• Hardwood flooring 101

    Picking your perfect Monarch Plank floor

Introduction


Quality of Materials & Construction

Wear Layer Thickness

The thickness of the top layer of hardwood is an important consideration. Generally, the thickness of this layer ranges from as little as 1mm up to 6mm. Thicker wear layers improve the overall durability of the floor and allow for refinishing. We recommend thicker options for longevity in high use areas such as hallways or commercial common areas, thinner wear layers are an alternative for less used areas.


Quality of Appearance

Unfinished or Prefinished?


Which design is right for me?


Types of Wood We Offer


Wood Quality

All wood comes with varying characteristics. Curating raw material to highlight certain attributes is referred to as “grades” and we offer the following within the Monarch Plank range:

Rustic Grade: Our choice for the prefinished range, Rustic grade highlights the breadth of the woods extraordinary natural range, including lighter new growth sapwood, mineral & character marks, knots, and cracks.

Prime Grade: The Prime grade offering is curated to be virtually free of knots, with less sapwood and fewer character marks than our Rustic grade

Select Grade: Curated to be virtually free of knots, with less sapwood and fewer character marks than the Rustic grade


Surface Texture

  • Smooth: A finish free of texture, accomplished by sanding the floor smooth

    Hand Scraped: Hand scraping creates indentations in the surface creating a rustic appeal. 

    Rustic Distressing: A more aggressive variation of a hand scraped finish.

    Wire Brushed (light to hard) A dramatic distress surface is achieved by pulling out softer wood grain and leaving the harder wood intact. The depth and effect can be varied

    hand-brushed, A form of wire brushing done manually to achieve a more random affect.

    Shrunken knots: A time worn appearance created by subtle surface variation around knots

    Saw marks: Subtle distressing created from original sawing of planks.

    Natural grain texture: very subtle appearance of the woods inherent grain texture can be felt.

Coloring

Fuming (aka Smoking): Achieves a darker finish. Popular with Oak, (contains lots of tannin in wood) creating a uniquely natural variation due to inherent varying tannin content in wood.

Carbonization: A warm, rich caramel brown color is achieved through a heating technique that caramelizes the natural sugar content in wood

Reactive Stains: An aged appearance is achieved through the reaction of the stains with natural contents in wood tannins, extractives and sugars.


The Finish.

> Natural Oils: Natural oils used in Monarch Plank designs penetrate the wood before hardening, thus creating a natural barrier that protects the floor. Because the oil embeds itself within the grains of the wood the surface remains as the natural wood. A significant advantage is the ability to refinish selective areas over time without refinishing complete floor

> Urethane: Urethane coats the top layer of the floor with a protective surface. This surface offers excellent protection but coats the natural surface giving the floor a different appearance. Urethane generally requires less maintenance, but requires greater effort when refinishing.

* A note ON UV curing. There are UV cure variation in both Oil and Urethane which refers to a process of using ultraviolet light to harden the finish, providing greater durability/protection

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