Month: May 2015

Is the carpet currently adorning your home getting a bit old and worn out? Have you been considering installing new solid hardwood floors in your home? If so, you shouldn’t make a decision until you’ve considered the products available from Appalachian Flooring!

At Smith Brothers Flooring, we are very proud of the strategic partnerships that help us to best serve all of our clients throughout Canada. We love to partner with companies that align with your mission, vision, and values.

Appalachian Flooring

Appalachian is a team of c committed to producing the best prefinished solid hardwood and engineered hardwood flooring options available on the market today. When making your floor complete, the team at Appalachian hand selects only the finest planks from the best choice-grade hardwood around.

The team at Appalachian deals with domestic, North American, and exotic imported hardwood species from Brazil to give each and every client a wide variety of flooring options to choose from. Each and every finished hardwood floor from Appalachian is milled either in Canada and the U.S., and their eye-catching selection of colors and grades is sure to astound.

Environmental Consideration

One of the many reasons we love working with Appalachian Flooring is their steadfast commitment to environmentally friendly business practices. With an eye towards being more environmentally conscious, Appalachian’s manufacturing process is purposely designed to minimize production waste and, most importantly, conserve valuable hardwood species for generations to come.

Additionally, the team at Appalachian transforms wood residue into energy that is then used to kiln dry all green lumber. Appalachian is also in full compliance with the Lacey Act, which prohibits the importation of illegally harvested wood or wood products.

Evershine

Appalachian has also patented their own revolutionary wood finishing technique, known as Evershine. This technique significantly improves both the beauty and resilience of their hardwood floors. Evershine gives Appalachian’s flooring options the capacity to retain their gloss while resisting wear-through. Overall, Evershine finished wood products will stay looking better for longer than other options.

While there are many other finishes that claim superior wear resistance, Evershine consistently outperforms these alternatives. This is largely because they rely on an abrasion-resistant layer applied under the topcoat. This technique leaves the top layer more susceptible to wear and tear over the years, which can result in your floor becoming much duller in areas with high levels of traffic.

On the contrary, Evershine finish includes abrasion-resistant aluminum oxide particles in the very top layer, which is much more effective in protecting the original appearance of your solid hardwood floor. Evershine finish also comes with seven coats of UV cured polyurethane and an impressive 35-year warranty on wear-through.

At Smith Brothers Flooring, we recognize that relationships with companies like Appalachian Flooring only allow us to serve our clients that much more effectively and efficiently. If you want to speak directly to a hardwood flooring professional about your home’s unique needs, please don’t hesitate to give the team at Smith Brothers Flooring a call at 1-403-917-0847 today!

Many people are unaware that cork can be effectively used as a wall covering. While you may have previously seen cork tiles utilized as a flooring solution, you shouldn’t neglect how cork can be used to finish a few walls in your home.

At Smith Bros Floors, we partner with EuroCork to bring you cork wall coverings that suit your home. We love working with EuroCork because the renewable, environmentally friendly nature of this resource. Cork harvesting is a sustainable process that doesn’t involve either cutting down or removing the tree in any sense.

As our need for more sustainable business only increase, cork oak remains the only tree whose bark can successfully regenerate itself after a cork harvest. Leaving these trees unharmed is an essential aspect of maintaining a sustainable cork wall covering business.

If you’re thinking about utilizing EuroCork wall covering in your home, you should be sure to talk to one of our experts at Smith Bros Floors. In the meantime, here’s a bit more about the two main types of cork wall covering available from EuroCork and Smith Bros:

Large Bricks

Individual panels of cork are hand-assembled using a combination of grey, gold, and taupe tones to create a eye-catching brick pattern. When it comes to installing cork as a wall covering, one of the most important aspects is finding a pattern that matches the existing décor of your home.

Fortunately, cork wall covering can be designed to match any modern design pallet, and cork is a much easier and cost-effective than installing real brick, even though all EuroCork wall coverings are originally made in, and imported from, Portugal.

Large brick wall covering is sound deadening and insulated to keep the temperature in your home at the desired level. By working with EuroCork we can provide a number of designs that are perfect for both residential and commercial environments. If you’re looking for a cheap, but striking, solution for wall coverings in your home, a large brick cork pattern could be ideal to create the distinctive look and comfortable feel you’re looking for.

Inca Valley – Inner Bark

In addition to also being sound deadening and temperature insulating, like large bricks of cork, Inca Valley cork is also ideal for both residential and commercial environments. This Inca Valley cork, however, is of a beautiful terracotta hue infused with tones of grey and taupe.

As its’ name suggests, this options comes from the inner bark of the cork tree and, at an average thickness of 1”, it’s perfect for reducing sound. While Inca Valley cork can give you the same look as stone, it’s a considerably cheaper alternative, despite the fact that it’s made in, and imported from, Portugal. Similar to the larger bricks of work, Inca Valley cork can be custom designed to match any existing modern design pallet to create the atmosphere you’re looking for.

At Smith Bros Floors, we strive to bring our clients a wide variety of flooring, and wall covering, solutions. If you’re interested in discussing your home’s unique needs with a certified flooring expert, please don’t hesitate to give the team at Smith Bros a call at 1-403-917-0847 today!