FAQ

As a natural product made from wood timber, all grades of hardwood flooring will have color variations. Exotic wood species will have more color variation than domestic species. Character blemishes such as pinholes, knots and mineral streaks tend to be more common in lower grades of flooring.

Mullican Flooring follows the guidelines established by the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), which allows the installation of ½-inch or more of engineered White Oak hardwood flooring and recommends solid quartersawn and rift-sawn wood flooring as well.

Mullican Flooring recommends that a vapor barrier of 15-pound felt paper be placed between the hardwood flooring and the wood subfloor to prevent any moisture from reaching the floor. Mullican Flooring’s Moisture Mat provides added moisture protection. Please note, wood floors should never be mopped. Review care and maintenance for more information.

Mullican Flooring offers a line of moldings and transition pieces to complement its many flooring species and colors. The moldings vary based on their intended use.

Mullican Flooring recommends adding 7 to 12 percent for waste and cuts, depending on the skill level of the installer and the layout of space. For example, a diagonal installation will result in more waste than traditional installation. Some retailers may allow the return of unopened boxes of product.

All hardwood flooring will have color variations. Different boxes of the same species can vary noticeably in color and grain. By mixing the pieces from multiple boxes during installation, the shade variations across the entire floor will appear random.

Mullican Flooring uses different log-cutting techniques to produce three distinctive grain patterns in its engineered flooring products.

Solid and engineered flooring are two very different types of wood floors. It is important to know the benefits of each type of flooring because, in certain situations, one may be preferred over the other.

The appeal of solid hardwood planks can often be found in their thickness. At 3/4-inch thick, solid flooring allows homeowners to strip, sand, and restain the planks on a semi-regular basis, while retaining its functionality for many years.

Solid hardwood floors will expand and contract with relative humidity changes in your home. Installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall, typically hidden by baseboard molding or quarter round. As a result, solid hardwood is not recommended for areas of the home with high moisture content, such as the bath and basement.

Installation of solid hardwood floors requires that the boards be nailed or stapled down. Nailing involves driving a nail at an angle on the tougue side of the board with the staple of nail entering at the top inner corner at the tougue proceeding through the full thickness of the board through the subfloor at an angle.

Engineered flooring is produced using five to nine layers of hardwood, with each layer stacked in a cross-grain configuration and bonded together using heat and pressure. As a result, engineered flooring often has a lower price point and is less likely to be affected by changes in humidity, allowing it to be installed in all levels of the home, including the basement.

Engineered hardwood flooring can be installed in a variety of ways. In addition to nailing and stapling, it can be glued down. For engineered flooring that is 3 inches or wider, the floating installation method can also be used. Whereas gluing involves troweling glue on the floor and setting the engineered planks into the glue, the floating installation method requires foam underlay designed specifically for floating floors, as well as a special adhesive to glue the tongue and groove of the boards together.
 

Unfinished hardwood strips or planks have not been stained or sealed at the factory. As a result, all the sanding, staining and finishing must be done on the job site. The finish can take several days to apply and dry, making the space uninhabitable during that time.

Prefinished flooring is stained and sealed by the manufacturer. The polyurethane coating on a factory-finished floor provides a stronger, more durable surface and, generally, has a longer life than floors finished at the job site.
 

The Janka Rating System has become the hardwood flooring industry’s standard for determining whether a particular wood species is suitable for flooring. Standardized in 1927 by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the Janka Rating System indicates a wood’s relative hardness.

Testing is conducted by measuring the force required to embed a .444-inch steel ball to half its diameter into a wood sample, a reliable method for assessing the ability of a wood species to withstand denting and wear. Higher ratings are assigned to harder woods, which tend to be more durable than softer woods.

Janka Hardness Chart
 

Applying an extra coat of polyurethane to prefinished floors not only voids the product warranty but can also result in an uneven finish.

Mullican Flooring sells its products via a network of 40 distributors and 5,000 retail stores across the United States and Canada.

Use our Dealer Locator tool to find a dealer near you. If a dealer is not listed in your area, please contact us, and we will put you in touch with the distributor for your area.
 

Steam cleaners should never be used on a hardwood floor. They can damage the product and may void the warranty.

Our stains are commercially mixed, but close matches can be obtained by calling 1-800-441-9695 and selecting option three to find a paint store in your area that can mix a stain to match a Mullican Flooring product.

For the best results, make sure you are staining a species of wood that is identical to your flooring product. When applying the stain, apply a small amount to a test area before staining the entire area. The color will vary by how much stain is applied to the wood, and not all species absorb stain in the same manner.

Learn more about stains and touch-ups.
 

Please contact the manufacturer of the glue to determine the safest way to remove the product from your floors.

Moisture causes hardwood floors to expand. While hardwood flooring will naturally expand and contract as the seasons change, excessive moisture can lead to numerous changes to the floor, such as cupping, buckling, or cracking. Before installation, the moisture content of the flooring and the subflooring should be checked, making sure they meet manufacturer recommendations. Once the flooring has been installed, the humidity level inside the building should be kept within the recommended range of 35-55 percent.

Please contact the manufacturer of the cleaner to learn how the cleaner can be safely removed from your floors.

For optimum performance, wood flooring interior environment should stay within the relative humidity range of 35-55 percent and a temperature range of 68 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit year round. Outside of these ranges, extra movement can occur. To learn more, review this moisture content chart from the Wood Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mullican Flooring has developed some guidelines and recommendations for proper floor care. It is important to follow the recommendations of the flooring manufacturer because failure to do so may void the product’s warranty.

Some wood species are light sensitive, meaning that the wood darkens over time. Depending on the species, it may take six months to a year for floors to reach their full, rich color. To eliminate tone differences, rotate rugs and furniture periodically so each area of the floor gets equal amounts of sun exposure. Eventually, any variations in color tones will fade away.