Welcome to Macadam Floor and Design – Vancouver, your ultimate destination for affordable, high-quality hardwood flooring. We are your local hardwood flooring supplier, ready to listen and guide you with decision-making, and our crews are experts at professionally installing hardwood floors in Vancouver, WA.
We make it easy to add the natural beauty of wood to your home without sacrificing your budget. Our convenient Salmon Creek store offers a wide range of both solid and engineered hardwood floors.
Visit Our Vancouver Hardwood Flooring Showroom
When you visit our hardwood flooring store in Vancouver, Washington, your project manager will ask you for information about your home and priorities so they can recommend the best hardwood floor options for your specific application. With our wide array of wood types, styles, brands, and price ranges, we’ll help you find the best wood flooring for your project!
Select Hardwood Floors the Easy Way!
1. Since hardwood flooring prices, qualities, and visuals can vary widely, first let’s go over some wood flooring vocabulary to help you decide which of the wood types is right for you:
Hardwood Flooring Vocabulary
Solid Hardwood
Solid hardwood flooring is made of a solid piece of wood all the way through. Solid hardwood flooring is typically ¾” thick. When installing wood floors next to an existing solid hardwood flooring, the best way to maintain a smooth transition between the two areas is to continue solid hardwood flooring into the new area. Usually engineered hardwood flooring is a slightly lower thickness, but some engineered hardwood floors are available 3/4” thick. Solid hardwood flooring is most commonly available in 2-1/4”, 3-1/2″, and 5″ widths and is nailed or stapled to the subfloor. If you want wider widths, then wide plank engineered hardwood flooring is a more stable option. Solid hardwood flooring continues to be a popular option for anywhere in the home that is above grade and low moisture. Therefore, solid hardwood flooring is not a suitable option for basements. Solid hardwood flooring is available in both raw (unfinished) and prefinished hardwood floor options.
Engineered Hardwood
While people often think of solid hardwood as the only “real wood” flooring, engineered wood floors are also “real wood” flooring. To clear up another common misconception, engineered hardwood flooring is different from laminate flooring. Laminate flooring is made with a picture layer rather than real wood at the top, while engineered hardwood flooring is comprised of multiple layers of material, with a thin layer of real solid wood on top and stabilizing layers beneath. When compared with solid hardwood flooring of the same species, engineered hardwood flooring will have greater impact resistance and dimensional stability. The multiple layers in engineered hardwood flooring minimize the common problems that can arise with solid hardwood flooring, such as peaking, cupping, and gapping. The dimensional stability of engineered wood makes it perfect for quality wide plank hardwood floors. Many engineered wood floors are approved for installation below grade, such as in basements. Some engineered hardwood flooring is also approved for use with radiant heat. Engineered hardwood flooring is generally available in widths anywhere from 3-1/2″ – 10″ planks. Installing engineered hardwood floors can be done by nailing, stapling, gluing, or floating the flooring, depending on your specific environment and chosen product. Some engineered hardwood flooring comes in a click together format which can be installed as a floating hardwood floor. Engineered hardwood is most commonly available as a prefinished floor. We are often asked, “Can I refinish engineered hardwood floors?”. The answer is, sometimes. Many engineered wood floors have a thick enough top layer to hold up to refinishing one time, while others may not be thick enough. Read below for additional information about the durability of prefinished hardwood flooring.
Prefinished Hardwood
Prefinished hardwood flooring is a durable and time-saving alternative to unfinished wood flooring. Whether solid or engineered, you can expect 10-12 layers of strong, factory-cured finish on the surface of your prefinished wood flooring. When customers come to our Vancouver flooring store, we are commonly asked, “Can prefinished hardwood be refinished?”. Well, the answer is no… and yes! Sanding prefinished wood flooring will remove the durable factory finish, unique scraped wood texture, and stain color, burn through sanding pads, and you will end up with a less durable site-applied finish. You can, however, screen and recoat a prefinished wood floor which is, in essence, refreshing the top coat. Because of the durable factory finish on prefinished hardwood flooring, with normal residential traffic, these floors can last 20 years or more before needing a re-coat. If minor repairing is needed on a damaged prefinished wood floor, depending on the damage, a professional may be able to do plank replacements for a few boards. Plank replacements take time and careful work, but are a wonderful alternative to sanding and refinishing, or replacing wood floors in their entirety.
Unfinished Hardwood, also known as Sand and Finish on Site
Unfinished hardwood flooring refers to raw hardwood flooring which is installed in your home then sanded and finished on site. Unfinished hardwood floors are sold by visual grade, such as select and better, select, and character, and are customarily available in ¾” thick solid wood. It is less common to find raw engineered wood. If you are adding wood flooring to an area that will meet up with an existing sand and finish wood floor, unfinished wood floors may be a good choice so you can match the thickness of the wood flooring that is already in place. Finishing raw hardwood flooring on site also allows the option for applying a custom color. When selecting your unfinished wood floor, you’ll get to choose the wood species, visual grade, width, finish type, gloss level and stain color, if desired. When the time comes for installing new raw hardwood flooring, you’ll need to allow time for installing the hardwood, then sanding and sealing the entire floor. Typically, 2-3 coats of finish are applied to the raw hardwood flooring on site, with curing time required after each coat. Keep in mind that, if you need to refinish wood floors in the future, the whole sand and finish wood floor will need to be sanded and re-finished since spot repairs and plank replacements are not an option with sand and finish wood flooring.
2. When you speak with a project manager at our Vancouver flooring showroom, tell them about your lifestyle, durability needs, parameters around installing wood, and budget goals so they can recommend the best hardwood floors for your specific needs. After choosing between solid vs engineered and prefinished vs unfinished wood, you can then look at the plank width, colors, and finishes for your new hardwood floors.
3. Your project manager will also help you plan for related items, such as baseboard molding, floor vents, and cold air returns, so the quote for installing hardwood flooring includes all the necessary parts and pieces.
Hardwood Stairs
Installing hardwood flooring on stairs is one of our specialties! Most wood flooring is available with coordinating stair nose trims, and some lines offer full stair treads. After installing hardwood flooring on your stairs, you can add softness and style with a custom-made stair runner. Simply select a wall-to-wall carpet in our Vancouver flooring store and we will make a stair runner to the exact size you need.
You can trust Macadam!
Here at Macadam Floor and Design, we have been providing flooring, countertops, tile, and window coverings to the Vancouver and Portland Metro area since 1984. We are continually improving our showroom offerings, industry knowledge, and professionalism to provide excellent service and value for our customers. Whether working with our Vancouver flooring store or our Portland store, you will be paired with a flooring expert to help you navigate your hardwood floor options with confidence.
When you are looking to buy hardwood flooring, connect with one of our experts to be sure you purchase the best hardwood floors for your project at the best value in Vancouver — we coordinate installing hardwood floors too!
Our Brands Include
- Cascade Pacific
- D&M
- Dansk
- Duchateau
- Homerwood
- Intermountain
- Johnson
- Kahrs
- Kentwood
- Kraus
- Metropolitan
- Mohawk
- Monarch
- National Flooring
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Oregon Lumber
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Plank
- Reward
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Shaw
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TAS Home
- ….and more
Internet Coupon
20% Off
Coupon must be presented at the time of price quote, and may not be combined with any other offers, slab countertops, builder programs, or insurance programs.
Free Estimate
Macadam Floor and Design offers an extensive selection of flooring, countertops and window coverings for your next project.
