Q: We're starting to carry prefinished wood flooring and want to make sure we're ahead of the trends. What's on the horizon for new looks in prefinished flooring?
A: As a hardwood flooring manufacturer, that's probably the question we hear most often. As the engineered prefinished category has grown over the past several years, the demand for a wider range of styles has also increased.
But to understand the future of engineered prefinished hardwood flooring, we should first examine its past. As hardwood floors go, engineered prefinished is a relatively new category. But over the past five years, it has seen tremendous growth, and it is gaining ground as the wood floor of choice for builders, contractors, installers and consumers. This surge has been attributed to a number of factors, including its ability to be installed in areas solid wood flooring can't go (like below grade); the quality and consistency of the factory finish; its relatively quick installation; and, more than ever before, the wide variety of designs that can be achieved.
Visual Appeal
The last point above is probably the No. 1 reason for the recent popularity of this type of floor. Consumers and installers alike used to think that if they wanted a custom look, they had to have a job-site-finished floor. Today, our technology has progressed to the point where unique visuals can be created using sophisticated staining technologies or distressing techniques for engineered, prefinished floors, as well.
Years ago, the trend in hardwood was shine, shine, shine. The preference was for light-colored wood, and the glossier the better. Then the rustics trend came along, and highly distressed looks came into fashion. Along with that trend came darker colors and richer colored woods, such as cherry.
Today, the most popular looks fall somewhere between those two extremes, with many consumers favoring lightly distressed floors in hickory or maple, with mid-tone stain colors. But trends aren't rules ... there are other consumer favorites we see on the radar screen, too. Handscraped floors in walnut or hickory are popular, as is the traditional, clean look of maple and the perennial favorite, oak.
Preserving Clarity
While aggressively hand-scraped and textured products are a growing part of the hardwood flooring market overall, there also is an underlying movement to lower gloss levels. The desired effect is a marriage of the beauty of the handbuffed wax floors of yesteryear with the low-maintenance, easy care of today's UV-cured finishes.
Until now, reducing gloss levels also reduced clarity—so the wood grain subtleties were not as apparent in a low-gloss product as they were with a higher gloss. Fortunately, new technologies are being developed that will help improve clarity while reducing gloss, thus highlighting the wood grain and preserving the realistic appearance of the product.
Exotic wood species also are becoming increasingly popular. In the past few years, we've seen growing numbers of consumers gravitate toward Brazilian cherry and santos mahogany. In addition, other exotic woods are coming into the mainstream. Bamboo, for example, is making a big splash in mainstream residential applications. And, bamboo has the added benefit of being a sustainable resource, which is an attribute that manufacturers and consumers alike find very attractive.
Going Wider
Along with trends in color and design, consumer preferences for the plank formats also have changed. Previously, most wood sold was 2 1/4 -inch strip or 3-inch plank. Today, wider planks are in demand, with consumers gravitating toward 5inch plank on a regular basis. Edge-style preferences have changed, as well. The initial popularity of the straight-edge design has given way to microbevel and full-bevel styles.
Something for Everyone
Whether it's a smooth maple in the refinished basement; a deep cherry in the living room; or a beautifully hand-scraped hickory in the kitchen, there's such a range of styles and designs of engineered prefinished hardwood floors today, that there's a prefinished wood floor for everyone and every situation.
