    Categories Hardwood

    Is It a Good Idea to Install Hardwood in Your Kitchen?

    Two design trends are converging to make hardwood flooring very popular for kitchens. If you are browsing through social media or design blogs, you’ve likely noticed that many of the kitchens have replaced stone or tile with hardwood. So, why is that? For one, the farmhouse style has grown in popularity over the past few years. It is now trendy to introduce rustic looks into your home. You see this with distressed wood cabinets and repurposed furniture. Also, design is trending towards seamless transitions from one room to another. The open floor plan trend means that the flooring in the living room should seamlessly shift into flooring for the kitchen. Since hardwood flooring has long been popular in other rooms, an open floor plan means that hardwood should be installed in the kitchen. Is it a good idea?

    Water on the Floor

     Many homeowners are worried about water on their floor if they have a hardwood floor. However, this might be something of an overblown fear. It’s actually not very common to spill large amounts of water on your floor. Spills do happen in the kitchen, but you can generally clean them up pretty easily with a mop or a towel. For the most part, a hardwood floor will be pretty waterproof as long as you clean up the spill pretty quickly. If you allow water to sit on the floor for hours, it will eventually seep into crevices. If oyu are still worrid check out Cordalera SPC Floors.

    The most water spills near the sink where it might splatter as you wash dishes or prepare food. Putting down a soft mat near the sink will remedy that.

    Wear and Tear

     A soft mat by the sink will also alleviate one of the other large concerns about having hardwood in the kitchen. Your kitchen actually gets more foot traffic than maybe any other room in your house. That’s definitely true about the area by your sink. That tends to be where you wash dishes and prepare food. So you’ll be standing there for possibly hundreds of hours each year. That will wear down the finish on the wood and the wood itself. You can solve this with a soft waterproof mat designed to be by the sink. That will also make it much more comfortable when you have to stand for extended periods of time.

    Hardwood flooring is a great choice for your kitchen for many reasons. It looks great, the upkeep is fairly simple, and it can actually make working in the kitchen more comfortable. Just make sure to use a commercial grade wood flooring finish. Typical finishes are oil-based or water-based flooring finishes.

    Categories Hardwood

    Why Are Floating Floors Easier to Install?

    There are two basic kinds of hardwood flooring that you can install in your home. You can mount your hardwood floor to a subfloor; the subfloor is typically a layer of plywood. A floating hardwood floor is one that is not attached to the subfloor at all. The individual planks are attached to one another but not the subfloor and thus are said to float. A floating floor has to be designed for that purpose.

     

    Which Floors Can Float?

     In most cases, a solid hardwood floor must be attached to a subfloor. The floating floors are typically made from engineered hardwood. Engineered hardwood planks are made of layers of plywood or fibreboard that are then covered with a veneer of hardwood. The surface is a thin layer of the hardwood that you would like for your floor; underneath it are backing layers. There can also be a vapor barrier on the bottom that prevents moisture from creeping up into the floor. Since they are engineered, they can be rigid and stable on their own. Thus, they do not need a subfloor.

    Also, they’re typically tongue and groove style. One side of each board has a tongue that protrudes. The other side has a groove that fits a tongue. You connect one piece to the next like a puzzle piece. The floor then sits on top of the existing floor or a subfloor.

     

    Why Are They Easier to Install?

     Floating floors (like spc luxury vinyl plank) are typically easier to install because you have more diverse options for your subfloor. For example, if you are renovating your garage to be an apartment, you might want to create a more comfortable floor. Garage floors are typically made of concrete. Instead of installing a wooden subfloor on the concrete, a floating floor can go right over the existing floor. That will also help somewhat with insulation.

    Furthermore, hardwood is trending in kitchens. Tile and linoleum have long been the preferred floors for kitchens. If you want to install solid hardwood in a kitchen, you’ll need to rip up the tile or linoleum. If you want to install a floating floor, you just need to clean the tile and install the floating floor.

    Many homeowners or business owners find that they can install their own floating floor, whereas they might need a professional for a solid floor. It’s also easier to remove and replace damaged planks in a floating floor.

    Categories Hardwood

    Random Width Hardwood Floors Are Trending

    Most hardwood floors are made from planks of the exact same width and length. There are a few standard widths, but most of them are two or three inches. In the past, that wasn’t he case. Floors were not made in standard widths for a couple of reasons. They were not standard width because they were not made in factories but instead were cut by hand. Furthermore, they used every part of the available tree. Therefore, if you could not cut wooden planks of the same width, you would just use boards of different widths. That’s the most environmentally-friendly and economic option. It’s also one that has been growing in popularity recently because it mimics the style of old hardwood floors. Here’s how to get on trend.

    Sourcing Your Planks

    There are many different ways to source your random-width hardwood planks. Some hardwood flooring suppliers sell planks as sets of random-width planks. These are planks that are typically all cut during the same batch. Therefore, their color will be the same, and they’ll be the same quality. If you want boards of different widths but not necessarily any other variation, this is your best option.

    If you don’t care about keeping the color completely consistent or if you intend to stain it a deep color, you can choose wood from different batches. That’s a good way to save money as well. For example, if you buy different widths of white oak from different batches, you can shop around for the best deals. Sometimes, companies will sell surplus planks or slightly irregular planks that don’t form a full batch. So, there likely won’t be enough wood to cover your entire floor. You’ll need to buy different batches of wood to cover your entire floor.

    Installing the Planks

    The greatest difficulty with random-width hardwood flooring is measuring the flooring. It can be difficult to determine how many planks you’ll need. The easiest way is to separate the wood into batches of different widths. Then, measure your floor. That will tell you how much horizontal space you need to cover. Then, you can add up the widths of the different planks to determine how many you need to cover the floor. You might need to cut one of the planks to make it fit against the wall.

    You can install the planks in a pattern if you have enough of each kind of plank to cover your floor. Alternately, you could install them randomly. If you do that, make sure you don’t cluster the same widths together.

    Categories Hardwood

    How to Find an Eco-Friendly Hardwood Floor

    A hardwood floor is one of the most diverse and sought-after floors you can choose for your home or office. They were ubiquitous for decades. Now, there are many alternatives to hardwood floors. Many of these types of floors, such as vinyl, attempt to recreate the look and feel of hardwood. One of the reasons many people choose alternatives to hardwood is the effect on the environment. Trees are technically a renewable resource but they are not always harvested in a sustainable way. For example, a red oak can take about twenty years to reach maturity and forty years to reach its full height. So, if a company harvests red oak irresponsibly, they could deforest an entire region for decades. That’s not considered sustainable. Fortunately, there’s a way to know if your hardwood floor is sustainable.

    Forest Stewardship Council

    The Forest Stewardship Council is an international organization that sets standards for how to sustainably harvest forest products such as wood, sap, and plant matter. They also monitor different forests to gauge how they’re being treated. If you are looking for a hardwood floor that is sustainably source and eco-friendly, you should look for the Forest Stewardship Council seal.

    How It Works

    There are several different axes on which the Forest Stewardship Council analyzes harvesting. Red oak can take decades to grow to its full height. So, sustainably sourcing oak means that the company is cutting down trees in a way that actually encourages new growth. For example, an older tree that has grown to its full height will have a wide canopy that blocks out a lot of the light that would hit the forest floor. That will stunt the growth of newer, smaller trees. Therefore, cutting down trees with wide canopies can actually help new trees grow.

    Furthermore, trees that have died or are dying can negatively affect the other trees. They can spread disease, encourage fungal growth, and even knock down healthier trees when they fall. Harvesting these doomed trees is a great way to improve the health of the forest.

    Many companies often offset their tree harvesting as well. If a company harvests cherry wood from a forest, they might plant an equivalent number of trees in a different part of the forest. Alternately, they can buy offsets from other companies which means that a second company will plant trees to offset the trees they harvest.

    These are a few of the ways that sustainable hardwoods are sourced; sustainability is one of the hottest trends in the 21st century.

    Categories Hardwood

    Good Sources of Reclaimed Hardwood For Your Flooring

    Reclaimed hardwood is the hottest trend in flooring. Reclaimed hardwood can mean that the wood comes from a floor in a different building. The flooring is then reclaimed and used for your floor. It can also mean that the flooring was not originally flooring material. That could mean that i twas barn siding, roof beams, or even uncut lumber. There are several reasons that reclaimed wood is popular. It is popular because it is environmentally friendly; also, it looks great.

    Sinker Logs

    Sinker logs are logs that fell off a ship years ago and have been underwater ever since. They’re basically driftwood but uncut lumber. In the past, the only way to ship logs across long distances was to ship them through the water. Sometimes, logs would fall off the barges, and it was not financially feasible to get them back on the barge. They sat in the water for decades before being dredged up. Since they spent decades in an oxygen-free environment, the wood has aged in ways that are impossible to replicate. The patina of a sinker log penetrates through all of the flooring planks in incredibly beautiful ways. Sinker logs can be expensive, but they’re worth every penny.

    Hardwood Siding

    Hardwood siding is another great source of wood for your floors. Many barns and outbuildings now are constructed of pine or other softwoods from a local hardware store. In the past, they were constructed from whichever wood could be sourced from nearby. That means many barns and other buildings that were built decades ago were built with local hardwoods. They are weathered and distressed in attractive ways. Some of the best reclaimed hardwood floors come from walls and roofs of buildings that were exposed to the elements for years.

    Reclaimed Floors

    The simplest way to find a reclaimed floor is simply by repurposing an existing floor. You can find old floors if you keep an eye out in your neighborhood for people who are remodeling their homes. Also, look through online classifieds for people offering hardwood flooring. Even if the flooring needs to be repaired, it will cost you much less than a new floor. Also, no trees will be cut down to create the floor.

    Reclaimed floors can be used as they are for their weathered and distressed look. They can also be sanded and refinished to look like new. Using them as they are is an aesthetic choice. Sanding and refinishing them is a environmental decision; they’re both great options.

    Categories Hardwood

    What Is an Ombre Wood Floor?

    If you spend a lot of time online, especially on social media, you’ve likely seen the trend among women towards ombre hair. The term “ombre” generally applies to a color that gradually fades out or fades to another color. So, ombre hair might start out red at the roots and fade to white at the tips or vice versa. The trend has been spreading to different areas of design and fashion as well; one of those areas is flooring. Many people are deciding to introduce ombre hardwood to their homes. How would you do this if each plank of wood only comes in one color?

    Creating an Ombre Floor

    There are several different ways to create an ombre floor for your home or office. One of the simplest ways is to buy a single batch of hardwood flooring planks sufficient to cover your entire floor; then, you would have the professionals stain them in a gradually changing shade. This can be achieved by adding progressively more paint thinner or water to the stain as it is applied across the floor. The other option is to incorporate planks of different colors as you lay the floor; that’s the most popular option.

    The more shades of planks you choose, the more gradual the ombre. For example, you might want to move from ebony that moves to a white oak. So, you would then decide how gradually you want to make the change. You probably need at least five different shades of wood to make the color move gradually. Fewer than that will likely result in a floor that simply looks separated into three different sections.

    Laying the Floor

    Laying the floor is fairly simple, you separate the planks into their different categories and then lay them. The most important aspect is the place where you move from one color to the next. The best way to create a smooth transition from one color to the next is by creating an uneven line. If you keep the line between colors uneven, it will create a less clear demarcation. That’s a great way to create an ombre floor; if you plan ahead, you might even be able to pull it off with only three colors.

    Ombre floors are not very common at the moment but they will grow in popularity in coming years. They’re a great way to create an interesting floor that doesn’t require more work than laying a floor of a single color.

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