Have You Ever Wondered How Unfinished Hardwood Flooring Is Made?
Unfinished hardwood flooring is such a mystery, and most people wonder how it’s even made. Well, no need to wonder anymore because we have created this blog post specifically to illuminate you and tell you how.
The most amazing thing you will learn is that a lot of thought goes into it, it’s not just a simple job, and it requires some serious skill.
Let’s get started!
How is it done?
When looking into unfinished hardwood flooring near me, my goal is to identify how this process happens. It starts with the logs being brought in from the timber stands, and then they are separated and scaled using their species.
Once the bark is taken off, they are brought up to the head sawyer, turning them into cants.
The term “cant” refers to what you call a log after being squared away, but before being cut into aboard.
Logs – Before They Are Cants
The head sawyer for most unfinished hardwood flooring Tampa companies will decide for each of the logs and determine whether they are going to be the final product.
He has to examine the logs before they are squared off quickly.
Putting boards in the edger
Once they have been cut from the cant, they should then go through the edger to be cleaned up using a straight edge before going through the lumber grader to determine the grade for each board.
This requires quick thinking, and some math is involved.
The boards are stacked and go through the end trimmer, leaving them at a uniform length. All of the boards are well utilized, which means there is no wastage.
For example;
When I visit any unfinished wood flooring near me, I find the following items;
- Sawdust – this one is used for the dry kilns.
- Bark – this one is sold to the landscapers.
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Scraps – this one is put into the chipper and then sent over to the paper mills.
Kiln in Drying Lumber
This is one of the most energy-intensive parts of the whole process and hardwood floor production.
Fortunately for most unfinished hardwood flooring companies, the kilns can be heated to make sawdust.
The drying process is also critical to the quality of the hardwood floor and its quality.
For example – the quarter-sawn or white oak should take around two months to dry, depending on how green it was, to begin with.
The maple can take around10 days to dry.
Conclusion
So, once the lumber is dried, most unfinished flooring Tampa companies will sell it to a plant so it can be made into flooring.
