This is where the certification of wood flooring comes in.

This process of evaluating wood products and their origins can date back to the early nineties, when choosy homeowners wanted to be sure that they were choosing wood products created by ecologically reputable companies. It was difficult to discern a high-grade product from a wood product created by Bob’s Discount Lumber. Today, if you go to any reputable lumber yard, you will see planks of wood with the stamp “FSC Certified,” which tells you that this product meets the highest standards for eco-friendly wood.

FSC is an acronym for Forest Stewardship Council and is the most recognized of the three major certification program sponsors (the others being the Sustainable Forest Initiative [SFI], and the Canadian Standards Association).

The Forest Stewardship Council developed first out of the three sponsors, and has received the most support from worldwide recognized environmental organizations; these include The World Wildlife Fund and Sierra Club. The FSC upholds its reputation by contracting with third-party auditors to get independent examinations and evaluations. These third-party organizations include Smartwood and Scientific Certification Systems.

The Sustainable Forest Initiative was created in 1994 from the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA); this organization oversees the standards in the paper industry.

Finally, the Canadian Standards Association works in Canada and provides certification and stringent standards to follow for wood products from all over the world. The Canadian Standards Association is also responsible for the National Standard for Sustainable Forest Management of Canada.

If you are looking for ways to help the environment, seek out wood products that were created with the environment in mind — look for certified wood flooring products. When you purchase certified wood flooring products, you are not only getting a beautiful floor, but you are being eco-conscious as well. They may cost a little more, but you are helping to ensure that the expansive and marvelous forests will be around for years to come.

To speak with one of our design consultants, please call us at 1-800-764-1633.

The company is headquartered in New York, but has four satellite offices in China, Europe, Mexico, and Brazil in order to bring the best products to you in an efficient manner. This also gives you the advantage of more options from raw materials from around the world. Not only do you get the most flexibility in your choice, but you also get the most consistent quality products and total satisfaction. Each floor that you purchase from South Mountain Hardwood Floors is backed by a 25-year warranty.

The company also follows strict rules when it comes to producing their floors, making sure that every quality control measure is followed to the letter. You can count on South Mountain Hardwood Floors for durability, as they have implemented rigid NOFMA standard in their mills and invested in shared technology with precision European machinery and high-quality finishes.

Purchasing from South Mountain Hardwood Floors is also easy. They have imposed a simple purchasing process with various programs and options, so that you can shift your focus to sales. Additionally, this company really takes care of their customers:  after the sale closes, you will receive contact from an Account Manager and Support Staff to make sure all your needs are met.

Should you have a desire for a specific species of wood flooring, we can source new materials for you and have specifications for you upon request.

South Mountain Hardwood Floors has several collections available. Choose from the Santa Fe Series (engineered or solid), the Rancho Santa Fe Series (engineered or solid), the Amsterdam Series (engineered), the Old El Paso Series (engineered), the Bellmore series, (engineered or solid), or the Castle Series (solid).

To learn more about South Mountain Hardwood Floors, please contact one of our design consultants at 1-800-764-1633.

Triangulo Hardwood flooring comes in Exotic Solid wood flooring and in Engineered Hardwood flooring lines.

Triangulo Exotic Solid wood flooring is made with 3/4″ thick solid wood, and you can find this flooring assembled with tongue and groove sides. Note that the random nature of Triangulo Hardwood flooring’s exotic solid hardwood flooring will ensure that your flooring will not look like your neighbor’s floor.

As many as 9 coats of aluminum oxide will coat your beautiful Triangulo Exotic Solid wood flooring to ensure that your flooring will last throughout the ages, in addition to enhancing the wood’s natural beauty. One advantage that the solid wood flooring carries is the ability to be re-sanded and refinished over many years. Your floor may even outlast your home!

Some of the woods that are available through the Triangulo Exotic Solid wood flooring line include Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba), Tigerwood, Brazilian Chestnut, Amendoim, and Brazilian Teak. The Brazilian Cherry, Tigerwood, Brazilian Chestnut, and Amendoim can be found in 3.25″ widths, the Brazilian Teak comes in 3″ widths, and the Brazilian Cherry, Tigerwood, & Brazilian Chestnut can also be found in 5″ widths.

Triangulo Hardwood Flooring’s Engineered Flooring line has top of the line processes in place to make their engineered flooring the best in the industry. Each under layer is made of real wood (or plies) and is glued under pressure in different directions for maximum strength and long-lasting durability.

This way of constructing engineered flooring makes it a more stable choice over solid hardwood flooring. Unlike solid hardwood flooring, Triangulo Engineered Flooring line is resistant to the shrinkage and expansion caused by environmental conditions, and you can install these floors over a mature concrete slab. You can find this type of flooring in the following species: Amendoim, Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba and Royal Jatoba), Brazilian Chestnut, Brazilian Pecan, Brazilian Pecan (Coca), Brazilian Walnut, and Tigerwood. All species are available in the .5″ x 5.25″ and 3/8″ x 3.25″, however, only the Amendoim, Brazilian Cherry, Brazilian Chestnut, Brazilian Walnut, and Tigerwood is available in the 5/16″ x 5″ sizes.

To learn more about Triangulo Hardwood Flooring, please contact one of our design consultants at 1-800-764-1633.

Stepco Hardwood Flooring has every kind of flooring to fit your need: solid or engineered, finished or unfinished, domestic or exotic. Why not outfit every room in your house with Stepco Hardwood Flooring to maintain a seamless look throughout your home?

Stepco began producing hardwood flooring in 1979. The focus back then remains the same today: to bring their customers the absolute best quality flooring at economical prices. While other flooring companies talk about offering a good price to customers, behind closed doors, it’s all about the bottom line. Not so with Stepco!

Also, most flooring companies import a large amount of their products from around the globe and have very few factories that they can call their own. When you buy Stepco Hardwood Flooring, you get the value of having a consultant that will monitor the production and the quality of the product all through the manufacturing process. But Stepco has more than hardwood. If you’re so inclined, check out their other lines of laminate, bamboo, and cork flooring.

Stepco also realizes that more and more consumers are using the Internet to shop. That’s why, instead of allotting a larger percentage of the advertising dollars to television, magazine, or radio, Stepco focuses more on Internet branding. This allows the company to sell directly to dealers (like us) for less, and translates into a lower price to you, the consumer.

Currently, Stepco Hardwood Flooring comes in sizes from 2.25″ to 7.5″ wide. This means you have a lot more flexibility when shopping Stepco’s lines. Depending on what type of hardwood you choose, you will be able to nail down, glue down, or staple down these attractive floors and then spend years admiring your new floors.

To learn more about Stepco, please contact one of our design consultants at 1-800-764-1633.

Whatever your situation, if you’re in the market for some hardwood flooring, you can take comfort knowing there’s a company like Max Windsor to help. Their exciting and quality hardwood flooring products will definitely give you the inspiration you need to get the ball rolling on your new project.

Hardwood is rarely a mistake. You can’t install hardwoods in just any room (mainly below the surface in basements or in bathrooms that have showers or bathtubs are a no-no), but beyond that, hardwood flooring adds more value to homes than just about any other style of flooring.

It’s also great to keep the continuity in an older home by using products that will capture the home’s original look and feel, as well as bringing a luxurious, warm aspect to your everyday living. Max Windsor offers the full gamut of wood flooring products from solid hardwood to engineered hardwood to laminate flooring.

Solid hardwood is pretty self-explanatory; engineered flooring consists of layers of wood veneers compressed together with layers of fibercore (Max Windsor actually uses a cold-pressing process, which protects the wood from delaminating, cupping, crowning and gapping at its seams); and finally laminates are not actual wood but planking with a fibercore base upon which a manmade “picture” of the selected wood grain is adhered to the top. Though this isn’t traditional, for a project with a limited budget, this can be a perfect choice because laminates can now even come in distressed and hand-scraped textures.

Choosing your product needs to start with where the floor is going to go. As we just said, you don’t want to install solid hardwood in bathrooms or basements because of the moisture exposure, but for engineered hardwood flooring and laminates, it’s no problem.

Once you decide which product works for your style and budget, Max Windsor is right there to bring you into the next step, deciding on the look. They offer hand-scraped as well as smooth planking. The hand-scraped look is going to be that more rustic, earthy look, giving the impression of and older, stable sanctuary. Smooth finishes are just that, a luxurious, glossy smoothness that makes your room glow.

Whichever combination you go with, you can certainly bank on Max Windsor providing the quality product that will bring your vision into a beautiful reality.

First and foremost, if you’re looking for a hardwood flooring supplier that has sustainability and environmental protection at its core, look no further than Mirage. They are the upper crust when it comes to protecting the vital natural resources we have at our disposal as well as utilizing every aspect of the raw materials and recycling.

Mirage has actually put into place several programs and procedures that certainly put action to their claims of an eco-friendly endgame, including using a specialized delivery system that makes sure the wood blocks and cardboard corners used in their packaging are returned to their plant to be used again. They’ve actually reused over 500,000 packages since the start of this program. Not only that, the manufacturing “leftovers” are not scrapped at Mirage. They are used to fuel the boilers of their plants, and some is recycled and used as animal bedding or pellets for fuel.

Mirage also finishes its flooring products with nanotechnology, in the form of Nanolinx™. It’s an incredibly durable coating that is five times more wear-resistant than other types of coatings, has a UV protective element that reduces the effects of direct sunlight on the floor, and is transparent and flexible, allowing the natural beauty and function of the floor shine through.

The hardwood flooring at Mirage comes in three different styles and installation types. There’s glueless or “floating” engineered wood flooring, an engineered product that is glued down, and traditional solid wood planks that are typically nailed down.

Once the method of installation is selected, you can then choose from an amazing array of options including sizes from standard 2 ¼” width up to a wide 5″ planking, colors that range from very dark expresso colors to light blond, natural tones.

Also throw in a hand-scraped, raised pattern option, and your choices are almost endless. Find your vision in their elegant choices.

Lauzon Distinctive Hardwood Flooring is a company committed to quality that you should definitely consider if you decide to go for the gold…golden oak, that is. But golden oak is by far not the only choice for your new floor.

In 2010, Lauzon celebrated 25 years of business, and there’s a reason for that longevity. Lauzon prides itself on its customer satisfaction focus as well as an amazing selection of colors, patterns, and textures that our natural world has put in our hands. This great company not only provides quality products and warranties, but it also carries the torch of environmental responsibility by having FSC-certification on a selection of their maple solid hardwood products, which means Lauzon’s production processes meets strict requirements for using raw materials from responsibly managed forests as well as recycled sources. Quite a nice stamp of environmental approval. Lauzon also uses eco-friendly finishes that contain no VOCs, solvents, or formaldehyde agents.

In addition to environmental quality practices, if you select a Lauzon engineered hardwood flooring product, you are getting the absolute best. Lauzon uses a process of dry solid saw milling, which differs from how many other manufactures handle their engineered products. It provides for a more natural look to the finished product as well as allows the floor to be resurfaced in the future if needed.

Lauzon also provides your classic, traditional solid hardwood flooring as well. All Lauzon’s products are coated with a unique, ultra-strong Polynium + with Titanium Traffic finish with Ultra-Fresh. Lauzon’s amazing finish is a step ahead of the more traditional aluminum oxide coating in its gloss and its ability to allow the pure look of the wood to shine through, as well as its unmatched resistance to scratches and denting. The Ultra-Fresh element is added to the finish and gives the floor antimicrobial properties that even further protects the wood from breaking down over (lots of) time and protects inhabitants from the sometimes perilous world of the unseen microbe!

Have a ball selection from Lauzon’s huge selection of colors and styles. There’s sure to be more than one you’ll have to choose between.