|
High-end hardwood flooring finds a niche in Vancouver's booming market in classy condos
By BARBARA McQUADE
Vancouver Sun Reporter
The dramatic increase in fancy new condos in Vancouver's Coal Harbour and Yaletown areas means more demand for high-end wood flooring that can be applied to concrete.
This has opened the door to a U.S. product, Koetter quarter-sawn wood flooring, according to Chris Maskell of BC Hardwood Floor Co.
The well established Vancouver-based company has been selling the Koetter product for several years now, but Maskell calls it "the best-kept secret in town as far as hardwood floors are concerned."
The biggest benefit in condo applications is that the high-quality solid wood flooring can be glued directly to concrete. Most solid products expand and contract too much for direct application. Designers like the custom look of the flooring, which comes in a variety of woods including walnut, white oak, red oak, maple, American cherry and Brazilian cherry. You can distinguish it very quickly from other, cheaper floorings because the average length of the individual strips is seven to nine feet.
Expansion and contraction of the flooring is kept to a minimum by using straight-grain wood strips so the flooring tends to shrink and expand up and down rather than from side to side. This means installers can glue it directly to concrete or even lay it over radiant infloor heat.
Because it's only a half-inch thick and doesn't require a subfloor over the concrete, it doesn't increase the height of the floor appreciably. This means it smoothly meets tile or carpeting in other rooms.
Provided it's installed properly, this is wood flooring that will last, Maskell says, and you can sand it up to five times for refinishing if necessary.
B.C. Hardwood's installers are specially trained to work with the product. Crucial to the long life of the floor are the site preparation (the floor must be completely dry and flat), the use of proper glues, and appropriate handling of the glue. Once the floor is laid, there is a waiting period before it can be sanded, so you need to allow about three weeks for a proper installation.
Price depends on the layout and size of the job, but you can count on $13 a square foot and up for more than 500 square feet, Maskell says. Sound inhibiting underlays, important in condos, can add $3 or $4 a square foot to the price. Six millimetre cork is used most often for this purpose.
The flooring is by no means limited to condos.
In new-home construction, Koetter does away with the need for sleepers, the 2_by-4s imbedded in concrete as a base for fastening down plywood or hardwood. It means if you're having infloor hot water radiant heating there's no danger of accidentally pounding a nail into the pipes
As for the most popular woods, that's a matter of personal choice.
"People tend to want warmth and colour in their floors these days," says Maskell. White and red oak are very popular, as are walnut and Brazilian cherry, which can up the price to $16 to $l7.
And you can get as elaborate as you like with inlaid borders and patterns.
< Return to News
|
