Ever wonder what is involved in manufacturing your new wood floor? What does it take to make the journey from the forest to your home? There are many steps in the process which must be carefully followed in order to insure you receive a high quality floor which will provide decades of enjoyment.
All trees must be surveyed, often with high tech tools and satellites, in order to develop a cutting plan based on approved government extraction plans. Once this is done, the trees must be transported long distances via river or road through the jungle to the flooring manufacturer. Sounds simple, but given the terrain and lack of infrastructure in some areas, this is an enormous challenge depending on the time of the year. From February to June each year there are heavy rains which make this very difficult, if not impossible and always tightens supply of these species. Once it is sawn into “blanks” or surfaced into 4 side lumber, it is carefully stacked with aligned sticks and prepared for the kiln dryers. Drying specifications are different for each species as they are all unique. This is like the difference of baking cookies compared to a cake. Over drying causes technical issues with the wood.
Once out of the kilns, it’s time to further process the lumber and prepare for molding it into flooring. This may sound simple, but is highly technical, especially if making microbevel 4 side production to later be prefinished. The quality of the drying plays into the milling significantly. Flat and straight lumber obviously contributes to a quality milled flooring product. Product is inspected and re-inspected while milling and before packaging. It’s again further inspected during packaging and randomly “racked out” on a flat stone or metal table to check fit, tolerances and how it will install once at a jobsite.
One never looks at a tree the same again when you realize all the technical knowledge used to produce flooring. It’s a challenging field and obviously one which continues to grow as our love affair with wood continues to grow.
