FLOORING

At our local showroom in Easton, we can show you samples or schedule a visit and we will come out to review your project.

TYPES OF FLOORING

UNFINISHED ¾” SOLID FLOORING.

The most traditional type of flooring is an unfinished ¾” solid hardwood flooring that is then finished on site either natural or with stain. This is the flooring that all of our grandparents had, most commonly pine or red and white oak here in the United states because of the availability, appearance, and durability of these woods. Unfinished Wood, often called “Site Finished” is most commonly used in new construction or to match an existing floor. With a site finished floor you will have choices of all of the domestic species such as White Oak, Red Oak, Hickory, Heart Pine, Maple, and Walnut, along with a wide variety of exotic hardwoods
We typically recommend widths up to 5” wide be done at or above grade for a site finished floor due to the moisture conditions on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. All unfinished flooring is placed in the home for an acclimation period, then installed by our professional installation team.

Following installation, one of our professional sand and finish teams will then finish the flooring to the specifications desired. A site finished floor allows for the most custom floor, as the client chooses the wood species, the width and lengths, the finish type (water or oil based), the stain color, and the gloss level. This is truly a custom floor for each client!

PREFINISHED ¾” SOLID FLOORING

Another type of flooring is very similar to what our grandparents had, just that the flooring is finished in the sawmill. This type of flooring is often used in remodeling as well as in new home construction. The advantage of a prefinished floor is that the factory finish is a little bit harder than a site finished floor because of the chemicals and light curing techniques they are able to use in a factory as opposed to what can be done on a job site. The other of a prefinished floor is that the floor can be installed and walked on the very same day. There is no sanding and finishing necessary so this is especially convenient for home renovations.

With prefinished floors, there are also all of the domestic as well as many exotic species available and there are hundreds of finish options – from basic natural and stained oak all the way up to smoked or fumed woods with wire brushed or hand scraped finishes. We carry prefinished flooring from the top manufacturers in the world. We are the only company in the region to carry Carlisle Wide Plank Flooring and we are the region’s artisan guild dealer for Homerwood. We also carry Mullican, Armstrong, Mirage, and Hallmark, along with many other lines.

UNFINISHED ENGINEERED FLOORING

Unfinished engineered flooring provides all of the benefits of a ¾” Solid Unfinished flooring with a superior construction. Our unfinished engineered flooring uses a Baltic birch underlayment with a solid and substantial 4mm sawn veneer. Engineered flooring, often mistaken for prefinished flooring, refers to the construction of the flooring and not the finish.

Engineered flooring has a few advantages. First it can be installed anywhere – above, at, and below grade – even on concrete slabs. As opposed to solid flooring which must be nailed down, engineered flooring can also be glued or floated over the sub-floor. Finally, with the engineered construction, we can install much wider planks without the same worry about expansion and contraction we would have with a solid floor. We can and do safely install engineered flooring up to 10” wide with the engineered construction. Other than the construction, the other options are the same as a solid floor. Our clients can choose their species, lengths and widths, finish type, stain, and gloss level.

This is truly a custom floor just as the unfinished solid flooring. We are always happy to guide our clients through the flooring decision-making process!

PREFINISHED ENGINEERED FLOORING

This is simply an engineered flooring that has been prefinished. So along with the other benefits of engineered flooring, it also has the benefits of being prefinished. All of the major manufacturers make their products in both a solid and engineered construction. The wider floors prefinished floors are usually just made in an engineered construction because of the stability that the construction gives. There are all levels of quality and pricing of prefinished engineered flooring, and a few things you should look for and ask about in the construction of prefinished engineered flooring:

• Veneer thickness: The thickness of the veneer typically tells you the quality of the engineered flooring. Although veneers go down to less than one millimeter, the thinnest veneer on flooring we sell is 2mm. The veneer thickness can go all the way up to 6mm.
• Veneer cut: There are three ways of cutting veneers. First is rotary peeling. This is the most cost effective and highest yield for cutting thin veneers, and is done on the base grade engineered floors. The grain of the wood can look slightly different than you are used to seeing by cutting in this manner, but it gives a good 2mm veneer at a very affordable price. Second is Sliced veneers. This is exactly as it sounds – the veneer is sliced from a log or squared log and can also create a good thin veneer. The Sliced veneer appears just as a sawn piece of wood. The highest quality veneers are sawn veneers and these are done with a blade just as sawing a log. This is the way to cut thicker high quality veneers and the way that all of our unfinished engineered flooring are done and the best of the prefinished is done as well.
• Overall thickness of the flooring: The overall thickness of your flooring is another way to know the quality. A higher quality engineered floor will be ½” and thicker, with anything over 8” wide usually being a full ¾” thickness.

LVT OR LVP

This stands for LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) or LVP (Luxury Vinyl Plank) are both waterproof options that work as a great alternatives to where clients would normally install tile for durability, such as bathrooms, mudrooms, kitchens, and other areas that may get wet or have pets. We often install LVT in basements as well.

LVT comes in many forms with many looks, from reclaimed woods to exotic hardwoods, to actual tile and slate looks. It is reasonably priced, looks great, and can be installed anywhere.

For many years at Tuckahoe Hardwoods, we used only wood, but when we discovered LVT we knew that there was finally a non-wood product that met our high standards. We carry a number of lines of high quality LVT from residential to commercial grade products that look and perform at the highest levels.

RECLAIMED WOODS

Reclaimed woods fall in the unfinished area, but deserves its own space. We work with some of the finest mills in the region to provide the best in Reclaimed flooring. Most of our reclaimed flooring is relatively local, with a good portion coming from the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. We have Antique Heart Pine, Tobacco Wood (taken from old tobacco barns), Horse Country Oak (from old fence posts), Antique Oak (from old barns). This is some of the most sought after flooring available.